Achievement-Related Emotions in Preschoolers

Abstract

Achievement-oriented behavior was characterized by the pioneers of achievement motivation research as “competition with a standard of excellence” (McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, & Lowell, 1953). Competing with a standard of excellence is manifested in such behaviors as the choice of difficulty levels in trying different tasks, or different task difficulty levels of one and the same task, and in the amount of effort and persistence invested in task performance. The motivation causing these behaviors was defined by Heckhausen as “the striving to increase, or keep as high as possible, one’s own capability in all activities in which a standard of excellence is thought to apply and where the execution of such activities can, therefore, either succeed or fail” (Heckhausen, 1967, p. 5).

The research reported here was funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. Several able and motivated research assistants from the Philipps-Universität Marburg participated in this study at different times: Dagmar Marx, Brigitte Prankel, Walburga Scheiblechner, Hans-Peter Rehfich, and Lothar Unzner. Frank Halisch, Paul Lütkenhaus, and Phillip Ward offered helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.