Achievement Goal Orientations,“Oughts,” and Self-Regulation in Students with and without Learning Disabilities

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the regulation of goal orientations and strong “oughts” in students with learning disabilities (LD). Participants were 132 Greek students with state-identified LD using the achievement-discrepancy criterion, and 538 typical students. The first hypothesis tested was that feeling obliged to engage in an activity is grounded on fear and is associated with a network of avoidance-related behaviors. Results confirmed this hypothesis, as the ought-self explained significant amounts of variability in task avoidance, performance avoidance, and fear of failure. The second hypothesis was that the ought-self was associated with failure to regulate. Student groups were formed based on their adoption of mastery, performance approach, task avoidance, multiple-approach goals, and strong “oughts.” Results indicated that students with strong “oughts” persisted significantly less than students with approach forms of motivation. Regardless of their lack of persistence, however, students with strong “oughts” were not inferior in achievement, nor did they display heightened negative affect. By modeling the relationship between goals, achievement and psychopathology, results showed that the ought- self was negatively associated with achievement and positively associated with indices of anxiety and depression. Mean group analyses pointed to salient differences between students with and without LD on motivation, achievement and psychopathology.