Performance Goals
Updated 2026-08-08
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
A goal orientation from achievement goal theory, developed by Carol Dweck and colleagues. Performance goals direct attention to demonstrating competence relative to others. They split into performance-approach goals, which seek favorable judgments, and performance-avoidance goals, which seek to avoid looking incompetent. Approach forms can raise effort and performance on simple tasks, while avoidance forms predict withdrawal, anxiety, and helplessness after difficulty. The orientation is not inherently bad, but it becomes fragile when outcomes are uncertain.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Audit your aim: ask whether you are trying to learn this or to be seen learning it - Convert the frame: turn prove-myself tasks into learn-something tasks before starting - Protect the fragile: give struggling people private practice rather than public comparison
Anchor fast decisions
When ability is on display, difficulty becomes evidence about the self rather than about the task. That reattribution makes failure costly, so attention shifts from solving the problem to managing impressions, which consumes working memory. On easy, well-practiced tasks the resulting arousal can help, but once the task is hard the same orientation encourages withdrawal precisely when persistence is needed.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goal_orientationverified
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