The Relationship Among Class Competition Environment, Personal Achievement Goal Orientations And Defensive Pessimism For Middle School Students

Middle school students in our country are under huge pressure. In such a highly competitive environment, more and more students in ord^r to ensure that their values are not violated, so some self-worth protection strategies are adopted. We used three questionnaires in this research. First, I revised the Defensive Pessimism Questionnaire so that our country’s middle school students can use it. Then, I did a research to explore the status of our country’smiddle school students’defensive pessimism level. Finally, Iexplored the relationship between the class competitive environment, achievement goal orientation and defensive pessimism.Study1, Irevised the Defensive Pessimism Questionnaire via a survey of254middle school students from grade7to12. Study2, I explore the status of our country’smiddle school students’defensive pessimism level via a survey of884middle school students from grade7to12. Study3,1investigated the relationship between the class competitive environment, achievement goal orientation and defensive pessimism, through a survey of884students from grade7to12. The main conclusions of this research are as follows:(1) The revised Defensive Pessimism Questionnaire of Chinese middle school students contained two dimensions, namely9items. The questionnaire had good internal consistency reliability, split-half reliability and contend validity, structure validity and reach standards for surveying.This measurement tool can be used to assess Chinese middle school students’level of defensive pessimism.(2) In general,the total dimension of defensive pessimism as well as defensive expectation among middle school students in China is at medium level, the level of reflective is upper. There is significant grade differences in defensive pessimism and reflective. On the level of reflective, the sixth grade was significantly higher than each grade of the high school and every grade of junior high school was significantly higher than the tenth grade. On the total dimension of defensive pessimismthe sixth grade was significantly higher than the tenth grade and the twelfth grade, and every grade of junior high school was significantly higher than the tenth grade. The junior high school’s defensive pessimismand reflective scorewere significantly higher than the high school. Andthe non-key school’s score were significantly higher than thekey school. (3) The analysis of the achievement goal orientation shows:on the task-approach goal, the seventh grade was significantly higher than the eighth grade and the twelfth grade. On the task-avoidance goal, the seventh grade was significantly higher than the eighth grade, the tenth grade and the twelfth grade; the eighth gradewas significantly lower than the ninth grade and the eleventh grade; the ninth grade was significantly higher than the tenth grade and the twelfth grade; the tenth grade was significantly lower than the eleventh grade. On the self-approach goal, the ninth grade was significantly lower than the eleventh grade. On the other-avoidance goal, the eighth gradewas significantly lower than the eleventh grade.(4) The analysis of the class competition environmentshows:the students on grade eight feel the lowest competition. In the junior middle school stage, the students on grade three feel the most competition, while in high school is grade two.(5) Through modeling the SEM, we can find that the class competition environment can positively predict the level of defensive expectation through the self-avoidance goal and the other-avoidance goal, can negativelypredict the level of defensive expectation by the other-approach goal. At the same time, the class competition environment can positively predict the level of reflective through the self-avoidance goal, and the other-avoidance goal.