When Groups Experience Conflict: Intersection Among Undergraduates' Individual and Group Motivational Goals, Project Commitment, and Emotions

• In Event: 32.082 - Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: 32.082-9 - Advances in Cooperative Learning

Abstract

The study sought to extend the field’s understanding of undergraduate students’ commitment to an assigned group project when they experience group conflict among group members. The relationship between undergraduates’ motivational goals, both individual- and group-level goals, and their project commitment as well as their emotions was tested alone and when a measure of intragroup conflict was added. Undergraduates’ motivational goals for a class group project (e.g., individual learning, individual performance, group out-performance) were examined as predictors of three outcome variables, project commitment, positive emotions, and negative emotions. Data came from online responses of 498 undergraduates. Structural equation modeling showed that intragroup conflict contributed significantly to explaining the connection between individuals’ goals and their project commitment, positive emotions, and negative emotions.

Authors

• Sunyoung Park, California Lutheran University

• John Park, The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

• Diane L. Schallert, The University of Texas - Austin

• Hyung-Sok (Nathan) Choe, The University of Texas - Austin