RELIABILITY AND ENDORSEMENT RATES BY AN AMERICAN SAMPLE TO THE SMITH QUICK MEASURE OF ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION

Abstract

Item endorsement rates and reliability of the Smith (1973) Quick Measure of Achievement Motivation were studied in a sample of American college students. Of the 10 items, 7 were found to have high endorsement rates. Extreme scale scores were found in only 6% of the sample, with 94% scoring between 4 and 8. Reliability was lower than that reported by Smith, due mainly to a high negative interim-item correlation with one item. It was concluded that the scale may have too little variance to discriminate American college students on achievement motivation, and that for American students one item may be inappropriately keyed.