Abstract: The calculation of story drift and the specification of structural performance levels are major works to determine the target displacement in performance-based seismic design. Based on the characteristics of shear wall structures, the floor displacement is classified as destructive and nondestructive, and the story drift is classified as nominal and destructive considering the rigid body rotation of floor. The relationships among nominal story drift, destructive story drift and floor rotation are investigated, and the practical formulas to calculate the destructive story drift are derived. Based on the displacement profiles of shear wall structures, an improved method for calculating the story drift is presented. Next, the destructive story drift ratio is taken as the performance index of shear wall structures. Then, the performance levels of shear wall structure are quantified and the lateral deformation is controlled by two parameters: the destructive story drift ratio and the roof drift ratio. Finally, the determination method of target story drift of shear wall structures is presented, which can be used to estimate the target displacement profile in displacement-based seismic design.