CogKnoSys

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Mental

Achievement Satisfaction

Achievement satisfaction is the sense of pride and fulfillment that comes from accomplishing something through your own effort.

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The idea

Achievement satisfaction is the good feeling that comes after you finish something hard, like solving a tough problem, learning a song or reaching a fitness goal. It is closely tied to pride, an emotion that comes from feeling secure about who you are, how you performed and what you have accomplished. Pride can grow from praise from others, from thinking back on your own work, or from a feeling of belonging.

Psychologists also study the drive that leads people to chase achievements in the first place. They call it the need for achievement, which is a person's desire for significant accomplishment, mastery of skills, control or high standards. The psychologist David McClelland popularized a way of measuring this need. People with a strong need for achievement tend to set challenging goals and enjoy getting better at something.

Pride can be healthy or unhealthy. In its healthy form, it means a reasonable sense of your worth and accomplishments, much like confidence or self-respect. In its unhealthy form, it becomes an unearned sense of your own value, closer to arrogance or vanity. Satisfaction that rests on real effort is the healthy kind, and it can encourage people to take on the next challenge.

Check yourself

Question 1 of 2

Which psychologist popularized a way to measure the need for achievement?

Pick one. The first pick counts.

Composition

what it's made of

  • Accomplishment — A goal reached or a task finished through effort.
  • Pride — The emotion of feeling secure about your performance and accomplishments.
  • Need for achievement — The desire for significant accomplishment, mastery of skills and high standards.
  • Recognition and reflection — Praise from others or thinking back on your own work, which can spark pride.

Connection

how it relates

Under Happiness and Joy

Related

  1. Flow Statestrength 60 of 100

    Working on a task that matches your skill can bring flow, and finishing it can bring a sense of achievement.

  2. Memory and Learningstrength 50 of 100

    Mastering a new skill through practice is a common source of a sense of achievement.

  3. Moral Philosophystrength 40 of 100

    Thinkers have long debated whether pride is a virtue or a vice.

Change

how and why it evolves

Past
Older religious thinking often treated pride as a vice, and some theologies count it among the seven deadly sins. In a 1958 study, the psychologist David McClelland concluded that people can be grouped into high achievers and low achievers.
Now
Today psychologists separate healthy pride, which is close to confidence and self-respect, from arrogance, and they study the need for achievement as a lasting personal drive.
Next
Schools and workplaces may keep exploring how to reward real effort and progress so that more people feel healthy pride in what they do.

Knowledge you can walk. Read the idea, then step up, across or down.

Achievement Satisfaction

Achievement satisfaction is the sense of pride and fulfillment that comes from accomplishing something through your own effort.

Learn, discuss, create, buy or invest

The idea

Achievement satisfaction is the good feeling that comes after you finish something hard, like solving a tough problem, learning a song or reaching a fitness goal. It is closely tied to pride, an emotion that comes from feeling secure about who you are, how you performed and what you have accomplished. Pride can grow from praise from others, from thinking back on your own work, or from a feeling of belonging.

Psychologists also study the drive that leads people to chase achievements in the first place. They call it the need for achievement, which is a person's desire for significant accomplishment, mastery of skills, control or high standards. The psychologist David McClelland popularized a way of measuring this need. People with a strong need for achievement tend to set challenging goals and enjoy getting better at something.

Pride can be healthy or unhealthy. In its healthy form, it means a reasonable sense of your worth and accomplishments, much like confidence or self-respect. In its unhealthy form, it becomes an unearned sense of your own value, closer to arrogance or vanity. Satisfaction that rests on real effort is the healthy kind, and it can encourage people to take on the next challenge.

Check yourself

2 quick questions, instant feedback.