Motivation to achieve success - main stages and principles

Achievement motivation theory is one of the most famous works of American psychologist David Clarence McClelland, which is also commonly known as need satisfaction theory, needs theory and the three needs theory. McClelland developed this concept in the early 60s, influenced by the writings of Henry Murray.

Motivational theory explains how a person's needs change over time as their life experiences change. It also answers the question of how human behavior is influenced by the need to achieve success, power and “belonging.” McClelland argued that every person's motivation is determined by these three factors - regardless of age, gender, race or culture to which he belongs.

Motivation to achieve your goals

A pronounced need to achieve set goals is a trait of strong, principled, strong-willed individuals. Motivation to achieve success is the desire to achieve high results in the chosen field of activity.

A. Maslow represented the needs of people as a pyramid consisting of physiological needs, security, belonging, recognition, knowledge of the world, self-knowledge. When needs are not fulfilled, a person feels unhappy, trying to find out the reason. Reluctance to find out the reasons gives rise to apathy and depression.

Strong motivation

Determined by factors:

The desire to achieve success.
No fear of difficult tasks.
The desire to perform the assigned task efficiently.
Self improvement.

Let's imagine two equally capable schoolchildren. A student with a strong motivation for results studies daily independently or with tutors, trying to understand incomprehensible topics. Strives to get only good grades.

A child with weak motivation for results, when faced with difficulties, will prefer not to deal with them. The student will copy from a friend.

They rarely achieve success only if they have abilities and talents. There is a famous motivational quote for success by Goethe: “genius is 1% talent and 99% perspiration.”

History and research

The study of achievement motivation has a long and distinguished history. In fact, scientists have focused on this question since the dawn of psychology as a scientific discipline—when William James made suggestions about how skill propensity relates to self-esteem.

Currently, this topic is an area of active research, especially in the fields of educational psychology, sport and exercise psychology, industrial psychology, and social psychology of personality and development. Research is conducted both in experimental laboratories (where variables are typically used) and in real-world settings such as classrooms, workplaces, or sports fields.

The task is to explain and predict any behavior associated in one way or another with the ability principle. Examples of goal strivings are ubiquitous in life and present in many different situations. For example, a gardener striving to grow the perfect orchid, a teenager who wants to become a good communicator, or an elderly person concerned about the gradual loss of his abilities.

Over time, numerous steps have been taken in attempts to understand what achievement motivation is. Among them, it is worth highlighting:

The desire for success. The level of efficiency we want or don't want to achieve. Research by Kurt Lewin and Ferdinand Hoppe
Needs and motives. General, emotional predisposition to success and failure. Research by David McClelland and John Atkinson
Anxiety testing. Anxiety and nervousness as a possible influence on the quality of work. Research by Charles Spielberger and Martin Covington
Functionality in achieving goals. Ideas about the reasons for positive and negative results. Research by Bernard Weiner and Heinz Heckhausen
Goals to achieve. Ideas about the successes or failures that people strive to achieve or avoid. Research by Carol Dweck and John Nichols
Implicit theories of ability. Exploring the nature of competence and ability. Research by Carol Dweck and Robert Sternberg
Presumed knowledge. Understanding what can and cannot be achieved. Research by Albert Bandura and Susan Harter.
Appreciating the importance of success or avoiding failure. Research by Jacqueline Eccles, Judy Harakiewicz

Many scholars have focused on one of the above factors in their work, while others have sought to integrate two or more of these dimensions into an overall conceptual framework.

Formula for successful results:

U = C*M*St;

Where U is success, S is ability, M is motive, St is situation (favorable or unfavorable environment for development). Using the formula, the further chance of achieving goals is determined.

Motivation to achieve success plays a major role; a person with a highly developed desire works harder, which is noticed by managers during interviews, coaches when recruiting a team, and teachers. The motivation for achieving success and avoiding failure are different - timely identification helps self-development.

WHAT MOTIVATES PEOPLE TO WORK?

When it comes to business, then, as a rule, the main motivating factor that is of decisive importance is not the receipt of monetary profit itself, but what it can be spent on. Therefore, first, try, using motivating words, to describe in detail on a piece of paper everything that you want to receive after the goal is achieved.

