What Are You Really Trying to Achieve?
Getting better, being the best, or just not falling behind
Two people can work equally hard on the same project for completely different reasons. One wants to master the skill; another wants to beat the colleague at the next desk; a third mainly wants to avoid being the one who got it wrong. Motivation researchers sorted these aims into four goals, and the mix you hold shapes how you learn, how you handle feedback and how anxious a deadline makes you.
Before you start There are no right answers. Pick what is usually true for you, not what sounds best.
Think about your work or studies over the last year - the things you are evaluated on, formally or not.
What it measures
Four achievement goals from crossing two questions: is your standard your own progress (mastery) or other people (performance), and are you striving for success (approach) or away from failure (avoidance)? It differs from competitiveness, which is about enjoying rivalry, and from the motivation (SDT) test, which asks why you act rather than what counts as success.
Based on: 2 x 2 achievement goal framework (Elliot & McGregor, 2001; revised questionnaire by Elliot & Murayama, 2008)
Possible results
Mastery-approach
Aiming to learn, improve and master what you do.
Mastery-avoidance
Trying not to fall short of what you could or used to do.
Performance-approach
Aiming to do better than others and be seen as capable.
Performance-avoidance
Trying not to do worse than others or look incompetent.
Common questions
Is it bad to want to be better than others?
Not necessarily. Performance-approach goals are the most debated part of this research: they often predict good results, especially grades, but can also come with anxiety and less interest in the material. Hulleman and colleagues' meta-analysis suggests the difference lies in the flavour - aiming to outperform a standard set by others looks more useful than needing to look impressive.
Is this the same as growth mindset?
No, though they are related. A growth mindset is a belief that ability can be developed; achievement goals are what you aim for in a given setting. They can connect, though: if you believe you cannot really improve, not looking bad easily becomes the natural target instead of getting better.
Can I change my achievement goals?
Partly, and the environment does a lot of the work. Goals shift with how success is measured around you: rankings and public comparisons push people towards performance goals, while feedback on individual progress encourages mastery. If you manage others, the way you give feedback probably shapes their goals more than any pep talk.
Sources
- Elliot, A. J., & McGregor, H. A. (2001). A 2 x 2 achievement goal framework. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.80.3.501
- Elliot, A. J., & Murayama, K. (2008). On the measurement of achievement goals: Critique, illustration, and application. Journal of Educational Psychology. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.100.3.613
- Hulleman, C. S., Schrager, S. M., Bodmann, S. M., & Harackiewicz, J. M. (2010). A meta-analytic review of achievement goal measures: Different labels for the same constructs or different constructs with similar labels?. Psychological Bulletin. doi:10.1037/a0018947
An honest note The items are Quinthea's own wording adapted from the 2 x 2 achievement goal questionnaires, so scores are not comparable to published norms. The model was built mostly with university students and exams; evidence at work is thinner. A 2010 meta-analysis also found that results for performance goals depend heavily on how items are worded - comparing yourself with others tends to look helpful, wanting to appear capable less so - so treat those two bars with extra caution.