Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Social Science Computer Review
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Thompson, L. F.
Right arrow Articles by Cope, J. G.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Motivating Online Performance

The Influences of Goal Setting and Internet Self-Efficacy

Lori Foster Thompson

East Carolina University, fosterl{at}mail.ecu.edu

John P. Meriac

Appalachian State University

John G. Cope

East Carolina University

This study investigated the effects of goal setting on Internet searches and examined the relationship between Internet self-efficacy and search task performance. Participants searched the Internet and listed the names of the industrial-organizational psychologists they found. Control participants were instructed to "do their best" to find as many names as possible, and experimental participants were assigned the goal of 70 names. As expected, participants in the goal condition worked longer than did those in the control condition. Furthermore, the data generally supported the hypothesis that individuals with goals would produce more results than their non-goal-directed counterparts. Compared to control participants, however, those with goals did not visit a smaller proportion of non-task-related web sites as predicted. Finally, the anticipated positive correlation was found between Internet self-efficacy and the number of correct search results produced. It is concluded that goal setting may be an effective method for increasing online productivity.

Key Words: goal setting • Internet self-efficacy • motivation • online performance • Internet searches

Social Science Computer Review, Vol. 20, No. 2, 149-160 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/089443930202000205
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 REVIEW OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHHome page
D. C. Moos and R. Azevedo
Learning With Computer-Based Learning Environments: A Literature Review of Computer Self-Efficacy
Review of Educational Research, June 1, 2009; 79(2): 576 - 600.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]