A VALIDITY STUDY OF A SCALE TO MEASURE ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION

Abstract

An objective measure for assessment of achievement motivation conceived as a resultant tendency of the tendencies to achieve success and avoid failure was developed for students of junior and senior high schools and a college, and the relationships of achievement motivation with students performance of 3 tasks of anagram which varied in difficulty (easy, moderate, and hard) were examined for junior high school pupils. Main results obtained were as follows; (1) Factor structures of achievement motivation tended to change from unidimensional to multidimensional through development from junior high school age to college age. (2) Although positive relations were obtained, on the whole, between achievement motivations and task performances, some exceptional results which somewhat fitted with Yerkes-Dodson law were shown in S with the highest motivation on the intermediate task. (3) In Ss with moderately high motivations, results consistent with Atkinson's theory on the relationship between performances and task difficulties were obtained. © 1974, The Japanese Psychological Association. All rights reserved.