Résumé
Introduction Achievement goals are theorized as complex systems that integrate goal-‐related information that fosters competence expectancies and perceptions of benefit and threat for the self (Gernigon, 2013; Gernigon, Vallacher, & Nowak, 2012). Approach and avoidance behaviors that emerge from this integration can be conceptualized as two competing fixed-‐point attractors whose shape can account for typical characteristics of goal involvement such as resistance, oscillation between approach and avoidance, and reversal.ObjectivesThis communication aims to present (a) an integrative model of approach/avoidance involvement in achievement contexts, based on the nonlinear dynamical systems theory, and (b) first pieces of evidence of the relevance of this model that were yielded by two recent studies.MethodThe shape of the landscape of approach and avoidance attractors is described by a potential function wherein a control parameter, k, results from the combination of competence expectancies, benefit for the self, and threat for the self. A first study (Gernigon, Klosek, & Montigny, 2014) compared the predictive properties of kwith those of Elliot and Murayama’s (2008) four-‐goal framework with respect to students’ self-‐determined motivation and achievement in sport sciences studies. A second study (Riou, Boiché, Ninot, & Gernigon, 2014) tested whether the value of kassociated with the perspective of having to carry out a series of specific motor tasks predicts ageing people’s involvement in regular physical activity.ResultsThe first study showed that the control parameter kand mastery-‐approach goals predicted students’ self-‐determination for sport sciences studies, whereas kwas the only predictor of their achievement. The second study showed that kwas the best predictor of ageing people’s involvement in physical activity.ConclusionBeyond these first empirical supports to Gernigon etal.’s model, the dynamical part of this model remains to be tested through the variations of kover time