The Prediction of Academic Grades With a Projective Test of Achievement Motivation: Ii. Cross‐validation at the High School Level1

Abstract

rrhis research was concerned with a cross-validation of a "pictureinterpretation" test of achievement motivation as a predictor of high school grades. Eighteen pictures, which were selected on the basis of the results of a previous validation study, were incorporated into two nine-picture fo~s of the test, and each form was administered to a new group, of male high school juniors.Validation of the test scores against academic grades, adjusted .for differences in ability level, yielded small but encouraging correlations generally similar to those found in the previous study. Furthermore, an abbreviated Bcore based upon two relatively broad scoring categories produced validities of approximately the same magnitude as thoBe obtained with a more complicated empirically derived score, in which each picture wae separately scored for a specific set of categories previously found to be mostval1d for that picture. For one test fo~total number of words written in the students' stories yielded correlations with grade achievement that were very nearly as high as those obtained with the test scores themselves.In general, there was considerable cross~validational shrinkage in the validities of the specific picture-category "items" included in the empirically derived total test score. Analyses at the picture level indicated that six of the pictures yielded the most stable and promising validities. At the same time, considerable variation in the validity of pictures with relatively similar content was also revealed.The results are interpreted. as confi~ing the findings of the original validation study, indicating that the achievement-motivation measures show promising relationships to high school grade achievement, adjusted for differences in ability. Although the results are not of very great immediate practical value, they are regarded as warranting continuei research on the measurement of achievement motivation as a determinant of academic grade performance, and of other aspects of scholastic achievement or "success." THE PREDICTION OF ACADEMIC GRADES WITH A PROJECTIVE 'I'EST OF ACElEVD1ENT "MOTIVATION: II. CROSS-VALIDATION AT THE HIGH SCHOOL LEVELlThis research represents the second phase. of an investigation dealing with the relationship between measures of achievement motivation and academic grades. The technique for measuring achievement motivation, .or the drive to achieve at a high level of excellence, was developed by MCClelland and his co-workers (2), and involves .an analysis of the content .of imaginative "picture-interpretation" stories for various scoring elements or "categorles." In a previous study (4), a pool of 41 stimulus pictures was ad.-ministered, in various combinations or "forms," to a relatively large number of high school juniors, Naval officer candidates, and college freshmen, all males. Using average grades adjusted for differences in ability level as the principal criterion of grade achievement, the validities ·of the total achievement-motivation scoree on the various test forms were deter...

N achievement and entrepreneurship: A longitudinal study.

“…In particular it was found that the shorter time interval for writing stories had some real drawbacks, such as introducing a correlation between n Ach and length of protocol (cf. Ricciuti & Sadacca, 1955).…”

Sex differences in achievement motivation

“…in Norwegian samples. ( I ) whether there is any sex difference in scores on Heckhausen's T A T test of achievement motivation; (2) wheiher such a dif-ference is related to verbal productivity, since it has been shown that the n-Ach score on the TAT is related to length of protocol (Ricciuti, 1954; Ricciuti & Clark, 1954; Ricciuti & Sadacca, 1955; Walker & Atkinson, 1958; Veroff, I%]) and that women are more verbally productive than men on the TAT (Lindzey & Silverman, 1959) as well as on other tests (Tyler, 1%5); and (3) whether achievement scores on Heckhausen's test are af-…”

The Prediction of Academic Grades With a Projective Test of Achievement Motivation: I. Initial Validation Studies1

“…In the cross-validation study,which was to foi.low, each picture woUJ.d then be scored only for those categories found to have a vaJ"idity equal to or greater than 010, and in the direction indicated by the empirical results of the present investigation~A group ot eighteen pictures was therefore selected for this purpose. The details and results of this cross-validation study, which was conducted at the high school level, are described in another paper (7).…”

“…As a matter of fact, the total score correlations for the high school students indicate that using the Achievement Thema category alone produces approxi.ma.t·ely the same validity as that of the over-a:ll score based on all categories. The ·question of whether or not one attains highest validity by scoring each picture for those specific categories found to be best on~pictureJ was investigated in the cross..validation study already mentioned (7). MCClelland at Wesleyan University.)…”