Test Anxiety, Achievement Motivation, and School Placement of Mildly Mentally Retarded Children

Abstract

Whereas the relationships between achievement motivation and test anxiety in children (Atkinson and Litwin, 1960), between achievement motivation and mental retardation (Jordan and decharms, 1969) and between school placement and test anxiety (Cox, 1960 ;Cox and Hammond, 1964) have been examined, little attention has been given to the possible effects of various kinds of school placement on levels of achievement motivation and test anxiety in mildly mentally retarded children. Yet these variables are closely linked in any school situation, if only because children use the performance of others in the class as a referent to judge their own abilities.The need to achieve has been generally considered to be a fairly stable disposition which is learned, which originates in childhood and which is generalized over a wide range of situations (McClelland et al., 1963 ; Winterbottom, 19S8). A basic assumption is that need achievement can be measured by using fantasy responses to projective-type test stimuli. Atkinson (1968) makes a distinction between the achievement motive which is stable and has a general aim and achievement motivation which is relatively changeable and specific to particular situations. Achievement motivation operates whenever the individual encounters achievement-orientated situations in which his performance can be evaluated against standards of excellence. A further distinction has been drawn which differentiates 'striving to excel' from ' striving to avoid failure ' as achievement motivational forces (Campbell, 1967). Later modifications (Atkinson and Feather, 1966; Feather, 1967; Heckhausen and Weiner, in press ; Weiner and Kukla, 1970) have sharpened and refined the theory, and the relevance of the theory to academic situations has provided the impetus for much research (Maehr and Sjogren, 1971;O' Connor and Atkinson, 1966 : Smith, 1969 ; Weiner, 1967). One modification which has proved of great heuristic value is the model of Atkinson (1968) andAtkinson and Feather (1966). One of the main implications of this model is the assumption that either in striving to excel or in striving to avoid failure, Downloaded from DAPHNE I KEATS AND R S. ROWB the individual's level of achievement motivation is at a maximum in Situations with intermediate levels of probability of success (for example when P,=*b). The concept of anxiety subsumes a great variety of phenomena and may rder to several specific types of anxiety. A situation which often engenders anxiety in children occurs when a child is being evaluated by significant others, parents at first, peers, teachers and examiners later. Sarason et d. (1960) suggest that in an evaluative and test-conscious culture, one very important and measurable type of anxiety is that which is associated with schools, a ' test ' anxiety. Wallach and Kogan (1966) claim that whereas the generally anxious child might fear the school situation as a whole, there may be other children, low in general anxiety, for whom anxiety is aroused by the specifically evaluative aspects...