Running head: ACADEMIC REGRETS, MOTIVATION, AND EMOTIONS. A mixed method investigation of academic regrets, motivation, and emotions

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1 Running head: ACADEMIC REGRETS, MOTIVATION, AND EMOTIONS A mixed method investigation of academic regrets, motivation, and emotions Problem Regrets are a negative emotion initiated by a counterfactual comparison with ones current state and a possible alternative state (Roese & Olson, 1995), and are commonly reported in relation to educational contexts (Gilovich & Medvec, 1995; Wrosch & Heckhausen, 2002). Academic regrets can be situated within achievement goal theory (Ames, 1984; e.g., regrets associated with inactivity may relate to avoidant goals whereas regrets associated with actions may relate to approach goals), expectancy-value theory (Wigfiled & Eccles, 2000; e.g., regrets are previous experiences that may be distal antecedents of expectancy for success, task value, and cost), and control-value theory (Pekrun, 2006; e.g., regrets are a cognitive appraisal associated with a past event which may predict subsequent achievement emotions). This mixed method study includes three research questions situated within these three theories. RQ1. What are the salient academic regrets reported by college students? RQ2. How do salient academic regrets differ in terms of intensity, intrusive thoughts, and ratings of omission (i.e., something not done) or commission (i.e., something done)? RQ3. How do regret intensity, intrusive thoughts, and ratings of regrets as an omission or commission relate to achievement goals, expectancy, value, costs, and emotions? Subjects Participants were 152 college students recruited from a large urban university. The sample consisted of approximately 80% female students, and the racial/ethnic background consisted of 37% white, 21% Hispanic or Latinx, 17% Asian or Asian American, 12% mixed race, 5% Black or African American, and 7% other. Procedure Participants completed questionnaires online and reported their most severe academic regret, regret intensity, amount of intrusive thoughts, whether their regret was an omission or commission, achievement goals (mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance), expectancy, task values (attainment, intrinsic, and utility), costs (task effort, outside effort, loss of valued alternatives, and emotional), and emotions (positiveactivated, positive-deactivated, negative-activated, and negative-deactivated; Table 1). Results RQ1. Salient academic regrets were identified using qualitative content analysis with inductive coding conducted by two independent coders. Eight categories of regrets were identified, with the three most commonly reported regrets being selecting the wrong class, program, or school (25.3%), not putting in enough effort (22.7%), and the timing of one s studies (14.3%; Table 2). RQ2. Results from a MANOVA suggest that salient regrets do not differ in intensity or intrusive thoughts (Wilks Λ (131, 5) =.946, p = 0.689). Results from chi square analyses suggest that missed opportunities were more likely to be considered a regret of omission than a regret of commission (χ 2 (5, N = 138) = 14.44, p =.013). RQ3. Four sets of multiple regressions were conducted to assess how regret intensity, intrusive thoughts, and ratings of regrets as an omission or commission relate to achievement goals, expectancy, value, costs, and emotions (Tables 3-6).

2 ACADEMIC REGRETS, MOTIVATION, AND EMOTIONS 2 Overall, results point to the relevance of investigating regret intensity in relation to achievement goals, expectancy, emotional cost, and deactivated emotions, and contribute to the field by identifying salient academic regrets among college students. Conclusions There is a theoretical and practical benefit of investigating regrets in academic contexts. Word count: 500

3 ACADEMIC REGRETS, MOTIVATION, AND EMOTIONS 3 References Ames, C. (1984). Competitive, cooperative, and individualistic goal structures: A cognitivemotivational analysis. In C. Ames & R. Ames (Eds.), Research on motivation in education. New York: Academic Press. Baranik, L. E., Barron, K. E., & Finney, S. J. (2007). Measuring goal orientation in a work domain: Construct validity evidence for the 2 x 2 framework. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 67, Ben-Eliyahu, A., & Linnenbrink-Garcia, L. (2013). Extending self-regulated learning toinclude self-regulated emotion strategies. Motivation and Emotion, 37, Bonney, C. R. (2006). Investigating the influence of the 2 x 2 achievement goal framework on college athletes motivation and performance. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A. Humanities and Social Sciences, 67(2), 457. Conley, A. M. (2012). Patterns of motivation beliefs: Combining achievement goal and expectancy-value perspectives. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104, Cury, F., Elliot, A. J., Da Fonseca, D., & Moller, A. C. (2006). The social-cognitive model of achievement motivation and the 2 x 2 achievement goal framework. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, Flake, J. K., Barron, K. E., Hulleman, C., McCoach, B. D., & Welsh, M. E. (2015). Measuring cost: The forgotten component of expectancy-value theory. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 41, Gilovich, T, & Medvec, V. H. ( 1995a). The experience of regret: What, when, and why. Psychological Review, 102, Linnenbrink-Garcia, L., Perez, T., Barger, M., Wormington, S. V., Godin, E., Snyder, K.,..., & Schwartz-Bloom, R. (2018). Repairing the leaky pipeline: A motivationally supportive intervention to enhance persistence in undergraduate science pathways. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 53, Madjar, N., Kaplan, A., & Weinstock, M. (2011). Clarifying mastery-avoidance goals in high school: Distinguishing between intrapersonal and task-based standards of competence. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 36, Midgley, C., Maehr, M. L., Hruda, L. Z., Anderman, E., Anderman, L., Freeman, K. E., Gheen, M., Kaplan, A., Kumar, R., Middleton, M. J., Nelson, J., Roeser, R., & Urdan, T. (2000). Manual for the patterns of adaptive learning scales. Ann Arbor, 1001, Pekrun, R. (2006). The Control-Value Theory of Achievement Emotions: Assumptions, Corollaries, and Implications for Educational Research and Practice. Educational Psychology Review, 18, Roese, N.J., & Olson, J.M. (Eds.). (1995). What might have been: The social psychology of counterfactual thinking. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J. (2000). Expectancy-value theory of achievement motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, Wrosch, C., & Heckhausen, J. (2002). Perceived control of life regrets: Good for young and bad for old adults. Psychology and Aging, 17,