Direct your thoughts exclusively in a positive direction and sooner or later you will succeed and your dreams will materialize. Sometimes motivation can fade, especially before a large amount of work. This turn of events shouldn’t be scary, you just need to break the task ahead of you into small steps, and use motivating phrases when planning your work.

At the same time, for every small victory, for every completed stage, assign yourself a reward. Soon this process will captivate you so much that no trace of apathy will remain.

Achieving success usually follows a spiral principle:

1st turn: the more we do THIS, the better we get at it; the better we do, the more we like IT; the more we like IT, the more often we do IT;
Round 2: the more often we do THIS, the better we get at it; the better we do, the more we like IT; the more we like IT, the more often we do IT;
3rd turn and subsequent ones: see 2nd turn.

To better motivate yourself to action and work, marketing psychology experts advise switching your attention to getting results, that is, using so-called achievement strategies.

The first way: motivation to achieve success. You need to imagine what you want to get in the end: how you want to look, how you want to feel, how much to earn, what to do, what your home and car will look like. Properly compiled and selected motivational pictures for business will help you visualize all these images.

The second way: avoiding failures. You need to try to prevent what you don’t want from happening, to avoid undesirable results. This is called using an avoidance strategy, which draws attention to dangers and unpleasant moments that need to be avoided. They make us shake ourselves up and feel the sporting anger - this is exactly what you need to build a strategy for your success.

Main differences

There are two main types - motivation to achieve success and avoid failure.

Achieving success	Avoiding Failure
Clear focus on success	Success is unimportant
Correct assessment of opportunities	Inability to calculate strength
Setting realistic goals	Setting goals that are too easy or too difficult
Healthy self-esteem	High or low self-esteem
Understanding the importance of failure	Fear of failure
Joy to a new activity	Fear of unknown activities
Perseverance, maximum use of resources	Lack of persistence, taking only shortcuts
Optimistic view	Pessimistic view

If you are motivated to avoid failures and have no desire to achieve success, you should think about it. Special Ehlers tests will help determine your level of aspiration.

Motivation “to succeed” and motivation “to avoid failure” in the context of positive psychology

The prevailing motives influence the success of each person. From the point of view of the founders of “positive psychology,” each individual needs to form positive motivation in his mind in an area of activity that is especially important to him. This approach should not be understood as the ultimate truth, because it is important to take into account the individual characteristics of each individual and, if necessary, transform them into a positive result. In accordance with individual characteristics, each individual changes his attitude towards the dispositions at the basis of his motives and chooses the desired strategy of behavior. This is the gradual development of a “results” orientation, which radically influences the remaining basic competencies in solving life problems, allowing the individual to break out of the vicious circle of fear of failure. As a result, the individual develops a positive outlook on the surrounding reality.

Key words:
psychophysiological characteristics, abilities, prevailing motives, motivation, activity, adaptation, result orientation, basic competencies for solving life problems, epiphenomena, emotional intelligence, biological motivation, social motivation.
The problem of motivation and motives for behavior and activity aimed at a positive result is one of the central problems in psychology and remains relevant at the present time. Activity, according to the domestic psychologist A. N. Leontyev, is the basis of personality and occupies a very important place in a person’s life. And at the heart of any voluntary activity is motivation. Therefore, it is necessary to study all processes and phenomena associated with activity, including motivation, since the success of any activity depends on it [1].

Motivation can be defined as a set of factors that support and guide behavior, as well as a set of psychological reasons that explain human behavior, its beginning, direction and activity.

In various literary sources and Internet resources, the following types of motivation are distinguished: external and internal; stable and unstable; positive and negative. Positive and negative motivations are motivations to achieve success and avoid failure. These motives are the predominant motives. [6]

When diagnosing a personality to identify motivation for success and motivation to avoid failure, T. Ehlers gives an interpretation of the prevailing motives:

Individuals who are highly motivated to succeed prefer a medium or low level of risk. They tend to avoid high risks. With a strong motivation for success, their hopes for success are usually more modest than with a weak motivation for success, but they work hard to achieve success and strive for success. Individuals with a low level of motivation for success show self-doubt and are burdened by the work they do. Performing difficult tasks causes them discomfort [3].
Individuals who are dominated by the motive of avoiding failure prefer small, or, conversely, excessively large risks, where failure does not threaten prestige. They tend to have a high level of defense and fear of accidents. And they get into similar troubles more often. The dominance of a person’s motive for avoiding failure leads to a low self-esteem and level of aspirations. Repeated failures can lead such a person into a state of habitual depression, a steady decrease in self-confidence and a chronic fear of failure. Such people, as a rule, have a low level of development of achievement motivation [3].

