Achievement Orientation

Achievement Orientation refers to how an individual interprets and reacts to tasks, resulting in different patterns of cognition, affect and behavior. Developed within a social-cognitive framework, achievement goal theory proposes that students’ motivation and achievement-related behaviors can be understood by considering the reasons or purposes they adopt while engaged in academic work. The focus is on how students think about themselves, their tasks, and their performance. In general, an individual can be said to be “mastery” or “performance” oriented, based on whether one’s goal is to develop one’s ability or to demonstrate one’s ability, respectively. Achievement orientations have been shown to be associated with individuals’ academic achievement, adjustment, and well-being.

Research on achievement motivation can be traced back to the 1940s following the seminal work of David McClelland and colleagues who established the link between achievement and motivations (see Need for achievement). Students’ achievement orientations were shown to be predictive of academic performance, specifically, students with high achievement orientation tended to value competence, expect success and seek challenges, while students with low achievement motivation tended to expect failure and avoid challenges.

In an effort to better understand the mechanisms underlying achievement, personality and social psychology researchers expanded McClelland’s work by examining how cognitive representations shape social experiences. Personality researchers have explored aspects of achievement motivation as an aspect of identity, whereas social psychologists have focused on the thought patterns that arise across various contexts.

Significant research and a consistent pattern of results have demonstrated that an individual’s achievement orientation in a particular domain can be characterized by one of two distinct achievement profiles: mastery orientation or performance orientation.

A mastery orientation is characterized by the belief that success is the result of effort and use of the appropriate strategies. Mastery oriented individuals strive to develop their understanding and competence at a task by exerting a high level of effort. Across numerous studies, mastery orientation has been shown to promote adaptive patterns of learning, which ultimately lead to high academic achievement and adjustment. For example, students with a mastery orientation are more intrinsically motivated to learn, use deeper cognitive strategies, and persist through challenge and failure;

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