Achievement motivation and the dynamics of task difficulty choices.

Abstract

Undergraduate students performed a vigilance task in a study of the dynamic theory of achievement motivation. Positively motivated subjects (n = 66) and negatively motivated subjects (n = 60) did not differ in initial task difficulty choices. Both groups shifted to more difficult tasks over time, but this linear trend interacted with achievement motive group, with positively motivated subjects shifting faster. Quadratic and cubic trends in task difficulty choices were also observed. Periodic interruptions attenuated achievement group differences in average task difficulty choices. Subject gender affected average task difficulty choices, but gender did not interact with theoretically important variables in this study. Achievement motivation has long been associated with task difficulty preferences. In an early formulation of achievement motivation theory, Atkinson (1957) proposed that positively motivated subjects (i.e., subjects with motive to achieve success stronger than motive to avoid failure) would prefer tasks of moderate difficulty, whereas negatively motivated subjects (i.e., subjects with motive to achieve success weaker than motive to avoid failure) would prefer either very easy or very difficult tasks. The empirical support for this prediction, however, is weak (cf. Atkinson & Litwin, 1960; Cooper, 1983; Hamilton, 1974). Recently, Kuhl and Blankenship (1979a) presented data that show a more complex pattern of task difficulty preferences in that both positively and negatively motivated subjects preferred successively more difficult tasks over time; that is, there is evidence of a systematic shift toward more difficult tasks by both motive groups. A theoretical explanation of shifting task difficulty choices has been provided in dynamic achievement motivation theory (Atkinson & Birch, 1970,1974). Dynamic achievement theory postulates an interaction of personality (i.e., motive to achieve success and motive to avoid failure) and dynamic motivational forces that affects task difficulty choices in an ongoing stream of behavior. Specifically, goal-directed tendencies are thought to possess inertial properties that are similar to mass in Newtonian physics; that is, the tendencies change in importance