Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

FIGURE 4
Ways to burn 150 calories: People can expend 150 calories by spending more time 
at a less vigorous activity or spending less time at a more vigorous activity. 
(Source: Surgeon 
General Report, 1996.)
Activity
Duration
Less Vigorous,
More Time
More Vigorous,
Less Time
Washing and waxing a car 
Washing windows or floors 
Playing volleyball
Playing touch football
Gardening 
Wheeling self in wheelchair 
Walking 1¾ miles 
Basketball (shooting baskets) 
Bicycling 5 miles
Dancing fast (social)
Pushing a stroller 1½ miles
Raking leaves
Walking 2 miles
Water aerobics
Swimming laps
Wheelchair basketball
Basketball (playing a game)
Bicycling 4 miles
Jumping rope
Running 1½ miles
Shoveling snow
Stairwalking
45–60 minutes
45–60 minutes
45 minutes
30–45 minutes
30–45 minutes
30–40 minutes
35 minutes (20 min/mile)
30 minutes
30 minutes
30 minutes
30 minutes
30 minutes
30 minutes (15 min/mile)
30 minutes
20 minutes
20 minutes
15–20 minutes
15 minutes
15 minutes 
15 minutes (10 min/mile)
15 minutes
15 minutes
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The Need for Achievement: 
Striving for Success
Although hunger may be one of the more potent primary drives in our day-to-day 
lives, powerful secondary drives that have no clear biological basis also motivate us. 
Among the more prominent of these is the need for achievement. 
The  need for achievement  is a stable, learned characteristic in which a person 
obtains satisfaction by striving for and attaining a level of excellence (McClelland et 
al., 1953). People with a high need for achievement seek out situations in which they 
can compete against some standard—such as grades, money, or winning a game—
and prove themselves successful. But they are not indiscriminate when it comes to 
picking their challenges: They tend to avoid situations in which success will come 
too easily (which would be unchallenging) and situations in which success is unlikely. 
Instead, people high in achievement motivation generally choose tasks that are of 
intermediate diffi culty (Speirs-Neumeister & Finch, 2006).
In contrast, people with low achievement motivation tend to be motivated 
primarily by a desire to avoid failure. As a result, they seek out easy tasks so they 
are sure to avoid failure, or they seek out very diffi cult tasks for which failure has 
no negative implications because almost anyone would fail at them. People with a 
high fear of failure will stay away from tasks of intermediate diffi culty because 
they may fail where others have been successful (Martin & Marsh, 2002; Puca, 2005; 
Morrone & Pintrich, 2006). 
A high need for achievement generally produces positive outcomes, at least in a 
success-oriented culture such as Western society. For instance, people motivated by a 
high need for achievement are more likely to attend college than their low-achievement 
counterparts; once they are in college, they tend to receive higher grades in classes that 
are related to their future careers. Furthermore, high achievement motivation indicates 
future economic and occupational success (McClelland, 1985; Thrash & Elliot, 2002).