A FOLLOW-UP STUDY ON ACHIEVEMENT-RELATED MOTIVATION AND BEHAVIOR

• Main Author: RATLIFF, ELYSE SUTHERLAND
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-1980
• Subjects: Psychology
• ISBN: 9798660702044

The stability, development, and construct validity of achievement-related motives were investigated in this follow-up study of 60 males and 54 females. Interview and projective data written to verbal cues were collected in 1978, seven years after Romer (1974) collected her data on these same subjects. Subjects were 9 to 16 years of age in 1972, and so were 15 to 23 years old when the present data collection began. These subjects represented less than half of those participating in Romer's (1974) study, and they were more achievement-oriented than were those in that early sample. The projective data were coded for achievement motivation, affiliation motivation, and fear of success. Test anxiety was measured by the Debilitating Anxiety Questionnaire. Interview data included information about the subject's family, high school experiences, peer relationships, and achievement-oriented attitudes and behaviors. Only test anxiety for males and fear of success for females were found to be stable across time. When subjects were classified into birth cohort groups, it was found that the earlier birth cohort of males (ages 13-17 in 1972 and 19-23 in 1978) showed greater motive stability. Males' motive scores were more stable from adolescence through adulthood than from childhood through adolescence and were more reliable than those of females. The main purpose of this study was to use sex differences in the development, operation, and meaning of different motives to help expand the theory of achievement motivation in general. The relationships found between the motives and scholastic achievement, career attitudes, and social orientation were viewed as indicators of construct validity. One clear result from this investigation was that achievement motivation has construct validity only for males, particularly the earliest birth cohort group of males. Achievement motivation scores were particularly helpful in predicting later attitudes and behavior in males. Test anxiety also showed evidence of construct validity for males, as did fear of success, but less so. Affiliation motivation, however, related to the behavior and attitudes only of females. Fear of success also related to the appropriate attitudes and behaviors of females. These results seemed to indicate that affiliative needs conflict with achievement desires in females, inhibiting their achievement-oriented behavior, as others (e.g., Hoffman, 1972; Horner, 1968) have suggested. While not tested formally, birth cohort effects were found for the motive results. Specifically, the earlier cohort group of males and females appear to be more traditional in their motive orientations than the later birth cohort groups. This suggests the impact of social change on motive dispositions. Relationships with parents also proved to be highly related to motive scores and the change in motives over time. In particular, the characteristics of a relationship with the same-sex parent seemed to influence the test anxiety, fear of success, and nAffiliation scores of males and females. This study showed the adolescence in the development of motives. Although it appeared that achievement motivation scores were not affected by adolescent experiences, adolescence seemed to alter other motivational dispositions.