Boring but important: a self-transcendent purpose for learning fosters academic self-regulation.

ABSTRACT: Many important learning tasks feel uninteresting and tedious to learners. This research proposed that promoting a prosocial, self-transcendent purpose could improve academic self-regulation on such tasks. This proposal was supported in 4 studies with over 2,000 adolescents and young adults. Study 1 documented a correlation between a self-transcendent purpose for learning and self-reported trait measures of academic self-regulation. Those with more of a purpose for learning also persisted longer on a boring task rather than giving in to a tempting alternative and, many months later, were less likely to drop out of college. Study 2 addressed causality. It showed that a brief, one-time psychological intervention promoting a self-transcendent purpose for learning could improve high school scie

SUBMITTER: Yeager DS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4643833 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature