Todd M. Thrash

Approach-Avoidance Motivation in Personality: Approach and Avoidance Temperaments and Goals

The present research examined the role of approach and avoidance motivation in models of personality. Specifically, it examined the hypothesis that approach and avoidance temperaments represent the foundation of several basic dimensions espoused in the trait adjective, affective disposition, and motivational system approaches to personality. Factor analytic support for the hypothesis was obtained in Studies 1, 2, and 6; measures of extraversion, positive emotionality, and behavioral activation system loaded together on 1 factor (Approach Temperament) and measures of neuroticism, negative emotionality, and behavioral inhibition system loaded on another factor (Avoidance Temperament). This 2-factor structure was shown to be independent of response biases. In Studies 3-7, approach and avoidance temperaments were shown to be systematically linked to achievement goals (both nomothetic and idiographic). The findings are discussed in terms of an integrative approach to personality.

Revision of achievement goal theory: Necessary and illuminating.

C. Midgley et al. (2001) raised important questions about the effects of performance-approach goals. The present authors disagree with their characterization of the research findings and implications for theory. They discuss 3 reasons to revise goal theory: (a) the importance of separating approach from avoidance strivings, (b) the positive potential of performance-approach goals, and (c) identification of the ways performance-approach goals can combine with mastery goals to promote optimal motivation. The authors review theory and research to substantiate their claim that goal theory is in need of revision, and they endorse a multiple goal perspective. The revision of goal theory is underway and offers a more complex, but necessary, perspective on important issues of motivation, learning, and achievement. In tins response. the authors dispel interpretation of their critical review of research on performance-approach goals as support for a dichotomous perspective of achievement goal theory. Second, the authors challenge the suggestion that accepting recent research findings and adopting a multiple goals perspective constitutes a theoretical revision of the assumption that mastery goals are always good and performance goals are always bad (J. M. Harackiewicz. K. E. Barron, P. R. Pintrich, P. R. Elliot, & T. M. Thrash. 2002, p. 643). The authors make a distinction between developments that contribute to the explanatory power of the theory and value-laden interpretations of theory and research. The authors argue that phrasing the latter in terms of the former is misleading and that it masks the necessity for a critical discussion over the desired purposes in different types of achievement contexts.

Achievement Goals and the Hierarchical Model of Achievement Motivation

The achievement goal approach has attained prominence in the achievement motivation literature and has produced a valuable empirical yield. However, the precise nature of the achievement goal construct is in need of scrutiny, as is the issue of how achievement goals and their antecedents combine to produce competence-based self-regulation. In this article, we address these important conceptual issues in the context of the hierarchical model of achievement motivation. The approach–avoidance distinction, which has been an integral part of the achievement motivation literature since its inception, is highlighted throughout.

Inspiration as a psychological construct.

Inspiration has received little theoretical or empirical attention within psychology. Inspiration is conceptualized herein as a general construct characterized by evocation, motivation, and transcendence. In Studies 1a and 1b, a trait measure of inspiration was developed and was found to have strong psychometric properties. Studies 2a-2c documented a nomological network consistent with the present conceptualization. Study 3 related inspiration to the holding of U.S. patents. Study 4 linked trait inspiration to daily experiences of inspiration, extended the nomological network to the state level, documented antecedents and consequences, and established incremental validity. This research provides a foundation for further study of inspiration, both as a general construct and in specific content domains (e.g., religion, creativity, interpersonal relations).

Implicit and Self-Attributed Achievement Motives: Concordance and Predictive Validity

As a complement to the literature on the discriminant validity of implicit and self-attributed motives, this study explored two issues that point to convergences: moderation of concordance between implicit and self-attributed achievement motives, and the role of the two types of motive as antecedents of achievement goals. Significant positive correlations were found between implicit and self-attributed need for achievement and between implicit and self-attributed fear of failure. Individuals higher in self-determination were more concordant in implicit and self-attributed need for achievement. Implicit and self-attributed achievement motives predicted achievement goals in a similar manner, and structural equation modeling yielded good fit for a conceptually parsimonious latent motive model. It is suggested that implicit and self-attributed motives converge in some respects (yet diverge in others), and implications for theory are discussed.

