Abstract
In picture story exercises like the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; Heckhausen, 1963), different pictures are presented to a person with the instruction to create a story using the scenes portrayed in the image. It is assumed, that people identify themselves with the people in the images and project their unconscious motives (e.g., achievement motive) onto them. As the TAT shows only men in the pictures, critics claimed the test is gender-biased; assuming women cannot identify with men in pictures. However, it was not assessed, whether female protagonists of the picture really trigger the same achievement motive as men. Therefore, two studies were conducted to address the gender difference and validity of the TAT using a version with only men in the pictures (study 1) or only women in the pictures (study 2). The results shows that the original TAT of Heckhausen is a valid instrument for women and men, but the modified version with only women in the pictures cannot validly measure the achievement motive in the male sample.
Highlights
Motivation and its MeasurementThe achievement motive is a relevant factor for personal selection and educational psychology
The validity of the measurement is the same: The independence between implicit and explicit motives is attested for both genders, the implicit hope of success (HS) of women correlates more with the explicit HS than in the male sample
To look whether gender really plays no role for the measurement of achievement motive, in the study a Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)/PSE with only female protagonists in the pictures was presented to both genders
Summary
Motivation and its MeasurementThe achievement motive is a relevant factor for personal selection and educational psychology. Atkinson (1966) used this differentiation in his expectancy-value-theory and expected that people with high HS-scores prefer moderate tasks and those with high FF-scores choose easy or difficult tasks. The independence of these two motivational components HS and FF is important in new motivational models (e.g., the quadripolar model of Covington and Roberts, 1994). Explicit motives are a little more modifiable and lead to planned and short-term behavior (McClelland et al, 1989). Spangler (1992) reported in a metaanalytical review that only high implicit (not explicit) achievement motive is related with long-term success and productivity.
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