What Is Atkinsons Achievement Motivation Theory ?
John William Atkinson (31st December 1923 – 27th October 2003), also called as Jack Atkinson, was a veteran from World War II, a teacher and a scholar and had been a long-term member at the University of Michigan Community. Above all, he was a widely known psychologist, known for his pioneering work in the scientific study of human behavior, motivation and achievement. |
John Atkinson worked on the study of psychology of motivation around the 1960s, at the same time also built up the work of other 2 authors. The achievement motivation theory by Atkinson considered the fear from failure, evading the activities of achievement.
Lewin and McClelland -- Kurt Lewin and David McClelland had put forward the theory that motivation could be projected in a way to either avoid failure or to achieve success and that these form the important determinants in achieving something.
Anticipation Factors -- Taking their research further ahead, Atkinson put forward the theory that the people who have the high need to achieve anticipate more of success than failure, as against the people who have low or no need to achieve.
High Achievement Challenge Level -- According to Atkinson’s discovery, people who have high need to achieve would generally choose reasonably challenging tasks than going for easy and difficult tasks.
Low Achievement Challenge Level -- On the other hand, and interestingly, people who have the fear of failing not only evaded through the tasks that were moderately challenging to go for very easy tasks, but also chose very tough tasks.
Rationalization -- Atkinson’s theory says that the very tough tasks chosen by people having low achievement motivation acts as their chance to give an explanation for their failure, as the task was very difficult, which most people could not accomplish.
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