Achievement motivation in fantasy and behavior.

"This study investigates the relationship of achievement fantasy to behavioral indices of achievement motivation. Conflicting views of this relationship have been presented… (which) have assumed that fantasy is a direct index of a generally expressed motive state… (and which have) conceptualized fantasy as an alternative, substitute channel for the expression of achievement motivation when behavioral channels are blocked." Analysis of achievement derived from life history data supported the 2nd formulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experimental arousal of achievement motivation in adolescent girls.

2 groups of female high school students (40 achievers and 40 underachievers, matched for IQ) were exposed to 2 experimental conditions (Neutral and Achievement Oriented) and 2 types of pictures (those depicting males and those depicting females). The overall effect of the experimental achievement arsousal conditions for all girls was nonsignificant. However, a highly significant 2nd-order interaction effect was obtained: the achievement motivation scores of achievers increased significantly in response to Achievement Oriented conditions when they produced stories to pictures of females but did not increase in response to pictures of males; by contrast, the achievement motivation scores of underachievers increased significantly in response to Achievement Oriented conditions when they produced stories to pictures of males but did not increase in response to pictures of females. (43 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Intentional" and "incidental" learning in human subjects: The role of instructions to learn and motivation.

This paper reviews research on the phenomenon of incidental (INC) learning with particular attention to differences in degree between the functional relations pertaining to INC and intentional (INT) learning. The nature of orienting instructions and resultant differential cue-producing responses are seen to be critical to the study of INC learning. The importance of studies dealing with properties of stimulus items is stressed and the differential cue-producing hypothesis examined in the light of research involving variations in motivational level. It is suggested that this conceptualization be extended to include theoretical formulations based on cue utilization as a function of motivation. Defining operational procedures are criticized for providing no clear distinction between INT and INC learning. (3 p. ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

EPPS n Achievement and verbal paired-associates learning.

"In the present study, performance on two lists of verbal paired-associates learning materials is used to examine the role of n Achievement as a possible drive variable… . Ss high in EPPS n Achievement demonstrated significant superiority over low n Achievers in… verbal learning situations." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

To Dispel Fantasies About Fantasy-Based Measures of Achievement Motivation.

This article reviews the literature on reliability of fantasy-based achievement motivation measures. Homogeneity estimates for such measures are suggested, and some illustrative applications to data are presented. Analysis of both published and unpublished data suggests that homogeneity reliability of these measures rarely exceeds .30 to .40. The use of achievement motive measures to predict school achievement is questioned on grounds of low reliability of the measures. Previous findings in this area are interpretable in terms of failure to control on IQ and/or productivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Within-grade changes in Korean girls' motivation and perceptions of the learning environment across domains and achievement levels.

This study tested whether students' motivation and perceptions of the learning environment changed significantly within the school year. Korean high school girls' (N = 375) perceptions of the performance goal structures in the environment increased significantly throughout the school year. The girls' personal achievement goals and task value demonstrated few significant within-grade changes, but their self-efficacy fluctuated significantly around examinations. Motivational beliefs were more stable than were perceptions of the environment. Nevertheless, the modified perceptions of the learning environment explained changes in motivation, justifying continued efforts to create a motivationally adaptive environment. Construct relations were consistent across different academic contexts. There was no evidence that low-achieving girls responded more negatively to the classroom performance goals than did their better-achieving peers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of motivation in verbal learning and performance.

"It is the major thesis of the present paper that the question as to whether a given variable acts as a motive or reflects a motivational state can be answered only in the context of explicit assumptions concerning the particular ways in which motivational variables can be differentiated from other variables in their influence on behavior. In view of the current confusions between the concepts of motivation and habit, it would appear to be particularly desirable to distinguish between the associative and nonassociative properties of variables." 57 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's autonomy and perceived control in learning: A model of motivation and achievement in Taiwan.

