Achievement striving, social class, and test anxiety.

It was hypothesized that compared to working-class Ss, middle-class Ss would show little improvement in test performance under financial incentive. Tests used were a simple motor test and an intelligence test. Ss were high school juniors and seniors. Results with both tests support the hypothesis that middle-class test performance is more highly generalized and less subject to improvement through increased striving for material reward. "The main difference between the two groups seems to be that while working-class striving and performance tend to rise uniformly in response to reward stimuli, in the middle-class reward-induced increases in striving may either raise the level of performance or touch off anxiety responses that lower it." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)