Meta-analytic evidence of low convergence between implicit and explicit measures of the needs for achievement, affiliation, and power

Abstract

The correlation between implicit and explicit motive measures and potential moderators of this relationship were examined meta-analytically, using Hunter and Schmidt's (2004) approach. Studies from a comprehensive search in PsycINFO, data sets of our research group, a literature list compiled by an expert, and the results of a request for gray literature were examined for relevance and coded. Analyses were based on 49 papers, 56 independent samples, 6151 subjects, and 167 correlations. The correlations (ρ) between implicit and explicit measures were 0.130 (CI: 0.077–0.183) for the overall relationship, 0.116 (CI: 0.050–0.182) for affiliation, 0.139 (CI: 0.080–0.198) for achievement, and 0.038 (CI: −0.055–0.131) for power. Participant age did not moderate the size of these relationships. However, a greater proportion of males in the samples and an earlier publication year were associated with larger effect sizes.

Guiding others for their own good: Action orientation is associated with prosocial enactment of the implicit power motive

“…Finally, although implicit and explicit motives represent distinct motivational systems (Köllner and Schultheiss 2014;McClelland et al 1989), high self-regulatory abilities have been found to support their context-adequate alignment and, in turn, well-being Kazén and Kuhl 2011;Thrash et al 2010). Whereas previous work on action orientation has focused on the achievement domain , the present findings show that action orientation also supports motivational functioning in the power domain.…”

“…Although implicit and explicit motives operate independently and correlate only weakly (Köllner and Schultheiss 2014;McClelland et al 1989) their coalition has been found to contribute to wellbeing and health (Brunstein et al 1998;Hofer et al 2006;Thrash et al 2010). Incongruence between implicit and explicit motives, in contrast, has been characterized as ''striving for goals without gaining pleasure from doing so'' or ''a lack of striving for goals which would give rise to positive affect'' (Langens and McClelland 1997;cf.…”

Meta-analytic evidence for higher implicit affiliation and intimacy motivation scores in women, compared to men

“…Their independence from measures of self-attributed affiliation motivation has been demonstrated meta-analytically, with the variance overlap between empirically derived picture-story methods and self-report measures of affiliation motivation being less than 2% (Köllner & Schultheiss, 2014). In the following, we provide brief descriptions of each of the implicit affiliation motive measures that have been described and used in research reports since the 1950ies:…”

Political psychology of Indonesian political figure: A case study of a political entrepreneur who is not hesitant in paving a new way

“…This is the capacity of receiving pleasures out of having an impact on the others (Köllner & Schultheiss, 2014). Even though Surya repeatedly states that for him, the position is not important compared to the advancement of the country, it cannot be denied that he has a big desire to become one of the leader-or at least play a major role in impactful and revolutionary changes for the country.…”