Please cite this article in press as: King, R. B., et al. Competitiveness is not that bad. . .at least in the East: Testing the hierarchical model of achievement motivation in the Asian setting. International Journal of Intercultural Relations (2011), doi:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2011.10.003 ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model IJIR-853; No. of Pages 12 International Journal of Intercultural Relations xxx (2011) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect International Journal of Intercultural Relations journa l h o me pag e: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijintrel Competitiveness is not that bad. . .at least in the East: Testing the hierarchical model of achievement motivation in the Asian setting Ronnel B. King a,∗ , Dennis M. McInerney b , David A. Watkins a a The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China b The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong, China a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 29 April 2011 Received in revised form 5 September 2011 Accepted 27 October 2011 Keywords: Competitiveness Mastery goals Performance goals Deep learning Surface learning Culture Chinese a b s t r a c t Competitiveness has usually been viewed as a negative trait as it leads to suboptimal out- comes. However, research in cross-cultural psychology has indicated that competitiveness may hold different meanings for people from individualist and collectivist cultures. The cur- rent study investigates the effects of competitiveness on different educational outcomes in the collectivistic Chinese cultural context. Utilizing the hierarchical model of achievement motivation, this study aims to examine the relationships among individual differences (trait mastery and trait competitiveness), achievement goals (mastery and performance goals), and learning strategies (deep and surface learning strategies). Six hundred ninety-seven secondary school students from Hong Kong answered questionnaires assessing the rele- vant variables. Path models indicated that there were important differences in the pattern of relationships among the variables in our study compared to previous findings in the West. First, contrary to Western studies, trait competitiveness was predictive of mastery goals and not only of performance goals. Second, performance goals positively predicted the adoption of deep learning strategies but were not significantly related to surface learning strategies. Results are discussed in light of current findings in cross-cultural psychology. The findings hold substantive theoretical and practical implications for researchers and practitioners seeking to understand achievement motivation of students from more collectivist cultures. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Competition has received a lot of bad press. It has been associated with a host of maladaptive outcomes such as negative well-being, suboptimal learning, extrinsic orientation, aggression (Ryckman, Hammer, Kaczor, & Gold, 1996), low self- efficacy (Chan & Lam, 2008), prejudice (Sassenberg, Moskowitz, Jacoby, & Hansen, 2007), conflict among friends (Schneider, Fonzi, Tomada, & Tani, 2000), pathological gambling (Parke, Griffiths, & Irwing, 2004), and even reckless driving (Harris & Houston, 2010) among others. Within the more specialized field of educational psychology, competitiveness has also been frequently associated with maladaptive consequences such as increased stress, depression, (Dykman, 1998), and avoidance of school work (Harackiewicz, Barron, Pintrich, Elliot, & Thrash, 2002; Harackiewicz, Barron, Tauer, & Elliot, 2002). Although this gener- ally negative view towards competition is slowly being challenged (e.g. Ryckman et al., 1996), the psychological literature still defines it as suboptimal. In fact, most researchers measure competition as the direct opposite of cooperation (e.g. Stapel & Koomen, 2005). However, it might be time for educational psychologists to reconsider this negative view of ∗ Corresponding author at: Room 101 HOC Science Building, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China. E-mail address: ronnel.king@gmail.com (R.B. King). 0147-1767/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2011.10.003