[Assessment of motivation for achievement in connection with rehabilitation measures]

Reported are the results obtained in assessing young brain-injured patients of a rehabilitation hospital (N = 39, male subjects). "Vocational therapists" had evaluated the patients relative to achievement and achievement motivation variables, and results of routine performance testing had also been available. The KEMB (Konstanzer Erfolgs-Misserfolgs-Batterie--Constancy success-failure battery) was administered in addition. Vocational therapists' ratings and KEMB findings permit the conclusion that the less severely disabled patients tend to hold unrealistically high objectives. Whereas results were found to be consistent in this patient group even across the different methods used for evaluating achievement motivation variables, this did not apply to the more severely disabled subjects. For this latter group, the KEMB achievement motivation findings show hardly any relation with the achievement motivation ratings given, but, rather, with specific performance tests used in organic brain damage and with duration of the condition. It seems that achievement motivation can in the less severely disabled subjects be understood in its usual sense; those with more severe disability on the other hand seem to strongly orientate their motivation on the specific deficits associated with the organic brain damage, thus arriving at possibly more reality-adjusted objectives. KEMB and progress in general performance within the rehabilitation programme--especially in the more severely disabled patients--are found to correlate much closer then is the case for the various performance tests administered routinely for outcome prediction.