THE BEGINNING

There are many individuals and events in this century that can lay claim to the beginnings of the scientific investigation of achievement motivation. We begin with a little known drama of great importance.

the players: Professor Kurt Lewin and his laboratory assistant, Ferdinand Hoppe.

the time: 1931–1932.

the place: A small laboratory at the University of Berlin.

Professor Lewin's laboratory was crowded with the research paraphernalia of his time, including an odd conveyor-belt device. This contraption allowed a series of pegs to move on circular rollers at a uniform rate of speed, much like a row of ducks in a shooting gallery. This unlikely apparatus would provide the key to the question of how, psychologically, humans define success and failure. There are few consistent yardsticks when it comes to judging whether a particular achievement is successful – certainly not in the same sense that we can objectively measure height, weight, or temperature. Success and failure mean different things to different people. The same accomplishment can elicit pride in one person and self-rebuke in another, giving rise to the truism that “one person's success is another person's failure.” For all the subjectivity involved, however, these judgments do proceed in lawful ways as Professor Lewin and Ferdinand Hoppe were to discover.