Approach and avoidance motivation and achievement goals

Achievement goal researchers and theorists have relied primarily on the dis tinction between performance goals and mastery goals in differentiating com petence-based strivings. In this article, an argument is made for incorpora ting the distinction between approach and avoidance motivation into the per formance-mastery dichotomy. Historical, theoretical, and empirical reasons for attending to the approach-avoidance distinction are offered, and a revi sed, trichotomous framework of achievement goals comprising mastery, perfor mance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals is described and reviewed. This trichotomous framework is discussed in the broader context of a hierar chical model of achievement motivation that attends to the motivational fou ndation underlying achievement goals per se. Avenues for further theoretica l development are also overviewed, including consideration of a mastery-avo idance goal construct.