This CAREER project will develop a framework to guide researchers in analyzing, developing, and refining psychological theories to effectively incorporate engineering ways of knowing. The framework will help develop new knowledge based on a more robust understanding of engineering students in higher education. Theories are a crucial part of research projects; they help drive the questions we ask, the methods we use, and the conclusions we draw. They provide a roadmap to guide the data analysis and interpretation and position researchers within a body of existing knowledge. Traditional psychological theories often take a generalized approach to human motivation, overlooking the specificities of engineering contexts. The research outcomes include (1) a responsive understanding of engineering students’ achievement goal pursuits and their impact on academic outcomes and (2) a new evidence-based responsive survey instrument manual. Achievement goal theory (AGT) will be used as a case study to help develop and refine the processes needed to create the reimagining guiding framework. This project will employ qualitative research methods which use collected data to develop new theories (known as a "grounded theory approach") to uncover relevant achievement goals specific to the lived experiences of engineering students. This project will answer the following research questions: When using a grounded theory approach to reimagine AGT, what context-specific achievement goals emerge