Achievement Goal Theory, The Theory Of Motivation Theory

Motivation research has a long history starting with the concept of instincts, drives and internal traits and extending to achievement goal theories. Achievement goal theory has its roots in the social-cognitive view of motivation and instead of focusing on causal attributions they give importance to the types of goals that individuals pursue in situations. Achievement goal theorists focus on goals involving the development or demonstration of competence. They are concerned about students’ intentions or reasons for engaging or choosing different learning activities.
Goals are generally thought of as representations of what an individual would like to achieve, spurring individuals to action directing their behaviour (Ames, 1992; Dweck, &

Although there are some differences among achievement goal theorists regarding the exact nature and functioning of these two types of goals, for the most part there is considerable overlap among these different conceptions (Ames, 1992). Achievement goals were conceptualized initially in terms of a mastery-performance distinction. Mastery goals focus on task-based and intrapersonal standards of competence while performance goals focus on interpersonal standards of competence (Dweck, 1986). Later, this dichotomous model was extended to include the approach-avoidance distinction wherein ‘approach’ goals are concerned with acquiring positive possibilities, while ‘avoidance’ goals focus on avoiding negative possibilities. Initially, a trichotomous achievement goal model was proposed (Elliot & Church, 1997) in which the performance goal construct was divided into separate approach and avoidance goals, and the mastery goal alone was treated as an approach goal. Later, a 2 × 2 achievement goal model was put forward which consist of mastery approach, mastery avoidance, performance approach and performance avoidance goals. Though the mastery avoidance goal construct was identified late, it appears to be relevant in achievement context (Elliot & McGregor,