Confirmatory factor analysis of an achievement goal orientation inventory

Dweck & Leggett's (1988) social-cognitive theory of motivation has received considerable attention in recent achievement motivational researches. According to the achievement goal theory, students mainly pursue two goals - learning goals and performance goals. In the learning goal orientation, students emphasise on knowledge acquisition and self-improvement and are interested in gaining competency, whereas students of performance goal orientation emphasise on gaining recognition from others and seek to gain favourable judgment of their competence. Although these two constructs have great theoretical and applied implications, however, it can be observed that minor effort has been initiated to develop an achievement goal orientation inventory which can tap the learning and performance goals, in particular for the Chinese students. Therefore, it is the objective of the present study to develop a Likert-scaled, self-report instrument to tap these two predominant goals. An instrument of bilingual format was developed and was administered to 256 students in Hong Kong. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using the L1SREL 7 Computer Programme (.loreskog and Sorbom, 1989) was conducted to test the factor structure. Promising results could be found in this study to confirm the two factor model. Also, the scale reliabilities are found to be rather robust. In summary, the inventory demonstrated reasonably sound psychometric properties. Suggestions are also made for the use and interpretation of this inventory in future motivational research of academic setting.