In our opinion, it is advisable to diagnose the prevailing motives of students using the methods developed by T. Ehlers, because educational motivation, like any other type, is characterized by direction, stability, dynamism and consistency.

As a second diagnostic tool, it is advisable to use the methodology of O. F. Potemkina “Methodology for diagnosing socio-psychological attitudes of an individual in the motivational-need sphere, aimed at “altruism-egoism”, “process-result” [3]. This technique will help to identify the prevailing value orientations (for example, result orientation or process orientation). These value orientations influence the formation of prevailing motives and make the most reliable explanation for the dominance of certain prevailing motives in an individual.

Motives for achieving success and avoiding failure, supporting and guiding the behavior of an individual, influence his success in his activities and are found in all individuals. Psychodiagnostic study of these motives makes it possible to direct human activity towards the most successful implementation. In this regard, the problem of diagnosing these motives both at student age and at the stages of professionalization seems promising to us. After all, any person, if he wishes to take any position in life, can overcome his fears in the area in which he wants to succeed, thereby learning to change negative motivation to positive. Of course, to understand the internal motive and develop a strategy of behavior, as Arthur Schopenhauer wrote, long-term internal work is required. It is assumed that an individual’s attitude towards certain aspects of his life will change [5].

In the context of the works of a number of foreign authors of new directions, it is said that it is necessary to navigate in which areas of activity you can successfully apply your abilities, based on individual psychophysiological characteristics, in order to be happier with the abilities that God and nature have awarded you! For example, on this issue, the author of the book “New Positive Psychology” M. Seligman writes: “I came to the conclusion that if our route does not lie across sunny seas, it is unlikely that we will be able to change anything, trying to become happier. What we can do, and this is what I do, is to embrace the cold climate and stay firmly committed to positive efficiency ,
for it can give us many amazing sensations
. Therefore, it is necessary to work on your motives and rationally manage your own attitude towards the dispositions (interests, incentives, external factors, etc.) that underlie the formation of these motives. Understanding the motive requires long-term internal work on yourself! Seligman writes that you need to be self-confident in life - confidently make decisions commensurate with your abilities and capabilities, heading towards creation. And if these efforts do not cause overstrain or discomfort in the individual, and the results become useful for others, then the individual usually receives joy and satisfaction from his activities [4].

Analyzing the above, we can suggest that by carrying out internal work on oneself to understand one’s motives, one can adapt to any problem, come to terms with any state of affairs and “firmly steer a course toward positive effectiveness.”

[4] However, Seligman provides the opportunity for a multi-polar consideration of the issue, taking into account each person’s view of life.
After all, “adapt to the problem” sometimes does not mean that you need to adapt to everything that happens around you, but, first of all, you need to adapt to the way of solving a complex problem. In this case, adaptation to the upcoming struggle, which is, first of all, internal, is assumed. Then we are talking about that same intrapersonal work to understand one’s motives, taking into account the individual’s own characteristics. It is “thanks to the psychophysiological characteristics of being uncheerful, for example, that one can benefit from in the “struggle for survival.” This is genetically inherent in nature, as Seligman
[4].

In our case, intrapersonal work is understood as switching the motive of “avoiding failures” to the motive of “success”, based on the abilities the individual already has. This will increase the “results” orientation and will affect the other basic competencies for solving life problems developed at Harvard: initiative, taking responsibility, result orientation, communication skills, organization, the ability to influence others, the ability to coordinate interests [7].

For students whose dominant motive is “avoiding failure,” it is very important to find an area of activity where they can apply their psychophysiological inclinations in modern life, transforming them into a positive result.

