Posted: March 22nd, 2023

How Achievement Influences Motivation

Achievement is the measurement of the ability to attain by reflecting on the progress of accomplishing a goal. On the other hand, motivation is the desire to behave in a certain way. Therefore, achievement motivation is the need to perform well and succeed in one’s eyes and the eyes of others. The need for achievement is motivated by the impulse to surpass, complete the set standards, and struggle to succeed (Hart & Albarracin, 2009). Motivation achievement shows the enthusiasm to continue behaving in a certain manner that enables high standards despite the risk of failing.

Accordingly, people with high achievement needs are usually motivated by competition and setting challenging goals they strive to accomplish. They are very eager to get feedback on what they have achieved. Such people find satisfaction in performing things in a better way. In fact, high achievement relates to high performance. Such individuals are highly motivated and take up the responsibility of solving issues at work. They set difficult goals for themselves and take huge risks in accomplishing them (Coon, 2006). Significantly, they come up with new and innovative ways of doing their tasks, and they see an accomplishment of a goal as the reward and value rather than a monetary incentive.

In society, we have such individuals, for example, a person who is a seasoned short distance runner interested in doing long distance running. The individual is experienced in short-distance running; hence, a five-kilometer race would pose a great challenge to him or her. Therefore, the person will need to set a stimulating race that will challenge his/her endurance skills. Moreover, through motivation the individual will need to work harder and set challenging goals so that he or she can complete. Since a person is achievement-motivated, he/she must strive to run and finish the marathon despite the fear of failure.

References

Coon, D. (2006). Introduction to psychology: Gateways to mind and behavior. Australia: Wadsworth.

Dosil, J. (2006). The sport psychologist’s handbook: A guide for sport-specific performance enhancement. Chichester, West Sussex, England: John Wiley.

Hart, W., & Albarracín, D. (2009). “The effects of chronic achievement motivation and achievement primes on the activation of achievement and fun goals.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97 (6), 1129-1141.