Motivation and Achievement in Adolescence: A Multiple Goals Perspective

Personal goals are of central theoretical importance for explaining motivational patterns of behavior (see Pervin, 1982). In this regard, goals have been described with respect to their content (Ford & Nichols, 1987), orientation (Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Jagacinski, this volume; Nicholls, 1984, this volume), levels of challenge, proximity, and specificity (Bandura, 1986), and their relations with each other (Emmons, 1989; Powers, 1978). Central to all of these descriptions is the notion that people do set goals for themselves and that these goals can be powerful motivators of behavior.