A positive outlook on the world can be formed if, retelling Seligman’s opinion, you learn to change your attitude to what is happening and, in accordance with this, mobilize yourself for change, because positive feelings are not epiphenomena (indicators) from the point of view of behaviorism, but, on the contrary, are engines of activity on paths to success. Believing in one’s personal potential, an individual’s performance, as a rule, increases [4]. And this benefits him and those around him. Indeed, in modern reality, not only IQ is very important, but also emotional intelligence (EQ), which is also the basic competence for solving life problems.

Speaking about interaction with people around us through the internal work of understanding one’s motives and building a positive outlook on the world in order to find one’s place in it, we are dealing with the transition from biological motivation to social motivation. Its highest manifestations are: motivation for the development of society and motivation for the preservation of society, i.e. moral. The development of social motivation on a biological basis is associated with the evolution and historical development of society!

Literature:

Leontyev A. N. Activity, consciousness, personality. - M., 1982 (1975).
Markova A.K. et al. Formation of learning motivation: A book for teachers. - M., 1990.
Raigorodsky D. Ya. (editor-compiler) Practical psychodiagnostics. Methods and tests. Tutorial. – Samara: Publishing house “BAKHRAH – M”, 2008. – 672 p.
Seligman Martin E.P. New positive psychology: A scientific view of happiness and the meaning of life / Transl. from English - M.: Sofia Publishing House, 2006. - 368 p.
Schopenhauer A. “On the will in nature,” 1835.
Internet resource: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CC%EE%
Internet resource: https://www.mggu-sh.ru/interview/04-03-11/zhiznennaya-navigatsiya

Level up

To level up you need:

Think about the successful outcome of the business started;
Don't compare yourself;
Notice even small results of your own, keep a diary;
Read biographies of successful individuals, notice similar difficulties;
Limit your social circle, give preference to optimistic people;
Study psychology, watch relevant films and videos.
Participate in various trainings and webinars. Study the biography of a potential coach, read reviews.

The ability to plan is an important development factor

Analysis of achievement motivation in the process of professional and psychological personnel selection

Poteryakhin Alexander HR directory

Psychologists have come to the conclusion that people have two opposing motivational tendencies - the desire to succeed and the desire to avoid failure. Information about a person’s motives allows, in the process of professional and psychological selection of personnel, to predict a person’s activity at the proposed place of work. Diagnosis and assessment of the achievement motive are especially important here.

Studying personality motives, Harvard University psychology professor David MacClelland and University of Michigan psychology professor John Atkinson came to the conclusion that people have two opposing motivational tendencies - the desire for success (the achievement motive ) and the desire to avoid failure. ( avoidance motive ). At the same time, some people are dominated by the desire for success, high performance results, while others are dominated by the desire to avoid failure. Scientists associate the formation of these trends with the conditions for the development and upbringing of a child in the family. High achievement motivation in children is formed only in those families where parents constantly increased their demands on children, at the same time unobtrusively helping and supporting, and were also warm in their communication with them. In families where parents were either indifferent to their children or too strict with them, the children, as a rule, became dominant in their desire to avoid failure.

The achievement motive, being a personal characteristic, is inherent to some to a greater extent, to others to a lesser extent. To find out the importance for an individual of achieving success in professional activity, psychologists recommend asking the following questions during the interview process:

How important is success in this line of work to you?
Do you tend to work hard and persistently to achieve your goal?
Do you expect high performance results, do you believe in success?

However, due to the natural desire of the candidate to make a positive impression, such questions can lead to socially desirable answers (“Are you inclined to work hard and persistently?” - “Yes, I am inclined...”). Therefore, questions must be formulated in such a way that the answers to them, directly or indirectly, reveal a person’s true desire to achieve high results in his activities.

The presence of an achievement motive is evidenced, for example, by the choice of more complex tasks and the desire to complete them, the desire to improve one’s skills, and improve professional qualifications.

In his book Action Motivation: Delight Is Contagious, German business consultant Klaus Kobjoll gives an interesting example illustrating the level of achievement motivation. In one of the department stores in New York, executive employees were always looked for outside. They did not ask their own employees if they were interested in taking up these positions. When the employees were outraged, the department store management offered them training: free of charge, for a year, twice a week after finishing work, to attend one-and-a-half hour classes taught by the best instructors in New York. And after training, they were given the opportunity for promotion and appointment to leadership positions. And what was the result? Only three percent of employees applying for management positions expressed a desire to learn! But it was precisely these three percent of applicants who had a fairly high motivation to achieve.

