Achievement Motives and Goals: A Developmental Analysis

Abstract

Achievement motivation represents the energization and direction of competence-based behavior. Despite the ubiquity and importance of achievement motivation across the life span, developmental research in this area is quite sparse. In this chapter, we discuss developmental considerations and overview the developmentally relevant research that has been conducted on achievement motivation. Our chapter commences with a consideration of how achievement motivation is best conceptualized from a theoretical standpoint. Then, our review focuses specifically on the two most prominent constructs that have emerged in the achievement motivation literature in the past century: Motive dispositions (the need for achievement and fear of failure) and goals (mastery-approach, performance-approach, mastery-avoidance, and performance-avoidance achievement goals).