Achievement Goals

Achievement Goals

Reviewed by Faisal Zaidi

The purposes a person pursues in a demanding setting.

What it is

Elliot and Church tested mastery, performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals; later work, including a 2020 survey of 329 students, also separates approach and avoidance forms of mastery goals.

In effect

The article uses it as the vocabulary for how personal goals and the learning environment combine.

What it does not say

It is a vocabulary for the aims people bring to demanding settings, not a measure of ability. The classroom study and the later survey each covered one student group, so they do not set how goals combine for everyone.

Sources

  1. Elliot, A. J., & Church, M. A. (1997). A hierarchical model of approach and avoidance achievement motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72(1), 218-232.
  2. Giel, L. I. S., Noordzij, G., Noordegraaf-Eelens, L., & Denktas, S. (2020). Fear of failure: A polynomial regression analysis of the joint impact of the perceived learning environment and personal achievement goal orientation. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 33(2), 123-139.