figure 11.3 Need for achievement People differ in achievement needs. Research shows that these differences affect their approach to challenges (Atkinson & Litwin, 1960). When playing a ring toss game and given the choice of how far away from the target to stand, people high in the need for achievement and low in the need to avoid failure looked for a challenge: They often stood moderately far from the target, a distance from which a skillful toss could succeed. People low in the need for achievement and high in the need to avoid failure, by contrast, avoided challenge. They often stood either very close to the target or so far away from it that no one would expect them to succeed.