中華心理學刊 民 110,63 卷,4 期,357-372
DOI:10.6129/CJP.202112_63(4).0003

Chinese Academic Achievement Goals and Confucian Ethics: A Response to “Do Taiwanese Adolescents Believe in the Moral Significance of Effort and School Performance?”

Bih-Jen Fwu（The Center for Teacher Education, National Taiwan University）；Shun-Wen Chen（Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, National Tsing Hua University）；Chih-Fen Wei（Department of Psychology and Counseling, University of Taipei）；Hsiou-Huai Wang（The Center for Teacher Education, National Taiwan University）

Abstract

Chang & Lei’s (2018) article entitled, “Do Taiwanese Adolescents Believe in the Moral Significance of Effort and School Performance?” took a critical stand to the perspective held by a series of research conducted by Chen et al. (2009), Hwang (2012) and Fwu et al. (2014) that effort as positive duty has moral significance. Through empirical data collection on Taiwanese high school and college students, Chang & Lei concluded that such viewpoint was not supported by Taiwanese adolescents. As an attempt to further academic dialogue, this article first explicates the characteristics of and relevant research findings based on the Chinese academic achievement goal and the Confucian ethics. Then, this article responded to Chang & Lei’s (2018) claims in the following three dimensions. First, theoretically, the social-cognitive domain theory adopted by Chang & Lei was quintessentially different from the theory constructed by the authors based on the Confucian ethics, and thus the ideas and concepts developed by the two distinct theories could not be compared and contrasted. Second, methodologically, the items used in Chang & Lei’s measurement scale were not accurately developed to capture the essence of morality in the theoretical context of social-cognitive domain theory, demonstrating a fundamental problem of naïve positivist approach in methodology. Lastly, Chang & Lei failed to explain the rationales used by their participants to discern filial piety, effort and academic achievement. The authors argued that, on the contrary, their findings could be better explained by the theory constructed based on the Confucian ethics.

Keywords: Academic achievement goal, Confucian ethics, Effort, Social-cognitive domain theory