Are mastery-avoidance achievement goals always detrimental? An adult development perspective

Abstract

Achievement goal research consistently reveals that mastery-avoidance goals (i.e., striving to avoid losses) are maladaptive, especially in comparison to mastery-approach goals (i.e., striving for gains). Nearly all of it has been done with children or young adults, however. Lifespan theories of motivation posit that people in late adulthood are more likely than young adults to strive toward maintenance and lossprevention rather than gains, and also that they sometimes profit from pursuing those goals. Integrating the two approaches, this experiment compared young and older adults' experience and performance on a laboratory task when pursuing either mastery-approach or mastery-avoidance goals. Results show that young adults perceived the mastery-approach goal to be more attainable and therefore felt less pressure, enjoyed the task more, and performed better with it, whereas older adults showed this pattern with the mastery-avoidance goal. This matching effect replicates recent research on adult development and has broader implications for achievement goal theory and avoidance motivation in general. Mastery-Avoidance Achievement Goals 2 AbstractAchievement goal research consistently reveals that mastery-avoidance goals (i.e., striving to avoid losses) are maladaptive, especially in comparison to mastery-approach goals (i.e., striving for gains). Nearly all of it has been done with children or young adults, however.Lifespan theories of motivation posit that people in late adulthood are more likely than young adults to strive toward maintenance and loss-prevention rather than gains, and also that they sometimes profit from pursuing those goals. Integrating the two approaches, this experiment compared young and older adults' experience and performance on a laboratory task when pursuing either mastery-approach or mastery-avoidance goals. Results show that young adults perceived the mastery-approach goal to be more attainable and therefore felt less pressure, enjoyed the task more, and performed better with it, whereas older adults showed this pattern with the mastery-avoidance goal. This matching effect replicates recent research on adult development and has broader implications for achievement goal theory and avoidance motivation in general.Key words: Achievement goals, mastery-avoidance, gains, losses, adult agedifferences Mastery-Avoidance Achievement Goals 3 Are Mastery-Avoidance Achievement Goals Always Detrimental?An Adult Development Perspective Achievement goal theory (Dweck, 1986;Nicholls, 1984) distinguishes two main types of goals often pursued in achievement situations: mastery goals, which focus on learning or developing one's ability, and performance goals, which instead focus on demonstrating one's ability by outperforming peers. Additionally, these goals separate into approach and avoidance forms (Elliot & McGregor, 2001;Pintrich, 2000). Mastery-approach goals entail striving to learn or improve, whereas mastery-avoidance goals entail striving to avoid failures to learn or decline in skill....

Achievement goals of medical students and physicians

“…For those physicians who were 16-25 years in practice, we speculate that similar forces may be operating: these physicians are under pressure to keep up to date with treatments and guidelines that are rapidly changing, while facing the decrease in energy and cognitive flexibility that accompanies ageing. Nevertheless, in contrast to the reported decline in mastery approach goals and the increase in mastery avoidance goals in late adulthood (Kooij et al, 2011;Senko and Freund, 2015), our findings indicate that physicians continue to be highly mastery approach-oriented over the course of their careers.…”

“…Future studies are needed to examine achievement goals of students in other health professions programs and health care professionals (e.g., dentists, pharmacists, nurses). Finally, considering that people in late adulthood are more likely than young adults to pursue mastery avoidance goals (Kooij et al, 2011;Senko and Freund, 2015), future research could specifically examine achievement goals of older students.…”

“…In this latter study, however, mastery and performance goals were not examined along the approach-avoidance dimension. Research examining achievement goals along the career trajectory in adult populations is still sparse, though one line of evidence indicates that people in late adulthood are more likely than young adults to pursue mastery avoidance goals and strive toward maintenance and prevention of skill loss and decline in performance (Kooij et al, 2011;Senko and Freund, 2015).…”

Influence of functional, psychological, and environmental factors on falls among community‐dwelling older adults in Hong Kong

“…Satisfaction of possession may relate to gains in life and belongings in the living environment, and older adults are more likely than younger adults to strive towards maintenance and loss prevention. 47 In this study, older adults with a low level of satisfaction of possession may tend to avoid changes in their home environment and maintenance practices, which can generate home hazards directly and indirectly. Further studies are advised to study the psychological mechanisms on environmental factors.…”

The explanatory and predictive relationship pattern between university students goal orientation behaviours and their academic achievement

“…According to this, some students may display mastery (learning) avoidance behaviours. These students tend to adopt the feeling of avoiding failure, they may not recollect what was learned, misunderstand the subject matter and abstain from making mistakes (Kim et al, 2015;Elliot, 1999, Senko andFreund, 2015). Some studies had forwarded the idea that there is a positive correlation between mastery learning orientation and academic performance (Wirthwein et al, 2013;Bouffard et al, 1995;Roebken, 2007;Church et al, 2001;Chan, 2008).…”