Nicholls' (1984) achievement goal theory is based on developmental ideas regarding how young people move through a temporal process whereby the concept of ability is gradually differentiated from effort, task difficulty, and luck. From: The Power of Groups in Youth Sport, 2020.

aconceptualization of motivation that identifies two types of achievement goals, task-oriented (see task orientation) and ego-oriented (see ego orientation), and that relates these to differences in individuals' perceived ability for the task and their achievement behavior.

AGT identifies two major factors that will determine the motivation levels of an athlete. These factors are an athlete's goal orientation (i.e., task-orientation and ego-orientation) and the motivational climate you create (i.e., mastery or performance climate).

The dichotomous model of achievement goals emphasizes two primary definitions of competence. Task goals emphasize learning and improving, whereas ego goals emphasize outperforming others. Task and ego goals have also been referred to as mastery–learning and performance–competitive goals, respectively.

The 3 × 2 Achievement Goal Questionnaire (Elliot et al., 2011) was used to measure the self-, task-, and other-approach and the self-, task-, and other-avoidance goals. All six subscales of this questionnaire were used to measure students' six types of achievement goals, with each subscale consisting of three items.

Four types of achievement goals are acknowledged: mastery-approach, master-avoidance, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance.