Performance-Approach goals (items 1, 5, and 9); Performance-Avoidance
goals (items 4, 8, and 12). Use the following means and standard deviations
obtained from college undergraduates (Elliot & McGregor, 2001) to
interpret your scores:
Mean Standard Deviation
Master-Approach 5.52 1.18
Master-Avoidance 3.89 1.53Performance-Approach 4.82 1.68Performance-Avoidance 4.49 1.67
Scale: The Achievement Goal Questionnaire
Source: Elliot and McGregor (2001).
Achievement Goals
Achievement is not only determined by how we account for performances
after the fact, but also by the goals we set for ourselves at the outset (Elliot &McGregor, 2001; Kaplan & Maehr, 2007). Achievement goals provide targets
that individuals aspire to in achievement situations. For example, one person
might be motivated to win the salesperson-of-the-month award. Another per-
son might set a goal of mastering a difficult piece of music on the piano.
Although terminology and classification schemes vary, most investigators
divide achievement goals into two broad categories: mastery goals and perfor-mance goals. Mastery goals are concerned with developing competence.
Students motivated by a strong mastery goal will work hard to learn the sub-ject matter in a course. Satisfaction comes from feeling they understand thematerial and a sense of proficiency. Performance goals are concerned with
demonstrating accomplishments to others. Students motivated by strong per-formance goals want to obtain a high grade, possibly the highest grade inthe class. Satisfaction comes from receiving the recognition that accompanies
the achievement. In the typical classroom, we can usually find two students
who work equally hard preparing for tests and completing assignments, andwho achieve similar grades, yet who are motivated by very different goals.
One achieving student wants to learn the material and relishes the sensation
of overcoming challenges to obtain a sense of competence. The other deter-
mines what is needed for a good grade and arranges his or her study time to
get the desired outcome.
But people aren ’t just motivated to succeed. Sometimes they are more
concerned about not failing. Thus psychologists find it useful to draw a dis-tinction between approach goals and avoidance goals (Cury, Elliot, Da
Fonseca, & Moller, 2006; Elliot & McGregor, 2001; Van Yperen, 2006). As
shown in Figure 8.1, by dividing both mastery and performance into ap-
proach and avoidance categories, we create a 2 by 2 model of achievement
goals. Within this framework, students trying to learn difficult materialAchievement Motivation 191