We can assume the presence of achievement motivation if colleagues from previous jobs say about a candidate for a vacant position that he:

persistent in achieving goals;
is not satisfied with the result obtained, but strives for more;
strives to do any work better than before;
devotes a lot of time to professional activities, often discusses with colleagues topics related to solving professional problems;
rejoices at success, having achieved high results;
not content with simple tasks and easily accessible goals;
tends to get carried away with work, achieving new goals.

The achievement motive is a relatively stable personal quality, but in order to predict the activity of a future employee in a specific professional field, one must take into account that it encourages a person to achieve high results only in interaction with such situational factors as the value of achieving success and a subjective assessment of the likelihood (chances) of it achievements (see diagram). Therefore, it is obvious that in the process of professional and psychological selection of personnel, especially for positions that involve managing people, it is necessary to study other components of achievement motivation.

An individual’s assessment of his chances of success (expectation of success) significantly influences motivation for professional activity. The more a person believes in success, the more effort he is inclined to make to achieve his goals. The following factors influence the expectation of success are identified:

subjective assessment of one’s abilities, which is formed on the basis of successes and failures in the past;
subjective perception of the degree of difficulty of the task;
the belief that success depends on the effort expended.

The candidate's assessment of his or her abilities may be the subject of examination during the interview process. To do this, the candidate must be asked a number of direct and indirect questions regarding past successes:

What successes did you achieve in your previous job?
What abilities have had a decisive influence on your success?
What knowledge and skills do you consider as your personal resource in achieving your goals?
What made you effective... (in a particular situation; when solving a specific problem)?

The successes achieved in the past form confidence in one’s own strength and self-efficacy. Failures in the past destroy this faith. You can also find out whether an applicant for a vacant position is confident in his effectiveness by discussing his difficulties and failures in the past:

What difficulties have you encountered...?
Did you manage to overcome them, if so, how and thanks to what?
What events in your life (professional activity) do you consider as failure?
How did you cope with failure? What helped you with this?

Another element in the motivation scheme (see diagram) is the subjective value of success , which determines the motivation for achievement (the desire for success). The importance a person attaches to achievements in a certain area determines how intensively he will work in that particular area. It is also worth finding out how the applicant imagines his activities in a new place of work, what kind of success he can achieve, what personal meaning this success has for him, how valuable it is for him, etc.

So far we have talked about studying achievement motivation in conversation and interviews. At the same time, the method of content analysis of the applicant’s speech (oral and written) is also quite effective. For this purpose, his speech highlights concepts, judgments, and statements that indicate that a person has a motive for achieving success. Thus, the presence of achievement motivation is evidenced by positively worded statements that do not express fear or uncertainty regarding the possibility of achieving a goal, but on the contrary, the desire to achieve success is manifested (“I want”, “I plan”, “I strive”, etc.):

I want to complete this task (solve a problem, achieve something)…
I strive to improve (increase, improve) results...
Success inspires, adds strength, increases the desire to work...
I will be happy to complete this task (I will perform these functions, I will take on solving this problem)…
I tried (sought) to complete this task as best as possible...
I’m working on a new idea, I hope everything works out...
I want to complete this work...

In the process of analyzing the speech of an applicant for a vacant position, these statements should be distinguished from those that do not indicate motivation for achievement if:

a) positively formulated intentions, desires or hopes are supplemented by a statement that relates to the desire to avoid failure (for example: “I hope I did it correctly, otherwise I would have to redo it”); b) an intention is expressed aimed at performing non-essential activities; c) intentions and desires are expressed aimed at finishing work as soon as possible and freeing oneself from it.

To assess the achievement motive, a number of psychodiagnostic techniques (tests, questionnaires) have been developed. Some of the simplest tests are “Motivation for success”, “Motivation to avoid failure”, “Motivation for success and fear of failure” (Appendices 1–3). They can be used for the purposes of professional and psychological selection of personnel. However, it must be taken into account that they are not protected from socially desirable answers, which in some cases (perhaps always?) reduces the reliability of test results. Therefore, the data obtained using these tests must be compared with the information that we obtain during a conversation with the applicant, through observation during the probationary period, as well as using other methods of studying personality.

