Main Motivational Patterns

Motivational orientation takes three main forms: performance-avoidance, performance-approach, and mastery/learning. These greatly affect how individuals interact when learning a new skill, and how they manage new challenges.

Performance-Avoidance Orientation: Students with this orientation usually places high value on how they are perceived by others. While these students may have specific expertise in certain areas, they will perform below their skill level in order to protect their self view and others opinion of them. This thought process often boils down to the thought that "if I do not try no one can claim that I am bad at the activity." Students with this orientation will not feel bad about performing poorly because they know that they are not really trying and they will make this lack of effort obvious to their peers so they will not be judged if they fail. This information comes from the article attached to this activity. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BS76ZuQTqt6au1UHzsm7nj0KSVGTatt4/view.

Performance-Approach Orientation: Students with this orientation also usually place high value on how they are perceived by others.  This differs from Performance-Avoidance Orientation because these students feel motivated by being perceived as better than their peers. This motivation is not driven by the desire to learn a new skill, but by the desire to be seen as smarter or better than their peers. This information also came from the activity and attached article https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BS76ZuQTqt6au1UHzsm7nj0KSVGTatt4/view. 

Mastery/Learning Orientation:  Students with this orientation are motivated by mastery of new skills and learning new things. This greatly differs from Performance-Avoidance Orientation and Performance-Approach Orientation due to the fact that the motivation is largely internal rather than external. While the previous two orientations focus more on how other perceive them, students with Mastery/Learning orientations are motivated by the process of learning itself.  Outside factors matter much less with this orientation because the motivation is to learn and learning starts from a place of ignorance. People with this orientation are much more likely to take risks without fear of failure. To these individuals failure is a part of the learning process. This information came from this attached article:  https://learningandexperienceblog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/pintrich00.pdf  

Performance-Approach Orientation Example: Someone with this orientation would do everything that they can in order to get a better score than those around them. People with this orientation are much more likely to go for the highest score that they know that they can consistently get. This creates a mental block for going for higher numbers because they may fail, and this failure may bring their score lower than someone else's.  Thier main motivation is to be better than those around them.  https://learningandexperienceblog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/pintrich00.pdf  

Mastery/Learning Orientation Example: Someone with this orientation Will attempt to get the highest score physically possible without caring about weather or not they fail. They will go for the hole that is the most difficult and awards the most points because they want to grow better at the task at hand. They are far more likely to try over and over again after the fact in order to continue mastering this new skill. They are not being held back by worrying about how others perceived them, and they are not motivated by being better than their peers. They simply want to learn for the sake of learning.  https://learningandexperienceblog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/pintrich00.pdf