Testing Behavioral Consistency and Coherence with the Situation-Response Measure of Achievement Motivation

The Situation-Response (S-R) Measure of Achievement Motivation was developed to analyze the cross-situational consistency of achievement-related behavior. This measure was based on a conceptualization of achievement motivation that included the following three components: need to achieve, need to avoid failure, and perceived self-efficacy. Data obtained from 246 college students provided evidence for the validity of the new instrument. However, exploratory factor analyses performed on the items in the instrument indicated the presence of only two factors, namely Striving and Apprehensiveness. Regression analyses further indicated the possible inappropriateness of a theoretically-based difference score, which combined the striving and apprehensiveness composites into a resultant tendency. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test behavioral consistency of the responses to the S-R measure. Although all of the models tested had relatively poor fits with the data, the results (a) provided evidence for item-specific covariation that inflated the cross-situational correlations among the achievement-related composites of the S-R measure, and (b) indicated, after this item-specific covariation had been partialled out, a lack of support for second-order factors representing general achieving tendencies across situations. A final set of analyses indicated the presence of three distinct types of response patterns. These types were tentatively called socially anxious, cynically motivated, and anxiously striving. It was found that membership in one of these subgroups was more informative of an individual's pattern of achievement motivation than conventionally used personality tests.