The differential impact of agency and pathway thinking on goal pursuit and university exam performance

•Examine the independent role of agency and pathway thinking on goal pursuit.•Examine agency and pathway thinking in the context of real goal outcomes.•Agency thinking is the most reliable predictor of goal pursuit outcomes.•No evidence for the additive role of agency and pathway thinking.

The present study examines the interaction between agency and pathway thinking on performance outcomes. The study used a repeated-measures design to examine the role of agency and pathway thinking on goal pursuit emotions (e.g., determination), secondary appraisal, and final exam performance in a group of university psychology students. Consistent with previous mental health research (Arnau et al., 2007 and Cramer and Dyrkacz, 1998), the present findings suggest a dominant role for agency thinking in performance. Moreover, there was a reliable interaction between pathway and agency thinking in the prediction of goal pursuit and performance. The interactions consistently revealed that when agency thinking was high, pathway thinking was generally irrelevant to our various measures of goal pursuit. These findings challenge the additive role of agency and pathway thinking suggested by hope theory (Snyder, 2002).