lp c achievement motivation - lane community college · lp 8c achievement motivation 1 03/30/20...

LP 8C Achievement motivation 1 03/30/20

Achievement: Approach versus Avoidance Motivation

• Approach motivation: A motivation to experience positive outcomes

• Avoidance motivation: A motivation not to experience negative outcomes We have a combination of both approach and avoidance motivation. In addition, approach and avoidance motivation can depend on the context. As examples of approach and avoidance motivation, see Table 8.3.


Achievement: Approach versus Avoidance Motivation


Achievement: Approach versus Avoidance Motivation Both approach and avoidance motivation is important. Those who are high achievers tend to have more approach motivation.


Achievement Motivation

Need for Achievement: The motivation to solve worthwhile problems. In general, high-need achievers are most likely to strive hard for success when

• They perceive themselves as personally responsible for the outcome

• They perceive some risk of not succeeding

• There is an opportunity to receive performance feedback. They tend to see failures as a learning experience rather than a threat (see reframing under Stress and Health).

High-need achievers

• outperform low-need achievers when the tasks are challenging or when the importance of doing well is stressed.

• persist longer after encountering difficulties than do low-need achievers.

• People who score high in achievement motivation expend their greatest efforts when faced with moderately challenging tasks.

• In striving to achieve the task, they often choose to work long hours and have the capacity to delay gratification and focus on the goal. They also tend to display original thinking, seek expert advice and value feedback about their performance.


• don’t outperform low-need achievers when conditions are relaxed and tasks are easy


High and Low Need Achievers and Task Selection When given a choice about performing a task that are

Very easy Moderately difficult Very hard high probability of success

unknown probability of success

low probability of success

• High-need achievers prefer tasks that are moderately difficult because the outcome is not certain. It appears that high-need achievers can deal with uncertainty. o In a ring toss game, these people tended to pick a moderate distance

from the pole.

• In contrast, low-need achievers are more likely to choose tasks where the outcome is most certain (very easy or very hard). o In a ring toss game, these people tended to pick a far or close distance

from the pole.


Development of Achievement Motivation Achievement Motivation: The desire to excel at some task. How does achievement motivation develop?

• Providing a cognitively stimulating home environment fosters children’s intrinsic motivation (doing something for its own reason) to perform academic tasks.

• A stimulating environment is one that makes the child think, challenges the child, and is engaging. Just listening to “Baby Einstein” CDs may not help the child think, challenge them or engage them.(see ch2)

• As seen in Chapter 9 (Development: Erikson’s Psychosocial Conflicts), find something the person finds intrinsically interesting. This may require you to experiment with a lot of different tasks and provide guidance for that person to succeed.

• Praise the learning process, hard work, and diligence (you worked hard). Don’t praise innate ability (you are smart).

• Caregivers that encourage and reward achievement, but don’t punish failure help foster a strong motive for success (remember, punishments can increase anxiety).


• Fear of failure seems to develop when caregivers take success for granted and punish failure. Fear of failure keeps people from taking safe risks.


Motivations of High and Low Need Achievers

High Need Achievers

|---------------------------------------| weak motive strong motive for success for success |---------------------------------------| weak fear strong fear of failure of failure

Approach motivation Avoidance motivation

Low Need Achievers

|---------------------------------------| weak motive strong motive for success for success |---------------------------------------| weak fear strong fear of failure of failure

Approach motivation Avoidance motivation

It might seem counterintuitive that high need achievers are low in fear of failure. You might expect them to rate high on fear of failure.

This might not match our mental representation of high need for achievers and judge it unlikely (you are less likely to believe it) as suggested by the representative heuristic. In addition, you are less likely to remember it because it doesn’t match our schema of high achievers.


Anxiety from Fear of Failure Influences Performance


Achievement Goals for High and Low Need Achievers

How do high and low need achievers differ in terms of their goal setting behavior? What motivates them?

Mastery Goals Performance-approach

Goals Performance-avoidance

Goals The desire to master a task and learn new knowledge or skill. People are intrinsically motivated.

These goals reflect a competitive orientation that focuses on being judged favorably relative to other people.

These goals center on avoiding negative judgments.

• I want to learn as much as possible from this class

• I am motivated by the thought of outperforming my peers in this class

• I just want to avoid doing poorly in this class

High Need Achievers

Low Need Achievers Researchers believe that students who adopt both mastery and performance-approach goals display the optimal pattern of motivation for college courses.


Generally speaking,

• Mastery goals predicted the tendency to perceive exams as a positive challenge and rate them as more interesting and enjoyable.

♦ Mastery goals were unrelated to course grades.

• Performance-approach goals predicted grades, but did not predict enjoyment or interest.

