Tris’ Hope for Success: Her Achievement Motives & Success Orientation

Achievement Motives

In today’s blog, I will be exploring Tris’ achievement motives and how these motives relate to her specific goals. Achievement motives are dispositional tendencies that can predict achievement goals and attempt to explain reasons behind achievement goals (Turner, 2022). Achievement motives are divided into two constructs: success orientation and fear of failure. These two constructs will be explained in this blog by aligning them with Tris’ goals and reasons for goal-striving. I will also explore four combinations of these two constructs as well as predictions and implications of achievement motives for Tris and her goal outcomes.

Success Orientation

Success Orientation is when a student is positive, proactive, and optimistic about their future goals (Martin & Marsh, 2003). They exhibit a hope of success. Tris lives with a sense of purpose and determination. She believes in her family and their values. Because she does not fear personal failure, she is quick to defend her friends and supports her family when they are being criticized for their choices. People who believe in success orientation exhibit mastery in their goal-striving (Turner, 2022). People strive for mastery in one of two ways: mastery approach and mastery avoidance.

The clearest example of the mastery approach was when Tris was initiated into Dauntless. She was the first person to volunteer to jump off of a building. Leading by example, this test is a defining moment and mirrored reflection of Tris’ life choices. She takes agency in her life by being the first to jump off the building and has belief in success orientation that she will be safe, even though she does not know how or where, or when she will land after she takes the plunge.

Additionally, Tris chooses a new name---her former name was Beatrice---new hairstyle, new clothes, and gets a tattoo, signifying a total commitment to a new life and goal. She is not worried about regret or the unknown.

Fear of Failure

Fear of failure is when a student is uncertain of their goal-striving outcome. After all their hard work, they are not confident of their end result (Martin & Marsh, 2003). People who have a fear of failure exhibit performance goals as opposed to mastery goals (Turner, 2022). Fear of failure strives for a performance approach and performance-avoidance, meaning students wish to perform better than their peers and they do not want to perform worse than their peers.

Tris’ training for Dauntless is physical and mental, pushing her to the breaking point and facing her worst fears. During the final week of her training, Tris had a fight competition which ended in rendering her unconscious for the rest of the week. When Tris woke up, she found out that her name was below the threshold line of passing scores. If Tris had a fear of failure, she could have given up right then. She was too late. The train was already leaving the station for the next stage of training. But instead of giving up, Tris raced to catch the train! When she arrived her trainer asked her who told her she could leave the hospital. She said, “No one”! Tris felt like there was no other option other than success.

Combinations of Achievement Motives

Both constructs in achievement motives---success orientation and fear of failure---strive to achieve success despite challenges and adversity (Martin & Marsh, 2003). The difference between these constructs is that success orientation is optimistic about the journey and future outcomes, while fear of failure perceives the journey as difficult and uncertain of future success. Achievement motives are exhibited by varying levels of high and low cognitive and behavioral engagement.

When Tris first starts training, she is overwhelmed by the difficulties and doubts herself. After some thought and self-reflection, Tris realizes that she can never go back to the same old Beatrice. She will never be the same girl before her training. This belief solidifies Tris’ achievement motivation.

 High success orientation can be divided into two categories, optimists and overstrivers (Martin & Marsh, 2003). Optimists have a high success orientation and low fear of failure. “Actions speak louder than words”, as the saying goes. Optimists cognitively engage in, believe in, and act upon future success. Similar to optimists, overstrivers have a high success orientation but they also have a high fear of failure. Overstrivers are conscious of the fear of failure, but they behave and act as if they believe in success. “Fake it till you make it” could be overstrivers mottos.

Tris is an optimist because she does not fear failure. She jumps off the building into a dark hole, persists during agonizing fight rounds, and realizes that she will improve if she keeps believing in herself.

Low success orientation can be categorized as failure avoiders and failure accepting (Martin & Marsh, 2003). Failure avoidance is associated with low success orientation and behavior with a high fear of failure.  People with failure avoidance can feel frustrated, defensive, pessimistic, and handicapped. Failure acceptance is cognitively associated with low success orientation as well as low fear of failure. People with failure avoidance are cognitively and behaviorally disengaged from their future.

Predictions for Achievement Motives

Achievement Motives can cascade into habits and predictions in behavioral outcomes. Success orientation predicts personal skills such as belief, control, learning focus, the value of schooling, and future plans (Martin & Marsh, 2003). Fear of failure predicts anxiety, low resilience, vulnerability, poor achievement, unstable self-belief, self-doubt, and learned helplessness (Martin & Marsh, 2003).

Tris exhibits success orientation because she is self-confident and has a strong defense mechanism. She values her training, and her beliefs about herself, and does not give herself undue anxiety or expectations. From what I can predict, Tris is setting herself up for a successful and satisfying future.

References

Images made possible by the fair dealing exception from the copyright act.

Martin, A. J. Dr. & Marsh, H. W. (2003). Fear of failure: Friend or foe? Australian Psychologist, 38(1), 31-38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00050060310001706997

Turner, J. (2022). 2022 E-V, Self-Efficacy [Powerpoint Slides]. Learning and Cognition, Florida State University.

https://canvas.fsu.edu/courses/218133/files/19432015?module_item_id=4378247