• DOI:10.1037//0022-3514.73.1.171
• Corpus ID: 9367015

Avoidance achievement motivation: a personal goals analysis.

@article{Elliot1997AvoidanceAM,
  title={Avoidance achievement motivation: a personal goals analysis.},
  author={Andrew J. Elliot and Kennon M. Sheldon},
  journal={Journal of personality and social psychology},
  year={1997},
  volume={73 1},
  pages={
          171-85
        }
}

• A. Elliot, K. Sheldon
• Published 1 July 1997
• Psychology
• Journal of personality and social psychology

The present research investigated one antecedent and various consequences of pursuing avoidance personal achievement goals over the course of a semester. The authors assessed participants' achievement-relevant goals using the newly devised Achievement Goals Questionnaire. The motive to avoid failure, assessed with self-report and projective measures, was established as an antecedent of avoidance goal pursuit. Avoidance regulation was shown to have deleterious consequences for a host of achievement-relevant and general well-being outcomes at the end of the semester, including longitudinal change in subjective well-being. Perceived competence was validated as a mediator of the direct relationships observed. The results highlight the need to attend to avoidance, as well as approach, forms of self-regulation and the need to consider both motive disposition and goal constructs in accounting for competence-relevant behavior.