1) The document discusses motivation and achievement from various perspectives including gender, culture, and different types of achievement goals. 2) It finds that mastery goals tend to lead to higher achievement than performance goals as mastery goals focus more on learning and developing competence rather than demonstrating accomplishments. 3) Achievement is defined and motivated differently across cultures, with individualistic cultures like the US focusing more on personal accomplishments while collectivist cultures emphasize group achievements and cooperation.

1. Motivation, Gender Culture and
Achievement
Dr. VMS

2. Motivation
• Motivation is the processes that account for an
individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort
toward attaining a goal. The main features of motivation
are a goal-oriented continuous process and a
psychological phenomenon that converts abilities into
performance.
• “motivation” comes from the Latin word “movere”,
which means move.
• “Motivation” is a general term applying to the entire
class of drives, desires, needs, wishes and similar forces

3. Gender, Culture and Achievement
• Much of the early work on need for
Achievement was conducted with only male
participants.
• There are reasons for this. When this research
was initiated in the 1950s, relatively few women
entered the business world and even fewer had
opportunities to advance into high managerial
positions.

4. Gender
• As career aspirations and opportunities for women
changed, researchers found a comparable increase in
need for Achievement among women college students
(Veroff, Depner, Kulka, & Douvan, 1980).
• And, as with men, a high need for Achievement predicts
success in the business world for women.
• In one study, need for Achievement scores taken from
female college students predicted job choice and job
characteristics 14 years later ( Jenkins, 1987).

5. Gender
• Although need for Achievement predicts success in the
business world for both genders, research suggests that many
other variables come into play when comparing the
achievement behavior of men and women (Hyde & Kling,
2001; Mednick & Thomas, 2008).
• For example, some researchers find that men and women
often differ in how they think about achievement (Eccles,
1985, 2005).
• Because of differences in gender-role socialization, men and
women may differ on the kinds of achievement they value and
where achievement falls among their personal goals.
• For example, a businesswomen might value achievement, but
on occasion she may put other concerns—such as the welfare
of customers—ahead of her personal accomplishments.

6. Male and Female Achievers
• Other investigators find that men and women differ in the way
they define success (Gaeddert, 1985).
• Men in our society are more likely to see success in terms of
external standards, such as gaining prestige or recognition for
accomplishments.
• In contrast, women are more likely to rely on internal
definitions of success, such as whether they accomplish what
they set out to do.
• When comparing men and women in achievement settings,
psychologists must be careful that they don't automatically
apply standards of success based only on traditional male
achievement definitions.

7. Individual and Collective
In individualistic countries like the United States, achievement is
typically defined in terms of personal accomplishments.
In these cultures individual effort is rewarded and people are
singled out for their successes.
However, in collectivist cultures success is more likely to be
defined in terms of cooperation and group accomplishments.
Workers in a collectivist culture might have a strong sense of
accomplishment when they do their part and the entire company
reaches its goal (Niles, 1998).

8. Individual and Collective
Individual recognition is not sought and is not
needed. Americans tend to see themselves in
competition with coworkers and find this
competition motivating.
In contrast, one team of researchers found that
corporate professionals in India were concerned
about the emotional and financial well-being of
their coworkers and were motivated to help them
succeed (Tripathi & Cervone, 2008).

9. Achievement Motivation
• concepts like achievement motivation that focus
on the individual may not be useful when
studying behavior in a collectivist culture. Rather,
new definitions for achievement and success
may be needed to fully understand achievement
behavior in different societies.

10. Achievement
• People with strong achievement motivation are optimistic that
their decisions are correct and that they will succeed (Puca &
Schmalt, 2001). However, their desire to achieve prevents
them from taking a large chance on failure.
• One of the prominent features of high need achievers is that
they are moderate risk takers.
• They want to succeed, but they also are highly motivated to
avoid failure.

11. Higher Achievers
• people with a high need for Achievement tackle their work
with a lot of energy.
• But high need achievers don't work hard at everything. Rather,
they limit their enthusiasm for tasks with a potential for
personal achievement.
• Routine and boring jobs hold no more interest for high need
achievers than they do for anyone else. But a job that requires
creativity and provides an opportunity to demonstrate what
they can do is very appealing.

12. Higher Achievers
• High need achievers also prefer jobs that give them personal
responsibility for outcomes.
• They want credit for success but also are willing to accept
blame for failure.
• In particular, high need achievers want concrete feedback
about their performance (Fodor & Carver, 2000).
• They want to find out how good they are and how they
compare to others.

13. Achievement in children
• parents can promote achievement motivation by providing
support and encouragement long enough to enable the child
to develop a sense of personal competence, but not so long
that the child is robbed of independence and initiative.
• The prescription for raising a high need for Achievement child
thus seems to be finding that fine line between too much
parental involvement and not enough.
• Parents should encourage achievement in young children,
reward them, and show enthusiasm for their
accomplishments.
• Predictably, people with a high need for Achievement are
more likely than others to find economic prosperity (Littig &
Yeracaris, 1965).