A model of motivation and achievement was tested with data from 50 teachers and 806 Grade 4-6 students in Taiwan. Autonomy as a construct was shown to have ecological validity in Chinese children. The proposed model fit the data well, showing that maternal involvement and autonomy support, as well as teachers' autonomy support, are important for children's autonomy and perceived control. Without the mediation of perceived control, autonomy had a small negative effect on performance; controlling for perceived control, external motivation orientation was a positive predictor for Chinese children's effort and performance. The teachers' reported motivating style, as construed in Western research, does not correspond with Chinese children's perceptions of their teachers nor does it have any relationship with their motivation measures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissonance, awareness, and motivation.

The problems were whether dissonance can be aroused between 2 cognitions without awareness of 1 of them and whether change in consummatory strength of a motive can be an avenue of dissonance reduction. 40 high school Ss were hypnotized to a depth adequate for assuring amnesia for suggestions. ? ate sauce that was very thirst arousing (HT), and ?, sauce that aroused little thirst (LT). Placed under hypnosis again, the 20 experimental Ss were told that, on awaking, they would feel water bloated, while the control Ss were told they would feel fatigued. Ss were awakened and offered water. HT experimental Ss drank less water than LT experimental Ss, the reverse of the control group effect (interaction p     

Disparity theory and achievement motivation.

This study tested hypotheses derived from Peak's disparity theory of motivation. Achievement motivation and disparity indices were obtained from 40 VA domiciliary members. The data supported the hypothesis that achievement motivation varies directly with the life goal-present status disparity when low and moderate disparity levels are considered. The hypothesis that motivational decline ensues when the disparity exceeds a certain magnitude could not be adequately tested in this study. The finding that the variability of the achievement-motivation scores increased significantly and the informal observation that the achievement motivation tended to decrease as the disparity exceeded a certain magnitude, however, suggested the motivational decline hypothesis as a fruitful prediction to be tested in future research. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Achievement themes and directionality of autokinetic movement.

"In three samples of college students, it was found that subjects with a low score on achievement orientation (from a brief TAT) indicated more often initial autokinetic movement to the right than subjects with high need for achievement. A tentative explanation was offered concerning the manner in which differences in achievement motivation might be translated into differences in the autokinetic measure." From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4HJ64F. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An integrative cultural view of achievement motivation: Parental and classroom predictors of children's goal orientations when learning mathematics in Korea.

Our goal was to identify how students' perceptions of their parents shape the kind and degree of motivational goal orientations that they adopt in their mathematics classroom, broadening the application of achievement goal orientation theory and self-determination theory to students in Korea. Two groups of students participated, one from a middle school located in a large metropolitan area and the other from a small city high school. Multisample path analysis of data from both groups revealed that Korean students' different goal orientations were predicted by their perceptions of parental goals and motivating styles and by their perceptions of classroom goal structures, mediated by different types of self-regulated motivations. Particularly interesting was the finding that Korean students' degree of mastery goal adoption was associated mostly with identified regulation, not with intrinsic motivation, and predicted by their perceptions of their parents' motivating styles, both autonomy supportive and controlling, in addition to perceptions of parents' mastery goals. Perceptions of classroom goals were stronger predictors of students' own goals than were perceptions of parents' goals and motivating styles. We offer an integration of self-determination theory and achievement goal theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relation of achievement motivation to problem-solving effectiveness.

"When a problem is related to achievement goals… . Subjects with high achievement motivation were more likely to reach a solution than those with low motivation… the actual solution time for those who solved was not different for the two motivation groups… . Other findings… are discussed and tentative interpretations are offered." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The stereotyped task engagement process: The role of interest and achievement motivation.

Competence-based stereotypes can negatively affect women's performance in math and science (referred to as stereotype threat), presumably leading to lower motivation. The authors examined the effects of stereotype threat on interest, a motivational path not necessarily mediated by performance. They predicted that working on a computer science task in the context of math-gender stereotypes would negatively affect undergraduate women's task interest, particularly for those higher in achievement motivation who were hypothesized to hold performance-avoidance goals in response to the threat. Compared with when the stereotype was nullified, while under stereotype threat an assigned performance-avoidance (vs. -approach) goal was associated with lower interest for women higher in achievement motivation (Study 1), and women higher (vs. lower) in achievement motivation were more likely to spontaneously adopt performance-avoidance goals (Study 2). The motivational influence of performance-avoidance goals under stereotype threat was primarily mediated by task absorption (Study 3). Implications for the stereotyped task engagement process (Smith, 2004) are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship of experimentally aroused achievement motivation to academic achievement anxiety.

