Achievement orientations from subjective histories of success: promotion pride versus prevention pride

A new task goal elicits a feeling of pride in individuals with a subjective history of success, and this achievement pride produces anticipatory goal reactions that energize and direct behavior to approach the task goal. By d istinguishing between promotion pride and prevention pride, the present pap er extends this classic model of achievement motivation. Regulatory focus t heory (Higgins, 1997) distinguishes between a promotion focus on hopes and accomplishments (gains) and a prevention focus on safety and responsibiliti es (non-losses). We propose that a subjective history of success with promo tion-related eagerness (promotion pride) orients individuals toward using e agerness means to approach a new task goal, whereas a subjective history of success with prevention-related vigilance (prevention pride) orients indiv iduals toward using vigilance means to approach a new task goal. Studies 1- 3 tested this proposal by examining the relations between a new measure of participants' subjective histories of promotion success and prevention succ ess (the Regulatory Focus Questionnaire (RFQ)) and their achievement strate gies in different tasks. Study 4 examined the relation between participants ' RFP responses and their reported frequency of feeling eager or vigilant i n past task engagements. Study 5 used an experimental priming technique to make participants temporarily experience either a subjective history of pro motion success or a subjective history of prevention success. For both chro nic and situationally induced achievement pride, these studies found that w hen approaching task goals individuals with promotion pride use eagerness m eans whereas individuals with prevention pride use vigilance means. Copyrig ht (C) 2001 John Wiley di Sons, Ltd.