Veroff's Taxonomy

Description

Achievement motivation is about the way we are motivated to achieve certain goals. Depner and Veroff (1979) describe a set of goal types. based on whether:

Evaluation of success is self-derived, compared against a social standard, or is found in the demands of the task.

The standard is based on the process of achieving or in the impact of the final outcome.

The taxonomy is:

Autonomous goals (self-derived, process)

Power goals (self-derived, impact)

Responsibility goals (social, process)

Competitive goals (social, process)

Competence goals (task, process)

Task goals (task, impact)

Discussion

This is an interesting model that highlights that how you judge the success of a goal makes a lot of difference, and that the opinions of others or oneself are different for different goals.

It is often important how you achieve your goals, yet sometimes the end may be said to justify the means.

In the study described, there was little gender difference except for autonomous goals, where women preferred to work alone (which seems surprising, given their generally greater relational tendencies).

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Veroff's Taxonomy

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