180 Ss, balanced for sex, were administered the Achievement Anxiety Test (AAT) under experimental conditions producing either minimal or high arousal of achievement motivation. Regression of scholastic aptitude and AAT scores on grade-point average (GPA) showed both AAT scales accounting for the same variance in GPA. Analyses of variance of AAT scores showed no sex differences, but highly significant main effects for experimental condition and level of scholastic aptitude. It was concluded that test anxiety is a unidimensional construct, and that the AAT is a measure of anxiety aroused by stress cues present during test taking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special section on motivation and efficacy.

This article summarizes the research articles in this special section on motivation and efficacy. These articles stress the idea that motivation and efficacy are interacting mechanisms in views of educational achievement that include learner, social, and instructional variables. An initial sense of efficacy for performing well can motivate learners to act in ways that enhance performance. As students perceive their progress, their sense of efficacy is validated, which sustains motivation. The articles have been clustered around four themes: attributions, learning strategies, learner characteristics, and teacher efficacy. A suggested future research agenda includes models of achievement, student behaviors, and teaching processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Identification as a process of incidental learning.

If identification is a process of incidental learning, Ss should reflect greater adoption of behavior of individuals with whom they feel identified. Nursery school children were placed with an experimental model whose behavior they were to observe in a learning situation (correct choice of 1 of 2 boxes in which a reward had been hidden). Prior to observation-learning, the children were placed with their "model" in 1 of 2 playroom situations: model friendly/model cold. Children exposed to the model behaving in a friendly way patterned their behavior (both as to discrimination in the learning situation as well as marching and verbal) to a greater extent than those exposed to a pre-test "cold" model. Aggressive behavior was imitated with or without model "warmth." Results related to child development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychometric intelligence dissociates implicit and explicit learning.

The hypothesis that performance on implicit learning tasks is unrelated to psychometric intelligence was examined in a sample of 605 German pupils. Performance in artificial grammar learning, process control, and serial learning did not correlate with various measures of intelligence when participants were given standard implicit instructions. Under an explicit rule discovery instruction, however, a significant relationship between performance on the learning tasks and intelligence appeared. This finding provides support for Reber's hypothesis that implicit learning, in contrast to explicit learning, is independent of intelligence, and confirms thereby the distinction between the 2 modes of learning. However, because there were virtually no correlations among the 3 learning tasks, the assumption of a unitary ability of implicit learning was not supported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Autonomous motivation for teaching: How self-determined teaching may lead to self-determined learning.

This study examined teachers' experience of autonomous motivation for teaching and its correlates in teachers and students. It was hypothesized that teachers would perceive various motivations posited by E. L. Deci and R. M. Ryan's (2000) self-determination theory as falling along a continuum of autonomous motivation for teaching. Autonomous motivation for teaching was predicted to be associated positively with teachers' sense of personal accomplishment and negatively with emotional exhaustion. Most important, teachers' self-reported autonomous motivation for teaching was expected to promote students' self-reported autonomous motivation for learning by enhancing teachers' autonomy-supportive behavior, as indicated by students' reports. Results from a sample of 132 Israeli teachers and their 1,255 students were consistent with the hypotheses. Discussion focuses on the importance of the experience of autonomous motivation for teaching for teachers and students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clarifying Achievement Goals and Their Impact.

The study of achievement goals has illuminated basic motivational processes, though controversy surrounds their nature and impact. In 5 studies, including a longitudinal study in a difficult premed course, the authors show that the impact of learning and performance goals depends on how they are operationalized. Active learning goals predicted active coping, sustained motivation, and higher achievement in the face of challenge. Among performance goals, ability-linked goals predicted withdrawal and ment poorer performance in the face of challenge (but provided a "boost" to performance when students met with success); normative goals did not predict decrements in motivation or performance; and outcome goals (wanting a good grade) were in fact equally related to learning goals and ability goals. Ways in which the findings address discrepancies in the literature are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)