14. Assessing ones personality
• Achievement Goals
• 1. It is important for me to do better than other students.
• 2. I worry that I may not learn all that I possibly could in this
• class.
• 3. I want to learn as much as possible from this class.
• 4. I just want to avoid doing poorly in this class.
• 5. It is important for me to do well compared to others in this
• class.
• 6. Sometimes I'm afraid that I may not understand the
content of this class as thoroughly as I'd like.

15. Assessing ones personality
• 7. It is important for me to understand the content of this
• course as thoroughly as possible.
• 8. My goal in this class is to avoid performing poorly.
• 9. My goal in this class is to get a better grade than most of the
• other students.
• 10. I am often concerned that I may not learn all that there is to
• learn in this class.
• 11. I desire to completely master the material presented in this
• class.
• 12. My fear of performing poorly in this class is often what
• motivates me.

16. Assessing ones personality
• The scale provides a score for each of the four kinds of
achievement goals. Add the following answer values to obtain
your scores:
• Mastery-Approach goals (items 3, 7, and 11); Mastery-
Avoidance goals (items 2, 6, and 10);
• Performance-Approach goals (items 1, 5, and 9); Performance-
Avoidance goals (items 4, 8, and 12).
• Use the following means and standard deviations obtained
from college undergraduates (Elliot & McGregor, 2001) to
interpret your scores:

17. Mastery and Performance
• Although terminology and classification schemes vary, most
investigators divide achievement goals into two broad categories:
mastery goals and performance goals.
• Mastery goals are concerned with developing competence.
Students motivated by a strong mastery goal will work hard to learn
the subject matter in a course.
• Satisfaction comes from feeling they understand the material and a
sense of proficiency.
• Performance goals are concerned with demonstrating
accomplishments to others.
• Students motivated by strong performance goals want to obtain a
high grade, possibly the highest grade in the class. Satisfaction
comes from receiving the recognition that accompanies the
achievement.

18. Learners Achievement Types
• In the typical classroom, we can usually find two
students who work equally hard preparing for tests and
completing assignments, and who achieve similar grades,
yet who are motivated by very different goals.
• One achieving student wants to learn the material and
relishes the sensation of overcoming challenges to obtain
a sense of competence.
• The other determines what is needed for a good grade
and arranges his or her study time to get the desired
outcome.

19. Psychologists on Goals
psychologists find it useful to draw a distinction between approach goals and
avoidance goals (Cury, Elliot, Da Fonseca, & Moller, 2006; Elliot & McGregor,
2001; Van Yperen, 2006).
By dividing both mastery and performance into approach and avoidance
categories, we create a 2 by 2 model of achievement goals.
Within this framework, students trying to learn difficult material (mastery goal)
can be motivated either by a desire to achieve a sense of mastery (approach) or
by a wish to not feel incompetent (avoidance).
Similarly, students who rely on performance goals might be motivated to gain
recognition for their accomplishments or to avoid the embarrassment of a poor
performance.
Because achievement motivation has important implications in education,
business, and many other areas of our lives, psychologists have asked whether
some achievement goals are more effective than others.

20. Mastery and Performance Goals
• Most of the research on this question has compared the effects
of mastery and performance goals. Investigators consistently
find that mastery goals lead to high achievement (Dompnier,
Damon, & Butera, 2009; Youngcourt, & Beaubien, 2007).
• Students motivated by mastery goals often choose more
challenging tasks and are more interested in their classes than
students who rely on performance goals. When given the
choice between two assignments, mastery-oriented students
are likely to select the one they are more curious about,
whereas students relying on performance goals ask which will
lead to a better grade. A student interested in learning the
material is unlikely to ask, "Will this be on the test?"

21. Mastery and Performance Goals
• People motivated by mastery goals are likely to retain the
information and skills they learn longer than those driven by
performance goals. A piano student whose goal is to master a
difficult concerto is likely to remember the piece longer than the
student who simply wants to sound good at the recital. Similarly,
people motivated by mastery goals often continue their interest
in the material after the recognition for achievement is gone
(Rawsthorne & Elliot, 1999).
• The student who reads Charles Dickens with the goal of obtaining
a deeper appreciation for fine literature is more likely to read
good books during the summer than the student who reads
Dickens only to do well on the exam.

22. Future Perspectives
• research on achievement goals has implications for how
educators structure the goals and assignments in their classes
(Meece, Anderman, & Anderman, 2006; Murayama & Elliot,
2009).
• Researchers find higher levels of motivation and learning
when teachers emphasize mastery and improving skills
(Kaplan & Maehr, 2007; Meece et al., 2006).
• Unfortunately, many schools emphasize the opposite—
grades, competition among students, and the threat of a poor
performance.
• Although some students respond well to these incentives,
many do not, and a focus on performance rather than learning
can often lead to a decrease in academic motivation.