The famous Russian psychologist, director of the Institute of Applied Psychology Lyudmila Sobchik believes that high levels of achievement motivation are characteristic of excitable individuals who are prone to leadership, authoritarian, independent, persistent in achieving goals, prone to risk, aggressive and conflict-ridden in interpersonal contacts, with high self-esteem. On the contrary, high rates of motivation to avoid failure with low motivation to achieve are characteristic of anxious, insecure individuals with low self-esteem. A zero score for avoidance motivation with elevated scores for achievement motivation is found in individuals who are hasty in making decisions, “seeking recognition,” impulsive, self-affirming, careless, impetuous and over-emotional. Low indicators of achievement motivation are characteristic of individuals who are in depressive states and have neurotic disorders. They are also characteristic of individuals characterized by softness of character, traits of dependence, conformity and pessimism.

It should be noted that not every profession requires high achievement motivation. For example, the experience of studying the characteristics of the professional activity of a bodyguard indicates that the success of this activity is not related to achievement motivation and even requires a certain level of motivation to avoid failure. Obviously, many other, less exotic professions, such as accountant, nurse, etc., do not require high achievement motivation.

How can you find out whether an applicant for a vacant position needs high achievement motivation or whether motivation to avoid failure is also acceptable? The easiest way is to analyze the professional profiles of the activity or position for which a person is applying. If in the professional profile we find personal qualities and abilities that are correlated with achievement motivation, then we can reasonably assume that the success of the activity depends on the level of such motivation.

Let's look at the simplest examples. In the book of Doctor of Psychological Sciences Evgenia Romanova “99 Popular Professions...” there is a professiogram “Racing driver”. In one of the sections of this professiogram we find the following quality that ensures the success of professional activity: the ability to take risks . Among the professionally important personal qualities in this professionogram also appear:

risk appetite;
the desire to win, the desire to be first;
desire to realize one's potential;
purposefulness, initiative.

In addition, in the same professional chart, among the qualities that hinder the effectiveness of activities, we find: fear of failure, lack of initiative . Consequently, the personality requirements and “contraindications” clearly indicate the need for high achievement motivation in an applicant for such a professional activity.

At the same time, looking at the “Archivist” professiogram, we find the following professionally important personal qualities: accuracy, pedantry, self-control, perseverance , etc. As we see, among these qualities there are none that are associated with achievement motivation. Therefore, for an applicant for this position, high achievement motivation is not necessary.

Moreover, in the professiogram “Secretary-referent”, among the qualities that impede the effectiveness of professional activity, we find: inability to work under subordination, a strong inclination to leadership, management . But as we have already noted, a tendency to lead is characteristic of people with high achievement motivation. Consequently, the presence of such motivation will hinder activity.

In the absence of a professiogram, it is possible to analyze the main functions that the future employee will perform, and on this basis draw a conclusion about the need for motivation to achieve. For example, the profession of a locomotive driver involves performing the following functions:

monitoring signals, the condition of the railway track and contact network, indicators of instrumentation along the route;
ensuring safety and compliance with train schedules;
execution of operational orders of employees responsible for train movement and maneuvers;
control over the safe boarding or disembarking of passengers;
control over the safety and timeliness of cargo delivery and the safety of passengers along the route.

As we can see, the professional activity of a locomotive driver does not imply a constant desire to achieve higher performance results, but is more associated with the pedantic, disciplined performance of certain “duty” duties. Therefore, success here is not related to the presence of a high achievement motivation in the applicant for this position.

Stimulation

Stimulation involves creating the most effective working conditions. Encouragement can be material or moral in nature. Natural incentives that encourage an employee to work are not enough for effective work. A special feature of employee incentives is their reliance on the standard level of labor. The employee is aware of the degree of responsibility, purpose, and penalties. The loss of material reward is expressed by partial payment of bonuses or complete deprivation.

Discipline is partly a method of coercion and restriction of personal freedom. The line between coercion and stimulation is conditional - an employee with developed responsibility is always disciplined. The employee performs assigned duties efficiently and conscientiously.

