Faculty Subjective Well-being: An Achievement Goal Approach

Abstract

Research suggests that higher education teachers worldwide experience high levels of stress, burnout, and other adverse experiences due to the challenging nature of their work. To better understand why, under similar conditions, some teachers struggle while others flourish, studies are needed which recognize multiple facets of their subjective well-being (SWB) and explain differences therein using comprehensive theoretical frameworks. From an achievement goal perspective, goals can be expected to underlie differences in one’s emotions, cognitions, and behaviours in achievement contexts. However, this theoretical notion remains largely uninvestigated when it comes to understanding differences in higher education teachers’ SWB. Our research thereby offers a comprehensive overview of the associations between higher education teachers’ achievement goals and, acknowledging the multifaceted nature of SWB, their positive emotions, negative emotions, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction. For international and institutional generalizability, we conducted a study in which 1,338 teachers from three countries (Germany, the USA, and India) and two higher education institution types (research- and teaching-oriented institutions), completed measures of their achievement goals and multifaceted SWB. We found that, invariant across the different countries and higher education institutions, achievement goals were meaningfully and differentially associated with facets of SWB. Notably, mastery approach goals (task approach goals) were adaptively associated with all facets of SWB, while the opposite was found for work avoidance goals. Our findings highlight the relevance of achievement goals for understanding and supporting higher education teachers’ SWB, as well as the importance of employing differentiated and comprehensive perspectives in achievement goal and SWB research.

Temporal Ordering of Achievement Goals and Subjective Well-being in Faculty

“…In line with this, studies have consistently found positive links between mastery approach goals and aspects of SWB in teaching populations, including positive emotions, job satisfaction, personal accomplishment, and interest (e.g., Janke et al, 2019;Mascret et al, 2015;Papaioannou & Christodoulidis, 2007;Retelsdorf et al, 2010;Tönjes et al, 2008). In terms of further differentiating mastery approach goals, positive associations with SWB have been documented both for task approach and learning approach goals, with some indications that task approach goals may be more relevant, particularly regarding emotional experiences (e.g., Daumiller et al, 2019;Rinas et al, 2022). While both goals can generally be expected to be positively associated with SWB, further research is needed to disentangle how these goals uniquely matter for different aspects of SWB in faculty.…”

“…Several studies have documented positive associations between performance approach goals and aspects of SWB in teaching populations, such as pride, personal accomplishment, and job satisfaction (Rinas et al, 2020;Tönjes & Dickhäuser, 2009;Tönjes et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2018). Other studies, however, have found performance approach goals to have non statistically significant or, on occasion, adverse associations with aspects of SWB (Retelsdorf et al, 2010;Rinas et al, 2022;Wang et al, 2017). These inconsistencies may stem from studies not having clearly distinguished between appearance (focus on appearing competent to others) and normative (focus on outperforming others) components of performance approach goals; which have been found to exhibit differential effects (see Hulleman et al, 2010;Senko & Dawson, 2017;Wirthwein & Steinmayr, guished. Although theoretically relevant, their linkages with subjective well-being in faculty have been found to be rather inconclusive (see Daumiller et al, 2019;Rinas et al, 2020;Rinas et al, 2022) and were thus not analysed in the present study for reasons of parsimony.…”

“…Theoretically, such a focus can be posited to foster feelings of connectedness, satisfaction, and joy (see Hagenauer et al, 2015;Hargreaves, 2000). Although little researched, first studies have indeed found this goal type to be positively linked with positive affect, joy, and personal accomplishment in teaching populations (e.g., Daumiller et al, 2019;Rinas et al, 2022;Wang et al, 2017). However, other studies have also found associations with negative emotions such as shame, boredom, and anxiety (Rinas et al, 2022;Rinas et al, 2020).…”

“…al., 2020;Hall et al, 2019;Larson et al, 2019). Within this, considerable attention has been paid to faculty members' achievement goals, which have been found to be differentially associated with aspects of their SWB such as their emotional experiences, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction (Daumiller et al, 2019;Rinas et al, 2022). Despite promising initial findings, further studies are needed to more conclusively understand how achievement goals and SWB are interrelated in faculty, especially with respect to temporal ordering of these constructs.…”

Need satisfaction and achievement goals of university faculty: an international study of their interplay and relevance

“…We conducted a bilingual online study including 1410 university instructors from Germany, the USA, and India who reported their need satisfaction, achievement goals, positive affect, self-reported teaching quality, and professional learning. As a separate research question, we also assessed multi-faceted well-being and examined its relation to achievement goals in another paper based on the same dataset (Rinas et al 2020a).…”