Achievement motivation practice questions.

A tennis player who is high in the need to achieve is offered four practice matches for the coming week. Which opponent is she most likely to choose?

• An evenly matched rival she beats about half of the time
• A beginner she is certain to beat without being tested at all
• The reigning national champion, against whom defeat carries no blame
• A team-mate who has asked that no score be kept during the match

Answer: An evenly matched rival she beats about half of the time

Athletes high in the need to achieve prefer tasks of roughly a 50 per cent chance of success, because only an evenly matched contest gives clear information about their own ability. Athletes high in the motive to avoid failure prefer the certain win or the hopeless contest, where the result says nothing about them.

A gymnast who is high in the motive to avoid failure is entered in a trial that will be watched by national selectors. Which response is most typical of this motive?

• She raises her difficulty score to impress the watching selectors
• She asks the judges for detailed feedback on every deduction
• She reports feeling unwell and withdraws before her routine
• She repeats the routine immediately to correct the error made

Answer: She reports feeling unwell and withdraws before her routine

The motive to avoid failure is an avoidance drive: it is aroused by evaluative, public settings and is reduced by withdrawing, so protecting self-worth matters more than the result. Approach behaviours such as raising the goal or seeking feedback belong to the motive to achieve success.

In Atkinson's model of achievement motivation, which relationship describes the resultant achievement motivation that decides whether a judoka approaches or avoids an open competition?

• The motive to achieve success added to the motive to avoid failure
• The motive to achieve success minus the motive to avoid failure
• The motive to avoid failure multiplied by the value of the reward on offer
• The motive to achieve success divided by the difficulty of the task

Answer: The motive to achieve success minus the motive to avoid failure

Atkinson treats achievement behaviour as resultant: the motive to achieve success is opposed by the motive to avoid failure, so it is the difference between the two that predicts whether an athlete approaches or avoids the contest. Adding the two motives would make the most anxious athlete the most approach-driven.

A cross-country runner calls a race a success because she took 20 s off her own best time although she finished eleventh. Which goal orientation does this show, and against what criterion is she judging success?

• Ego orientation, judged against the finishing positions of rivals
• Ego orientation, judged against her own previous performance
• Task orientation, judged against her own previous performance
• Task orientation, judged against the finishing positions of rivals

Answer: Task orientation, judged against her own previous performance

In achievement goal theory a task-oriented athlete uses a self-referenced criterion, so improvement counts as success even when the finishing position does not. An ego-oriented athlete uses a norm-referenced criterion and would have read eleventh place as failure.

A coach finds that the same volleyball player attacks freely in training but plays safe in a selection trial. Which account of achievement behaviour best explains the difference?

• Her motive to achieve success must have fallen away between the two occasions
• The trial is simply a harder task than the training drill is
• Achievement behaviour is set by the athlete's dominant motive alone
• Achievement behaviour comes from her motives interacting with the situation

Answer: Achievement behaviour comes from her motives interacting with the situation

Achievement motivation is interactionist: a stable motive is expressed only through a situation, and an evaluative, publicly judged trial raises the avoidance side in the same athlete. Reading the motive on its own would predict identical behaviour in every setting.

A club tennis player is strongly ego-oriented and has come to doubt her own ability after a run of defeats. Which pattern is predicted for her when the coach lets the squad pick their own practice partners?

• She works hardest at the drill she finds most difficult
• She avoids the evenly matched partner who would test her
• She judges the session by how much she has improved
• She asks the coach for detailed feedback on her weaknesses

Answer: She avoids the evenly matched partner who would test her

Achievement goal theory predicts that a high ego orientation turns maladaptive once perceived competence is low, because an evenly matched contest is exactly the situation that could expose her standing. With high perceived competence the same orientation can still drive hard work, at least in the short term.