4 ACADEMIC REGRETS, MOTIVATION, AND EMOTIONS 4 Table 1. Constructs, sample items, number of items, descriptive statistics, reliability, and sources for all measures. Construct Sample item (number of items) M α Source (SD) Academic regrets Salient regret Please think about your academic regrets and write down your most severe regret (1) - - Wrosch & Heckausen, 2002 Intensity We would like to ask you to what extent you usually experienced the following emotions during the past few months when and if you thought about the regret that you noted (e.g., sorrow) (9) 2.58 (.96).93 Intrusive thoughts I woke up at night thinking about the regret (5) (.88) Omission/commission Does the regret that you have noted relate to a - - behavior that you have done, that you have not done (1) Achievement goals Performance-approach It s important to me that other students think I am good in my classes (5) 2.77 (.91).89 PALS: Midgley et al., 2000 Performance-avoidance One of my goals is to keep others from thinking I m not smart in my classes (4) (.94) Mastery-approach One of my goals in my classes is to learn as much Mastery-avoidance as I can (5) It's important to me that I don't do worse than I know I'm capable of doing in my classes (7) (.60) 3.91 (.60) Expectancy x Values Expectancy I'm certain I can master the skills taught in my classes (5) 4.18 (.61) Attainment value Being someone who is good at school is important 4.21 to me (5) (.64) Intrinsic value I am fascinated in my classes (5) 3.84 (.81) Utility value My classes will be useful for me later in life (5) 4.17 (.67) Costs Task effort My classes are too much work (5) 2.99 (.86) Outside effort Because of other things that I do, I don t have time 2.90 to put into my classes (4) (.94) Loss value alternatives My classes require me to give up too many other 3.02 activities I value (4) (.92) Emotional My classes are emotionally draining (6) 2.95 (.87) Emotions Positive-activated Joyful (5) 3.61 (.79) Positive-deactivated Calm (3) 2.98 (.94) Negative-activated Annoyed (5) 3.52 (.77) Negative-deactivated Bored (4) 3.79 (.78) Note. M = mean, SD = standard deviation, α = Cronbach alphas.81 Bonney, 2006; Baranik et al, 2007; Cury et al., 2006; Majdar et al., PALS: Midgley et al., Conley, 2012; Linnenbrink-Garcia.95 et al., Flake et al., Ben-Eliyahu & Linnenbrink-.80 Garcia,

5 ACADEMIC REGRETS, MOTIVATION, AND EMOTIONS 5 Table 2. Qualitative content analysis code, description, example, count, percentage and Cohen s Kappa Code Description and Example N % K Wrong class, program, or school Selecting the wrong classes, program, major, school, or career path (e.g., I regret that I didn t study different subjects than Effort, persistence, or performance Timing Missed opportunity Help seeking Specific event or behavior No regret/non-academic regret* Competing commitments* the ones I chose in the past ). Not working hard enough, not getting better grades, not doing the required work, or giving up (e.g., I regret not doing better in my first few semesters of college ). The timeframe, length, or decisions related to the timing of one s degree or studies. Related to taking time off or not taking time off school, not coming back to school earlier, not completing the degree when younger, or finishing degree too slowly (e.g., I regret taking time off from school when I was younger ). Missing a learning, social, or professional opportunity in school (e.g., I regret being way too concerned about assignments that I never got any real hands on experience ). Seeking help from teachers, peers, or academic counsellors (e.g., Not getting help for a class ). A discrete event or behavior that occurred in a specific moment or episode (e.g., I was late for the exam due to over sleeping ). Reported no regret or a non-academic regret (e.g., having a child too early ). Too many competing commitments or activities (e.g., My most sever regret as a student was packing too many things outside of school into my first semester s schedule ) Total Note. K = Cronbach s Kappa, * Participants who reported no regret or non-academic regrets were removed from subsequent analyses because they did not provide an appropriate academic regret, and participants who reported competing commitments were removed from subsequent analyses because this code represents a small percentage of salient regrets. Table 3. Regression results for regrets of commission or omission, intensity, and intrusive thoughts predicting achievement goals Predictors MAP MAV PAP PAV Commission/omission Intensity **.357**.390** Intrusive thought Total R Note. Standardized beta coefficients, MAP = mastery-approach, MAV = mastery-avoidance, PAP = performanceapproach, PAV = performance-avoidance, *p <.05, **p <.01. Table 4. Regression results for regrets of commission or omission, intensity, and intrusive thoughts predicting expectancy and task values Predictors E IV UV AV Commission/omission Intensity -.265** Intrusive thought Total R Note. Standardized beta coefficients, E = expectancy, IV = interest value, UV = utility value, AV = attainment value, *p <.05, **p <.01.

6 ACADEMIC REGRETS, MOTIVATION, AND EMOTIONS 6 Table 5. Regression results for regrets of commission or omission, intensity, and intrusive thoughts predicting costs Predictors TEC OEC LVA EC Commission/omission Intensity ** Intrusive thought Total R Note. Standardized beta coefficients, TEC = task effort cost, OEC = other effort cost, LVA = loss of valued alternative, EC = emotional cost, *p <.05, **p <.01. Table 6. Regression results for regrets of commission or omission, intensity, and intrusive thoughts predicting emotions Predictors PA PD NA ND Commission/omission Intensity * ** Intrusive thought Total R Note. Standardized beta coefficients, PA = positive-activated, PD = positive-deactivated, NA = negative-activated, ND = negative deactivated, *p <.05, **p <.01.