ABSTRACT
Although achievement motivation has traditionally been construed as goal-directed behavior, the recent literature (Dweck, 1986; Dweck & Elliott, 1983; Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Eliott & Dweck, 1988) has moved toward defining a broad conceptual framework for organizing both the cognitive and affective components of motivation. This framework has been identified as a theory of achievement goals (Ames & Ames, 1984; Dweck, 1986; Maehr, 1984; Maehr & Nicholls, 1980; Nicholls, 1979, 1984a, 1989, this volume). Achievement goals define patterns of motivation that represent different ways of approaching, engaging in, and responding to achievement-related activities. According to Elliott and Dweck (1988), the adoption of a particular achievement goal serves to trigger a “program” of cognitive processes that are related to how individuals attend to, interpret, and respond to informational cues and situational demands. Others (Ames & Ames, 1984; Butler, 1987, in press; Corno & Rohrkemper, 1985; Nicholls, 1984b, this volume) describe how cognitions about self, tasks, and others are impacted by how an individual interprets situational demands.
