Achievement goal orientation is about what you are really chasing when you take on a challenge — the kind of success that drives you. Andrew Elliot and Holly McGregor's validated 2 × 2 framework crosses two questions: do you define doing well by mastering the material and improving on your own past (a mastery goal) or by outperforming other people (a performance goal); and are you drawn toward attaining success (approach) or toward avoiding failure (avoidance)? The four combinations — mastery-approach, performance-approach, mastery-avoidance and performance-avoidance — describe distinct ways learners and achievers orient themselves, and they predict how people study, respond to setbacks and feel about their work. Achievement goals are about the goals you pursue, separate from your underlying mindset about whether ability is fixed or can grow.
The 2 × 2 achievement goal framework (Elliot & McGregor, 2001), operationalised by the Achievement Goal Questionnaire and its revision (Elliot & Murayama, 2008), is a validated model in educational and motivation psychology. It crosses how you define competence — by mastery (your own standard) or by performance (relative to others) — with valence — approach (pursuing success) or avoidance (preventing failure) — to give four goal orientations. It develops the earlier mastery-versus-performance goal distinction of Dweck, Nicholls and Ames, and is conceptually separate from implicit theories of ability (the fixed-vs-growth mindset). (2 × 2 Achievement Goal Framework (Elliot & McGregor, 2001))