Thematic Apperceptive Indicators of the Motive to Achieve in Women.

Abstract

This study was an attempt to construct an empirically based measure of the motive to achieve in women. The study utilized the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) which involves the writing of stories to various visual or written cues. Empirically derived scoring criteria were sought which would discriminate stories containing achievement imagery. Female college students were asked to write TAT stories under one of three experimental conditions: a relaxed condition, an individual achievement-oriented condition, or a mixed-sex competitive condition. The scoring criteria were then isolated by examining inter-conditional differences between the stories written by women in the relaxed and individual achievement-oriented conditions. It was felt that this particular comparison would allow the isolation of scoring criteria uncontaminated by fears associated with competition. The comparison indicated that women in the individual achievement-oriented condition were more likely to write stories concerned with task competence. Here, task competence is broadly defined to include not only performance of a high quality, but also any performance which indicates the ability to sufficiently accomplish a task. Thus, achievement for women may be more concerned with competence rather than with the more traditional emphasis on competition. An attempt was also made to validate the new scoring criteria. Validation measures consisted of the subjects' college grades, their performance on a timed verbal task, and comparison of TAT stories from the relaxed and mixed-sex competitive conditions. Unfortunately these validation measures were selected and /or assessed prior to the isolation of the scoring criteria. When the scoring criteria were later derived, the measures bore a questionable applicability to the concept of competence and did not relate to the scoring criteria. Grades and timed performance are confounded with competition and speed, respectively, while stories from the mixed-sex competitive condition would be less concerned with task competence. What remains now is for a study to assess adequately the validity of the new achievement scoring criteria. In the meantime, questions remain about the nature of female achievement needs: Are these needs less concerned with competition? and , are women more motivated by task competence?