♦ When it comes to exams, they are weakly associated with feelings of both challenge and a threat.

• Performance avoidance goals are associated with perceiving exams as anxiety-provoking threats.

♦ At the end of the term, they report that the course was less interesting, enjoyable and had lower grades compared to those who did not endorse performance avoidance goals.


The Regulation of Emotion Emotions can be disruptive and troublesome. Negative feelings can prevent us from behaving as we would like to, but can so can positive feelings (page 430). Emotional regulation refers to the cognitive and behavioral strategies people use to influence their own emotional experience. These strategies usually involve making negative emotions more positive, but can be to reduce positive emotions.


Emotional Regulation and Arousal Theory

Learning a new skill can be difficult. It takes practice, feedback and success. Setting your goals too high can make it difficult to be successful. Those who suffer from anxiety can also make it difficult to learn a new skill (see blue arousal curve).


The Regulation of Emotion Behavioral strategies may include

• avoiding stressful situations,

• distracting themselves by watching television, or

• taking drugs Cognitive strategies may include

• Trying not to think about automobile accident, rent due, etc. If these strategies are successful, they are more likely to be repeated in the future because of they are generally negatively reinforced. Effective strategies for regulating your emotions discussed in your textbook are

• Humor

• Distraction Ineffective strategies for regulating your emotions discussed in your textbook are

• Thought suppression

• rumination

Trying not to thing about your problems tends to make you think about them even more. Rumination likewise, focuses your attention on your problems and prolongs negative emotions.


Distractions can be helpful if you need temporary relief from your problems creating negative emotions. However, if you avoid your problems all together and engage in distractions that make your problem worse such as drug use, gambling, watching television too much, you avoid dealing with the cause of your negative emotions.


Achievement: Delayed Gratification The ability to delay rewards—delay gratification is associated with intelligence and social competence. Four-year old children who can delay gratification are judged to be more intelligent and socially competent 10 years later and have higher SAT scores when entering college. The ability to delay gratification is a better predictor of a child’s grades than IQ is (page 430).


Application: Turning Your Goals into Reality Self-efficacy—The expectation that your efforts will lead to success (page 429). Self-Efficacy: Optimistic beliefs about your capabilities

If you have an optimistic sense of self-efficacy, you will approach a difficult task as a challenge to be mastered. However, this sense of self-efficacy needs to be realistic. To strengthen your sense of self-efficacy, you need to experience success as moderately challenging tasks. In these tasks, you should

• Strive for progressive (gradual) improvement rather than perfection on the first attempt

[Perfection is a road, not a destination]

• Understand that setbacks serve a useful purpose in teaching us that success requires sustained effort (because we tend to hear about a person’s “success” story, but not the failures, we overestimate the likelihood of success-- ______ heuristic)


• If you only experience easy successes, you are more likely to become discouraged and abandon efforts when you experience failures.


Application: Turning Your Goals into Reality Implementation Intention: Turning Goals into Actions Step 1: Form a goal intention—Describe a behavior

• Express your goal intention as something you will do, not something you will not do

Good goal intention Poor goal intention

I will wake up at 6:00 am for class I won’t sleep through my 8:00 am class.

• Express your general intention into a specific, concrete and binding goal that can be assessed “I intend to achieve ___________”

Good goal intention Poor goal intention I will study 2 hours a day I will study more

• Set challenging, but realistic goals

• Set short-term as well as long-term goals

• Set a definite time span for achievement


Step 2: Create implementation intention—how will you accomplish your behavior?

Make a specific plan for turning your goals into reality. Specify where, when and how you will carry out the intended behavior.

• I will wake up at 6:00 am on TuTh and take a shower at 6:05

• I will study 2 hours a day between 6:00 and 8:00 pm at the library while taking notes and outlining the chapter

Mentally rehearsal: Visualize the Process


Your task:

1. Identify a behavior you wish to change. What do you want?

2. Describe a GOOD specific goal intention or behavior. 3. Describe the same goal intention in a POOR manner.

How are you going to achieve it (what is the plan)?

4. Describe a GOOD implementation intention. 5. Describe the same implementation intention in a POOR manner.


1. I wish to have a healthier lifestyle Good Poor

Goal In

tention I want to walk 30 minutes a day

I will eat more fruits and vegetables

I want to exercise more I want to avoid fast food

Imple

me

nta

tio

n I

nte

ntio

n I want to walk 30 minutes a day on

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after dinner I will buy a sprig of broccoli, bananas and carrots when I go to the store to eat for dinner

I want to exercise more during the week I will eat healthier food

lp c achievement motivation - lane community college · lp 8c achievement motivation 1 03/30/20...

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