Risk Taking and Academic Success and Their Relation to an Objective Measure of Achievement Motivation1

Abstract

Two studies using an objective test o~Achievement Motivation with high school Ss indicated that the test was able to reproduce the results typically~ound with projective measures. One was a correlational study dealing with problems o~academic achievement while the other was a laboratory study that~ocused on competitive risk taking. These data seemed to support the proposition that objective tests o~achievement motivation may be possible.

Achievement-related motives and risk-taking in games of skill and chance1

“…First, there is no support m the present study for the notion that persons high m v Ach are especially responsive to expert authonty and externally imposed standards, while persons high m n Ach are responsive to mtemally imposed standards The V Ach scores were not correlated with conformity scores m either the Relaxed group or the Achievement group (see Table 3), though it should be noted that the conformity task utilized peer opmions rather than expert opmion as the conformity standard Second, while there is only a small positive correlation between V Ach scores and n Ach scores, both tests are related in a Similar way to TA, puzzle performance, total goal discrepancy, and conformity (see Table 3) The fact that both measures of achievement motivation are significantly related to preference for mtermediate nsk m the Achievement group and less strongly m the Relaxed group is particularly strikmg (Evidence suggestmg that the relationship of the direct measure of achievement motivation to preference for mtermediate nsk is not simply due to chance is provided in a study by Myers (1964), who reports a similar relationship between scores on an objective measure of achievement motivation and a measure of nsk-takmg m a game of skill ) Although their correlation with each other is low, the similar relationship of these two measures of achievement motivation to other vanables suggests the possibihty that they are tappmg aspects of the same underlymg personahty vanable, or variables which function similarly SUMMARY The study concerns the relation of direct and projective measures of achievement-related motives to nsk-takmg m games of skill and chance admmistered under relaxed and achievementonented conditions Male college volunteers received objective and projective measures of achievement motivation, the F scale, and the Test Anxiety Questionnaire under neutral conditions, and measures of nsk-takmg and conformity under relaxed {N = 29) and achievement-oriented (N = 33) conditions The results show a clear relationship of both direct and projective measures of achievement^^elaited motives to preference for mtermediate risTTTn'Sie game 6S skill but not m the game of chance The relationship for the game of skill is stronger under achievementonented conditions than under relaxed conditions The results are interpreted as supportmg Atkmson's model for nsk-takmg Motive scores are not related to conformity. The relation of these results to earlier studies is discussed as is the relationship between direct and projective measures of achievement motivation…”