achievement motivation

Definition of Achievement Motivation

(noun) An individual’s drive for accomplishment and prestige through the mastery of skills and entrepreneurship, often a significant factor in economic achievement.

Examples of Achievement Motivation

• An Olympic athlete may be born with an ability or talent but must rise above others with the same gifts by hard work and dedication.
• An individual from a lower class rising to a higher class through effort.

Etymology of Achievement Motivation

• The term was first used by Henry Murray (1893–1988) and later popularized by David McClelland (1917–1998) who developed the Achievement Motivation Theory.

Achievement Motivation Pronunciation

Pronunciation Usage Guide

Syllabification: a·chieve·ment mo·ti·va·tion

Audio Pronunciation

International Phonetic Alphabet

• American English – /əˈʧivmənt ˌmoʊtəˈveɪʃən/
• British English – /əˈʧiːvmənt ˌməʊtɪˈveɪʃən/

Usage Notes

• Plural: achievement motivations
• Sociologists research how achievement motivation affects an individual’s social mobility.
• This term is sociologically problematic because it fails to account for disparate social and economic structures as determining factors in achievement.
• Also called:
  • need achievement
    
  • need for achievement
    
  • n-achievement theory
    

Related Quotations

• “By depriving people of access to opportunities, for instance, discrimination often leads to lack of qualification for them. The involuntary ascribed and negatively evaluated categorical status that emerges from discrimination not only takes precedence over any achieved status but reduces the probability of such achievement, thereby lowering all life chances. Put simply, discrimination makes it more difficult for the objects of discrimination to develop merit and reduces the likelihood that their merit will be recognized and rewarded” (McNamee and Miller 2013:180).
• “In the image of the American Dream, America is the land of opportunity. Presumably, if you work hard enough and are talented enough, you can overcome any obstacle and achieve success. No matter where you start out in life, the sky is ostensibly the limit. According to the promise implied by the American Dream, you can go as far as your talents and abilities can take you” (McNamee and Miller 2013:1).

Related Videos

Additional Information

• Economic Sociology Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
• Word origin of “achievement” and “motivation” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
• Heckhausen, Heinz. 1967. The Anatomy of Achievement Motivation. New York: Academic Press.
• Lemann, Nicholas. 1999. The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
• McClelland, David C. 1953. The Achievement Motive. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
• McClelland, David C. 1961. The Achieving Society. Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand.
• McClelland, David C., and Robert S. Steele. 1973. Human Motivation: A Book of Readings. Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press.
• McNamee, Stephen J., and Robert K. Miller. 2013. The Meritocracy Myth. 3rd ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
• Murray, Henry A. 1938. Explorations in Personality: A Clinical and Experimental Study of Fifty Men of College Age. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Wigfield, Allan, and Jacquelynne S. Eccles. 2002. Development of Achievement Motivation. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Related Terms

• achieved status
• achievement
• asceticism
• ascribed status
• capitalism
• economic
• mobility
• status
• wealth

---

Reference

McNamee, Stephen J., and Robert K. Miller, Jr. 2013. The Meritocracy Myth. 3rd ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Works Consulted

Abercrombie, Nicholas, Stephen Hill and Bryan Turner. 2006. The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology. 5th ed. London: Penguin.

Bruce, Steve, and Steven Yearley. 2006. The SAGE Dictionary of Sociology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Collins English Dictionary: Complete and Unabridged. 6th ed. 2003. Glasgow, Scotland: Collins.

Jary, David, and Julia Jary. 2000. Collins Dictionary of Sociology. 3rd ed. Glasgow, Scotland: HarperCollins.

Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. (https://en.wikipedia.org/).

Cite the Definition of Achievement Motivation

ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “achievement motivation.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved April 19, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/achievement-motivation/).

APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)

achievement motivation. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/achievement-motivation/

Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “achievement motivation.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed April 19, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/achievement-motivation/.

MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)

“achievement motivation.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/achievement-motivation/>.