Invitation to Psychology

Chapter 14 The Major Motives of Life: Food, Love, Sex, and work 507

In the case of work, defining your goals will
move you along the road to success, but what hap-
pens when you hit a pothole? Some people give
up when a goal becomes difficult or they are faced
with a setback, whereas others become even more
determined to succeed. The crucial difference be-
tween them is why they are working for that goal:
to show off in front of others or learn the task for
the satisfaction of it.
People who are motivated by performance
goals are concerned primarily with being judged
favorably and avoiding criticism. Those who are
motivated by mastery (learning) goals are con-
cerned with increasing their competence and
skills and finding intrinsic pleasure in what they
are learning (Grant & Dweck, 2003; Senko,
Durik, & Harackiewicz, 2008). When people
who are motivated by performance goals do
poorly, they will often decide the fault is theirs
and stop trying to improve. Because their goal
is to demonstrate their abilities, they set them-
selves up for grief when they temporarily fail, as
all of us must if we are to learn anything new. But
people who are motivated to master new skills
will generally regard failure and criticism as
sources of useful information that will help them
improve. They know that learning takes time.
They know that failure is essential to eventual
success.
Why do some children choose performance
goals and others choose mastery goals? In a study
of 128 fifth graders, the children worked inde-
pendently on sets of puzzle problems (Mueller &
Dweck, 1998). The experimenter scored their re-
sults, told them all they had done well, and gave
them one of two additional types of feedback:
She praised some of them for their ability (“You
must be smart at these problems!”) and others
for their effort (“You must have worked hard at
these problems!”). The children then worked on
a more difficult set of problems, but this time
the experimenter told them they had done a lot
worse. Finally, the children described which goals
they preferred to work for: performance (e.g.,

performance goals

Goals framed in terms of

performing well in front

of others, being judged

favorably, and avoiding

criticism.

mastery (learning)

goals Goals framed in

terms of increasing one’s

competence and skills.

doing “problems that aren’t too hard, so I don’t

get many wrong”) or mastery (e.g., doing “prob-

lems that I’ll learn a lot from, even if I won’t look

so smart”).

The children praised for being smart rather

than for working hard tended to lose the plea-

sure of learning and focused instead on how

well they were doing. After these children failed

the second set of problems, they tended to give

up on subsequent ones, enjoyed them less, and

actually performed less well than children who

had been praised for their efforts. As you can

see in Figure  14.2, nearly 70 percent of fifth

graders who were praised for their intelligence

later chose performance goals rather than learn-

ing goals, compared to fewer than 10 percent

Get Involved! Reframing Your Goals

As the text discusses, people sometimes frame their goals in vague, unrealistic, or negative ways. Think

of two goals you would like to accomplish. You might consider goals related to studying more efficiently,

improving communication with a family member, solving problems in a relationship, or becoming more

physically fit. Now phrase each of your two goals in a way that makes it (1) specific, (2) challenging but

achievable, and (3) something to be approached rather than avoided. How can framing your goals in this

way improve your motivation to reach them?

Per

centage of childr

en^70

80

40

50

60

10

0

20

30

Praised for

intelligence

Praised for

effort

Children who

chose performance

goals

Children who lied

to others about

how they did

FIGURE 14.2 Mastery and Motivation

Children praised for “being smart” rather than for “work-

ing hard” tend to lose the pleasure of learning and

focus on how well they are doing. Nearly 70 percent

of fifth graders who were praised for intelligence later

chose performance goals rather than learning goals,

compared to fewer than 10 percent of the children who

were praised for their efforts (Mueller & Dweck, 1998).

Notice also that the children praised for intelligence

were much more likely to lie to others about how well

they had done—because their goal was showing off, not

learning.