Incentive system

Monetary incentives. Earning money is a common goal for workers.
Social incentives include:

Decent conditions. Organization of the workplace, absence of extraneous sounds, moderate lighting, effective distribution of labor and rest;
The ability to replace monotonous activities with a creative process;
Availability of free time. Rest promotes productive work;
Good relationships within the team. The authority of the leader’s personality, the leader’s perception of the boss;
Opportunity for career growth.

3. Psychological stimulation is focused on accepting the employee as a multifaceted personality. The perception of an employee as a mechanism that performs a set of actions gives rise to negative consequences - lack of desire to work, dismissal.

Motivation to achieve success plays an important role in human activity. The study of its patterns and problems is a significant direction in psychology. This is due to the fairly high rates of development of modern society. In order to carry out an activity, a sufficient level of motivation is necessary. However, if the motivation is too strong, the level of activity and tension increases, which leads to certain disturbances in activity and behavior and work efficiency deteriorates. Thus, too high a level of motivation can cause negative emotional reactions - stress, anxiety, tension, which leads to deterioration in performance. Consequently, a very high level of motivation is not always the best [9, p. 119-125].

There are various needs in the human subconscious. These needs are transformed into motivation, which shapes human behavior, his externally observable form of activity [4].

The motivational sphere of a person is an integral system that develops throughout life, which has a hierarchy, is mobile and reflects the subject of the individual’s needs and state. Accordingly, the main relationships that describe the motivational sphere of the individual are the hierarchy of motives or motivations. The degree of their awareness, intensity and ability to control underlying impulses is of great importance [5].

Motivation to achieve success is the desire for success, high results in activities. G. Murray was the first to identify this type of motivation [10] and gave this term the following definition: “to cope with something difficult. Deal with, manipulate, or organize physical objects, people, or ideas. Do it as quickly and independently as possible. Overcome obstacles and reach a high level. Outdo yourself. Compete with and surpass others. Increase your self-esteem through the successful use of your abilities” [10].

Subsequently, the development of problems of achievement motivation was continued by many other psychologists. Thus, the American scientist D. McClelland believes that the need for achievement “is an unconscious motivation for more perfect action, for achieving a standard of perfection.” He identifies the distinctive characteristics of people with a pronounced achievement motivation:

a) priority of work under conditions of maximum stimulation of the achievement motive, i.e. solve problems of medium complexity;

b) achievement motivation does not always lead to higher results compared to others, and high results are not always a consequence of an actualized achievement motive;

c) accepting personal responsibility for the performance of any activity. There is a condition: situations of low or moderate risk, as well as if success does not depend on chance;

d) preference for adequate feedback on the results of one’s activities;

e) the desire to find more effective new ways of performing tasks, i.e. such people are more prone to innovation [7].

Other ideas about achievement motivation are developed by the German psychologist H. Heckhausen [8]. According to him, achievement motivation is “an attempt to increase or maintain as high as possible a person’s abilities in all activities to which criteria of success can be applied and where the performance of such activities can, therefore, lead to either success or failure.” He also identifies the hallmarks of achievement motivation. The very idea of achieving anything involves two possibilities: to succeed or to fail. People with high motivation have a more pronounced orientation towards achieving success. Achievement motivation occurs when an activity offers opportunities for improvement. The tasks should be of medium difficulty. Also, achievement motivation is always goal-oriented, towards a specific end result. At the same time, constant revision of goals is inherent in motivating achievement. For subjects with high achievement motivation, it is typical to return to previously interrupted tasks and bring them to completion [8].

In Russian psychology, one of the most significant authors on the issue of motivation is the representative of the activity approach A.N. Leontyev. He writes that “in modern psychology in general, a motive is everything that constitutes the so-called internal forces of behavior that actualizes human activity.” The motive itself gives the following definition: “it is objective, which motivates and directs activity, responding to one or another need, specifying a need or, naturally, satisfying needs” [5]. Motives that perform a meaning-forming function are leading in diverse human activities. They occupy a central position, are most often manifested in behavior and are of greatest importance for personality development. In this case, secondary or subordinate motives have the function of motivation [4].

