ABSTRACT
This chapter describes taxonomy of human goals and some possible applications of the taxonomy for education and human service professionals. The taxonomy is simply a long list with no specification of how different needs might be organized in terms of hierarchies or clusters. The initial categories in the taxonomy were derived from an extensive review of the literature on achievement motivation, personality, and social motivation. The taxonomy may be helpful in supplying teachers with a source of ideas regarding the possible motives of students who are disruptive or disinterested in classroom activities. The chapter outlines the range and diversity of examples which are illustrate the potential utility of the taxonomy for guiding scholarly and professional activities and for promoting an understanding of human motivation and behavior. The taxonomy does provide a representation of basic human goals that is comprehensive, conceptually precise, and closely connected to a broader theory of goal-directed functioning.
