Achievement is undoubtedly the most thoroughly studied motive. It was first identified in Henry A. Murray's list of “psychogenic” needs as “n(eed) Achievement,” and described in the following terms:

Murray can also be considered a pioneer of achievement-motivation research in another respect, namely, as the author of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, and Lowell (1953) later developed this instrument into one of the best known and most frequently used procedures for measuring people's underlying motives. In their ground-breaking monograph The Achievement Motive, McClelland and associates (1953) defined achievement motivation as follows:

This definition allows a myriad of activities to be considered achievement motivated, the crucial point being a concern with doing those activities well, better than others, or best of all. The striving for excellence implies quality standards against which performance can be evaluated: people may compare their current performance with their own previous performance (“to excel oneself”), for instance, or with that of others (“to rival or surpass others”), as Murray had already specified (see above).