Gender Differences in Achievement Emotions: A Control-Value Theory Approach

Abstract

The current study examines whether there are gender differences in general academic contexts within three achievement emotions: prospective outcome emotions, retrospective outcome emotions and activity emotions. I combined Pekrun’s control-value theory with the Achievement Emotion Questionnaire (AEQ) to assess participants’ achievement emotions. Discriminant function analysis revealed statistically and practically significant gender differences in prospective outcome emotions and activity emotions, but not in retrospective outcome emotions. Moreover, females scored higher on three achievement emotions: prospective outcome emotions, retrospective outcome emotions, and activity emotions than males in this study. The current study filled in the gap of prior studies which have not explored gender differences in three achievement emotions: prospective outcome emotions, retrospective outcome emotion and activity emotions, in general domains. Future studies could replicate the current study and explore if other factors would influence the impact of gender on achievement emotions, for example, culture and age. Additionally, researchers could try to apply achievement emotions to improve students’ academic performance.