The Intergenerational Transmission of Fear of Failure

The intergenerational transmission of fear of failure was examined in two studies with undergraduates and their parents. Parent-undergraduate concordance in fear of failure was documented for mothers and fathers, controlling for parents’ and undergraduate’s impression management and self-deceptive enhancement response tendencies. Love withdrawal was validated as a mediator of parent-undergraduate concordance in fear of failure for mothers but not for fathers. Mothers’ and fathers’ fear of failure was also a positive predictor of undergraduate’s adoption of performance-avoidance goals in the classroom, and undergraduate’s fear of failure was shown to mediate this relationship. Fathers’ fear of failure was also a negative predictor of undergraduate’s mastery goal adoption, and this relationship was likewise mediated by undergraduate’s fear of failure. The results are discussed in terms of the reorienting of positive, appetitive achievement motivation toward negative, aversive achievement motivation.

Delimiting and Integrating Achievement Motive and Goal Constructs

The task confronting theorists of achievement motivation is to explain the energization and direction of competence-based behavior (Elliot, 1997). The traditional motive approach, as pioneered by Murray (1938) and McClelland and colleagues (McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, & Lowell, 1953), dominated the field until the 1970s, at which point the cognitive revolution in psychology shifted attention to causal attributions (Weiner & Kukla, 1970) and goal constructs (Ames, 1984; Dweck & Elliott, 1983; Maehr, 1983; Nicholls, 1984a). Typical of scientific revolutions (Kuhn, 1996), the transition from motive to cognitive approaches was rather discontinuous with respect to both theory and method. According to the now dominant achievement goal approach, behavior is a rational attempt to reach consciously articulated (or accessible) ends or purposes, rather than a manifestation of underlying, affect-laden needs or desires; accordingly, self-report goal measures have largely replaced projective or multi-method assessments of global motivational propensities. In this chapter, we will argue that the goal approach provides a more precise account of the specific direction of motivated behavior, whereas the motive approach provides a more satisfactory account of energization. The most attractive evolutionary option for the field may therefore be an integration of the two traditions, as begun by Elliot and his colleagues (Elliot, 1997; Elliot & Church, 1997; Elliot & Harackiewicz, 1996; Elliot & McGregor, 1999). When properly delimited, the motive and goal concepts may be integrated into a scheme that spans the conceptual space of achievement motivation, and that incorporates the major Zeitgeist of the field. Such a scheme is outlined below, following overviews of the achievement motive and goal traditions.

Writer-Reader Contagion of Inspiration and Related States: Conditional Process Analyses Within a Cross-Classified Writer × Reader Framework.

A longstanding tradition in the humanities holds that a writer’s inspiration is infectious, but this thesis has not been tested. We hypothesized that (a) inspiration is infectious, such that inspired writers are more inspiring to the average reader; (b) contagion is mediated by the insightfulness of the text; and (c) contagion is moderated by readers’ openness to experience, such that open readers are more prone to contagion. To test these hypotheses, a sample of 195 student writers, each of whom wrote 1 poem, was crossed with a sample of 220 student readers, who read all poems. Data were available for 36,020 cells of the resulting Writer × Reader matrix. Our analytic approach integrated cross-classified multilevel modeling with conditional process analysis. As hypothesized, writers who were more inspired elicited higher levels of inspiration in the average reader. Inspiration contagion was mediated by the insightfulness and pleasantness of the text and was partially suppressed by originality. Inspiration contagion was moderated by reader openness. Moderated mediation analyses indicated that open readers were prone to contagion because they were tolerant of the originality and sublimity of inspired writing. Additional analyses differentiated contagion of inspiration from contagion of its covariates (awe, positive affect), documented effects of writer inspiration on reader enthrallment (awe, chills), and showed that writer effort is a poor predictor of reader states. The infectiousness of inspiration—through poetry, if not also through scripture and academic writing—suggests that a given instance of inspiration may have far-reaching cultural implications, including dissemination of innovations and ideologies.