Previous research examining the relationship between implicit theories of peer relationships and social achievement goals (Rudolf, 2010) has revealed that implicit theories are positively correlated with performance goals and negatively correlated with mastery goals. While these individual associations are well-established, the question of how implicit theories vary based on patterns derived from combinations of multiple social achievement goals remains unexplored. Therefore, this study examines social achievement goals from four perspectives—mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance (Kainuma & Sakurai, 2018)—to identify emergent patterns. We then examine how these patterns influence implicit theories of peer relationships. Additionally, we investigate whether these pattern differences affect friendship satisfaction and the number of close friends.
An online survey was conducted with 843 first-year university students in Japan. After data screening, 275 valid responses were retained for analysis. The measured variables included social achievement goals (Kainuma & Sakurai, 2018), implicit theories of peer relationships (Rudolf, 2010), friendship satisfaction (Takasaka, 2010), and the number of close friends.
A cluster analysis using Ward's method, based on scores from the four subscales of social achievement goals, identified six distinct groups: C1: All Average; C2: Mastery Low / Performance-Approach High; C3: Mastery-Approach High & Mastery-Avoidance Very High / Performance-Avoidance High; C4: Mastery High / Performance Very High; C5: Mastery High / Performance Low; C6: Performance Low. Based on these results, an ANOVA was conducted with social achievement goals as the independent variable and implicit theories as the dependent variable. The analysis revealed that C4 held the strongest entity beliefs, followed by C3. Both groups showed high mastery and performance-avoidance goals. In contrast, C5, with high mastery but low performance goals, showed weaker entity beliefs and stronger incremental beliefs. These findings suggest that entity beliefs about peer relationships are closely tied to social performance goals, particularly performance-avoidance.