ABSTRACT
How do students’ attitudes about school and schoolwork affect their behavior? This is the question that has guided motivation research for decades. A positive attitude toward school and schoolwork refers to an inclination toward engaging in school-related activities, whereas a negative attitude refers to an orientation away from such engagement. Although the term attitudes has been used sparingly within this field, motivation researchers have often used various terminology to refer to students’ approach and avoidance motivational orientations. For example, researchers who defined motivation in terms of needs described the need for achievement as an approach form of motivation and the need to avoid failure as an avoidant form (Atkinson & Feather, 1966). More recent conceptualizations of motivation have adopted social-cognitive frameworks and have also described motivation as taking approach and avoidance forms. Elliot (2005) bifurcates achievement goals along the approach–avoidance dimension. Similarly, Molden and his colleagues have discussed promotion-focused and prevention-focused goals and achievement motivations (Molden, Lucas, Finkel, Kumashiro, & Rusbult, 2009; Molden & Miele, 2008).
