Our Lady of the Pillar College – Cauayan, Inc.

San Fermin, Cauayan City, Isabela

College of Education
Graduate School

Text of Report
Subject: MAED 204 (Educational Management Theory and Practice)
Professor: Dr. Carmelito D. Pang, Ph.D.
Reporter: Joella Mariel D. De Guzman
Topic: GOALS AND BELIEFS
(Goal-Setting Theory, Attribution Theory and Beliefs about Ability)

I. GOAL
 It is the object of a person’s ambition or effort.
 It is an aim or desired result that an individual would like to achieve.

 Goal – Setting Theory

 It is one of the process theories of motivation
 Refers to the effects of setting goals on subsequent performance.

Proponent: Locke and Latham

Dr.Edwin Locke and Dr.Gary Latham spent many years researching the theory of goal
setting, during which time they identified and proposed five principles that needs to be
in place for us to achieve our goals and for effective goal setting.

1. Clarity – A clear, measurable

goal is more achievable than 1

one that is poorly defined. CLARITY

2. Challenge – The goal must
have a decent level of
difficulty in order to motivate
2 5 Principles 3

you to strive toward the goal. CHALLENGE of Effective COMMITMENT

3. Commitment – Put deliberate Goal Setting
effort into committing to the 4 5
goal. TASK
4. Feedback – provide regular FEEDBACK
COMPLEXITY
feedback throughout the
whole process to help keep
the goal on track.
5. Task Complexity – goal setting increases in motivation and performance

II. BELIEFS
 are the attitude that something is the case or true
 are general understandings or generalizations about the world
 are what individuals hold to be true

Beliefs play a pivotal role in motivating individuals to act. Individual beliefs about
causality, fairness, intelligence, the consequences of our actions, and our ability to
control our own destiny are a few of the pivotal beliefs that influence behavior.
 Beliefs about Causality: Attribution Theory

Defining Terms:
CAUSE – source of an action or an event
CAUSALITY – the principle that everything has a cause.
ATTRIBUTION – the action of regarding something as being caused by a person or thing.

Attribution theory is concerned with how individuals interpret events and how this relates to
their thinking and behavior.

Attribution theorists assume that individuals make past behaviors, especially when the
outcome is important or unexpected.

Weiner’s attribution theory is mainly about achievement. According to him, achievement is

attributed to ability, effort, level of task difficulty, and luck. Attributions are classified along 3
Causal Dimensions (Dimensions of Causality):

1. Locus of control (internal vs. external) – defines the location of the cause.
 Internal Locus of Control: We feel that we are in charge of ourselves and our situations
 External Locus of Control: We see that beside of ourselves, there’s another power that
control our situations

2. Stability (stable vs. unstable) – designates causes as constant or varying over time.

3. Responsibility (controllable vs. uncontrollable) refers to personal responsibility, that is,

whether the person can control the cause.

 Beliefs about Ability

ABILITY – possession of the means or skill to do something.

 Stable View of ability – (sometimes called as entity view) assumes that ability is a stable
and uncontrollable trait that is characteristic of an individual that cannot be changed.
 Incremental View of ability – assumes that ability is unstable and controllable; an
expanding reservoir of knowledge and skills. Thus, people with incremental view believe
that by hard work, persistence, study, and practice knowledge can be increased and
ability can be improved.

https://peakon.com/blog/future-work/edwin-locke-goal-setting-theory/
https://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/attribution-theory/
https://gostrengths.com/what-is-goal-setting-theory/