Performance target

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A performance goal defines a set goal of a performance towards which one is working.

Dweck's theory

Dweck divides achievement motivation into two areas: performance goals and learning goals (mastery goals).

  • Performance goal-oriented people try to do as well as possible in comparison to a certain group of people.
  • With learning objectives, the person focuses on the goal of learning new skills and improving existing ones. Your own abilities are assessed on the basis of intrapersonal comparisons.

Dweck's model has often been criticized as incomplete by researchers in recent years. Because it does not differentiate between the need to succeed and the need to avoid failure (e.g. Moller & Elliot, 2003).

Performance Target Model by Elliot (1999)

Elliot's 2x2 performance goal model builds on Dweck's theory. It shows how people differ in the goals they pursue in performance situations. In addition to performance and learning goals, Elliot makes a further subdivision into approach and avoidance. Approach in this context is understood to mean the receipt of positive or desirable events. Accordingly, avoidance stands for avoiding negative or undesirable events. Table 1 provides an overview of the complete 2x2 learning objective model according to Elliot. For a better understanding, the individual terms are explained in more detail below:

Learning objective Performance target
Approximation Approach learning objectives Proximity Performance Goals
Avoidance Avoidance Learning Objectives Avoidance Performance Goals

Approach learning objectives: Approach learning objectives represent the endeavor to achieve intrapersonal standards. The intention is to expand one's own skills.

Avoidance learning goals: With avoidance learning goals, a person is careful not to forget what they have already learned.

Proximity Performance Goals: Individuals with Proximity Performance Goals focus on achieving interpersonal standards. To be successful here means to be better than the social peer group.

Avoidance Performance Goals: Avoidance performance goals lead a person to want to avoid failure. Accordingly, the aim is not to do badly in comparison to other people.

Research results on performance goals

People often pursue several of these goal orientations at the same time. However, on the basis of the test “Individual's Dominant Achievement Goal” by Van Yperen (2006), it was found that a majority of the people (approx. 80%) have one goal that stands out. Approach learning goals are, according to VandeWalle et al. (2001), the optimal goal orientation. Other researchers have also found evidence of this: For example, approach learning goals are positively related to work success and job satisfaction (Harackiewicz et al., 2002). Avoidance learning goals, on the other hand, lead to a more negative self-image (Van Yperen et al., 2009). In addition, people with avoidance learning goals have a significantly lower level of work engagement and a lower (financial and personal) importance of work and generativity (DeLange et al., 2010).

Changes in performance goals in old age

A Dutch study by DeLange et al. (2010) also points to the importance of age in performance goals. Between the ages of 18 and 61, the proportion of people with approach learning goals is significantly higher than the other goal orientations. A random sample of people over 65 years of age, however, shows that a significantly larger proportion of people there have avoidance learning goals. These results suggest that older workers need to focus more than younger workers on maintaining their skills and abilities (Elliot, 2005).

Mastery in sports

In his Göttingen dissertation (with Arnd Krüger ), Kyong-Won Kim differentiated between three types of pedagogical reinforcement through praise / criticism.

  • (1) Praise for victory, blame for defeat.
  • (2) Praise for effort, blame for too little effort.
  • (3) Mastery , praise for development progress , achievement of a defined goal, blame for standing still.

The first two variants are the safest way to get a drop-out . If the lead in performance was exhausted by acceleration (biology) , today's winners would become tomorrow's losers, who would then not be prepared for such a development. Praising effort is also of little help, since it is not the effort that matters, but progress in performance, which can also be easy. The comparison with yourself, Mastery , is the decisive factor in the long term. So have z. B. Even after her greatest victories , Steffi Graf did not put herself above her competitors (victory / defeat), but always pointed out that she played her “best tennis” today ( mastery ). However, it is particularly difficult for a coach to prepare mastery-trained top athletes for the conflict (victory / defeat) before decisive competitions.

literature

  • CS Dweck: Motivational processes affecting learning. In: American Psychologist . 41: 1040-1048 (1986).
  • AJ Elliot, A. Moller: Performance-approach goals: Good or bad forms of regulation? In: International Journal of Educational Research. 39 (2003), pp. 339-356.
  • AJ Elliot: Approach and avoidance motivation and achievement goals. In: Educational Psychologist. 34 (1999), pp. 169-189.
  • AJ Elliot, HA McGregor: A 2 × 2 achievement goal framework. In: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 80 (2001), pp. 501-519.
  • NW Van Yperen: A novel approach to assessing achievement goals in the context of the 2 × 2 framework: identifying distinct profiles of individuals with different dominant achievement goals. In: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 32 (2006), pp. 1432-1445.
  • D. VandeWalle, WL Cron, JW Slocum: The role of goal orientation following performance feedback. In: Journal of Applied Psychology. 86 (2001), pp. 629-640.
  • JH Harackiewicz, KE Barron, PR Pintrich, AJ Elliot, TM Trash: Revision of achievement goal theory: necessary and illuminating. In: Journal of Educational Psychology. 3 (2002), pp. 638-645.
  • NW Van Yperen, AJ Elliot, F. Anseel: The influence of mastery-avoidance goals on performance improvement. In: European journal of Social Psychology. 39 (2009), pp. 932-943.
  • AJ Elliot: A conceptual history of the achievement goal construct. In: AJ Elliot, CS Dweck (Ed.): Handbook of competence and motivation. The Guilford Press, New York 2005, pp. 52-72.
  • A. Lange, N. Van Yperen, B. Van der Heijden, P. Bal: Dominant achievement goals of older workers and their relationship with motivation-related outcomes. In: Journal of Vocational Behavior. (77 (2010)), pp. 118-125.
  • M. Schweer: teacher-student interaction. 2nd Edition. VS-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008.
  • T. Langens, H. Schmalt, K. Sokolowski: Motive measurement - basics and applications. University of Siegen.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kyung-Won Kim: Competition pedagogy: Pedagogy of athletic performance in children's competitive sports . Tischler, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-922654-39-8 .
  2. ^ Arnd Krüger , Kyong-Won Kim, Swantje Scharenberg : Competition - Pedagogy - Competence. In: competitive sport. 26 (1996) 5, pp. 11-14. [1]
  3. ^ Arnd Krüger: Prolegomena to a pedagogy of competition. In: S. Starischka, U. Velmeden, K. Weischenberg (eds.): Searching for and promoting talent. Problems and solution approaches for promoting young talent (= 8th international workshop of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia). University of Dortmund, 1993, pp. 40-53.