THAT. Gordeeva understands achievement motivation as motivation for achievement activities. Achievement activity is an activity that is associated with the purposeful transformation of oneself, other people, relationships, and subjects of the surrounding world. Such activity “is motivated by the desire to do something as best and/or quickly as possible, to make progress, which is backed by basic human needs for achievement, growth and self-improvement” [1].

In Russian psychology, achievement motivation is also studied by M.Sh. Magomed-Eminov [6]. He defines achievement motivation as a functional system of integrated affective and cognitive processes that regulate the process of activity in an achievement situation throughout the course of its implementation. It is possible to indicate special structural components that perform specific functions in the process of motivational regulation of activity. This is motivation: actualization, i.e. initiation and stimulation of activities; selection - the processes of selecting a goal and determining the actions corresponding to it; implementation - regulation of the execution of an action and control over the implementation of any intention; post-implementation, i.e. we are talking about processes aimed at terminating an action or changing one specific action to another [6].

The motive of avoiding failure implies a person’s need in any situation to act in such a way as to avoid failure, especially in cases where the results of his activities are perceived and evaluated by other people [2].

Subjects whose motivation and activity are focused on avoiding failure behave differently. Their expressed goal in activity is not to achieve success, but to avoid failure. All their thoughts and actions are for the most part subordinated to this very goal. A subject who is initially motivated to fail most often shows self-doubt, also does not believe in the possibility of achieving success and is afraid of criticism. When solving certain problems, especially those where there is a possibility of failure, such a person usually has negative emotional experiences. He does not enjoy such activities and is burdened by them. Subjects focused on achieving success are able to more correctly assess their capabilities, successes, and failures. They usually choose specialties that match their knowledge, skills and abilities. People who focus on failure, on the contrary, are often defined by inadequacy of professional self-determination. They preferably choose either very easy or very difficult types of professions. At the same time, they often do not pay attention to objective information about their abilities; they also have low or high self-esteem and an unrealistic level of aspirations. People who are motivated and success-oriented are more persistent in achieving their goals. When faced with very easy and very difficult tasks, they behave differently than those who are motivated to fail. When the motivation to achieve success prevails, a person prefers tasks of average or slightly higher difficulty. In cases where the motivation to avoid failure predominates, a person chooses tasks that are the easiest or most difficult. For an individual who strives for success in any activity, the attractiveness and interest in solving a certain task only increases after unsuccessful actions. But a person who is focused on failure will approach such a task with much less interest; the interest itself may disappear. People who are initially determined to achieve success often achieve better results after an unsuccessful attempt. But those subjects who were set up for failure from the beginning, on the contrary, achieve higher results only after success. A goal that is distant in time can largely stimulate the activity of a person who has a developed motive for achieving success, as opposed to people with a pronounced motivation to avoid failure.

In addition, there are certain differences in the interpretation of their personal successes and failures by individuals with a strong motivation to achieve success and avoid failure. People who strive for success attribute their achievements and merits to intrapersonal factors, i.e. their efforts, perseverance, abilities, and unsuccessful deeds are usually attributed to some random coincidence of circumstances, bad luck. People who avoid failure most often tend to determine their success by external factors, i.e. luck, difficulty or ease of a certain task, but in case of unsuccessful completion of the task, they come to analyze their own abilities. Also, subjects who have a fairly strong motive to avoid failure usually tend to underestimate their potential - they can quickly become upset when they fail and lower their self-esteem. On the contrary, success-oriented subjects often behave completely differently - they usually correctly, adequately assess their capabilities and abilities, concentrate in the event of failures and do not become discouraged or upset [3].

To summarize, we can say that motivation to achieve success is understood as a force that causes a person to take certain actions that, based on his expectations, can lead to success. This is manifested in a certain focus, intensity and persistence of activity. The motivation to avoid failures is understood as a developed mechanism for avoiding various mistakes and failures; those. For a person motivated to fail, the most important thing is not to make mistakes, sometimes even at the cost of transforming the original significant goal, its complete or partial failure to achieve. The desire for success indicates that a person has strong volitional qualities, while the predominance of the motive of avoiding failure defines the individual as inactive. Thus, motivation to achieve success is positive and contributes to a person’s personal development.