Approach and avoidance motivation

In this article, we introduce this special issue by establishing a conceptu al foundation for the distinction between approach and avoidance motivation . We do so primarily by explicating several reasons why the approach-avoida nce distinction should be viewed as fundamental and basic to the study of h uman behavior. In addition, we compare and contrast the "approach-avoidance " designation with other designations that have been used in the motivation al literature to cover the same or similar conceptual ground. Finally, we c onclude by briefly overviewing the other contributions to this special issu e, specifically highlighting how they make use of the approach-avoidance di stinction.