Report on Deo Mohan Achievement Motivation Test

Bhavikaa Sagar
Department of Psychology, Christ University Bangalore
BPSYH 152- Experimental Psychology
Dr. Hemanthakumara
November 24, 2022
 DEO-MOHAN ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION TEST

INTRODUCTION

What is Motivation?

Motivation is the desire that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviours. It is what
causes you to act and is one of the driving forces of human behaviour. (Cherry, 2022)

Types of Motivation

● Extrinsic motivation: It arises from outside the individual and often involves external
rewards such as trophies, money, social recognition, or praise. (Cherry, 2022)

● Intrinsic motivation: It arises from within the individual, such as solving a Rubik's cube
purely for the gratification of cracking a problem. (Cherry, 2022)

Components of Motivation

Motivation has three major components:

1. Activation: The desire to initiate a behaviour.

2. Persistence: A continued effort towards a goal even though obstacles may exist.

3. Intensity: The concentration and vigour that goes into pursuing a goal.

What is Achievement Motivation?

Achievement motivation is a social psychological term that describes when individuals are
driven, inspired, or stimulated by success or accomplishments. It leads people to be high
performers who strive for success and fear failure. (Cherry, 2022) What is an
Achievement Motivation Test?
An achievement motivation test is a mode to measure an individual level of motivation to
succeed. It evaluates their internal disposition; whether or not it drives them to achieve
something in order to have a sense of accomplishment. This can be used in different domains,
from academic settings to job motivation.

THEORIES

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Abraham Maslow gave a motivational theory by arranging human needs in a pyramid. His model
was a 5-tier upright model:

1. Physiological Needs: These occupy the lowest level. Air, water, food, shelter, sleep,
clothing, and reproduction come under this category.

2. Safety Needs: This includes personal security, employment, resources, health, property.

3. Love & Belonging: This category contains friendship, intimacy, family, sense of
connection.

4. Esteem: This comprises respect, self-esteem, status, recognition, strength, freedom.

5. Self-actualisation: It occupies the highest level of the hierarchy.

Individuals fulfil their desires from the bottom to the top of this hierarchy.

McClelland's Achievement Motivation Theory (1961)

According to this theory, we can motivate people by knowing their drivers.

His theory is also known as the 3 Need Theory.

1. Need for Achievement

 2. Need for Affiliation

3. Need for Power

Achievement is always a challenging task. If you are doing work, then feedback and praise are
mostly needed. This helps a person improve.

Affiliation is observed in teams; it's group work. It focuses on collaboration, not on competition.

Power gives individuals status & recognition. People driven by this need to try to influence
others. They enjoy the competition and winning.

Victor Vroom's Expectancy theory

His theory assumes that we choose depending on which has more joyless pain. He also talked
about expectancy, instrumentality, and valence to explain motivation.

● Expectancy: It always gives efforts towards increased performance For this these criteria
should be satisfied:

1. Availability of the right resources.

2. Right skills

3. Necessary support and cooperation

● Instrumentality: It is the belief that "if I give effort then I will get good results." Factors
influencing these are:

1. Understanding well the relation between performance & output.

2. Trusting the people who know about the result.

3. Transparency of the entire process.

● Valance: The importance that the individual places upon output.

Herzberg’s two factor theory

Friedrick Herzberg proposed two factors that affect motivation ,namely, motivation & hygiene
factor.

1. Motivation factor: motivators are intrinsic factors that determine the quality of the
work.It ranges from neutrality to high satisfaction of the worker. This determines job
satisfaction and increased performance quality and encourages them to work harder.

2. Hygiene factors: these are basic extrinsic factors whose presence does not mean increase
in work motivation.it may range from neutrality to dissatisfaction of the worker,as these
simply assure that they are not discontent.These do not ensure motivation/work
quality/job satisfaction but merely ensures participation/willingness.

ERG Theory of motivation

Alderfer proposed the ERG theory of motivation.

● Existence needs- it includes individual physiological or physical safety needs.

● Relatedness needs- these include the aspiration individual’s have for maintaining
significant interpersonal relationships,getting public fame and recognition.

● Growth needs-these include need for self development and personal growth and
advancement.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A survey of 200 students (100 boys and 100 girls) using the Deo- Mohan achievement
motivation scale test was conducted to compare the achievement motivation in various academic
streams between different genders.
Significance: It is hoped that this study will provide information for parents , educators and
school administrators to reflect upon various factors that help students in developing higher
achievement goals. In doing so , they can investigate the possibility of introducing those factors
in their school, which may consequently lead to enhancing students' need-achievement levels. In
addition, the fact that this study is conducted on govt. and private schools, it shares quite a lot of
similarities and dissimilarities between the two.

Objectives

1. To identify the level of achievement motivation amongst higher secondary school

students.

2. To find out the significant difference in achievement motivation among higher secondary
school students across gender.

Results

● Results reported that 46.5% of the sample subjects are having an average level of
achievement motivation.

● They also revealed that girls perform better on achievement motivation scores (Boys M=
121.89 and Girls M= 127.82).

● Study also showed that higher secondary school students of government schools show
higher scores of achievement motivation (M = 125.59) than those of private school
students (M = 119.70).

The paper concluded that to develop the strong desire for excellence among our children ,
the entire home and school must provide a better psycho-social environment to their fellow
students.

Another study conducted by Shekhar in

2012 used this scale to measure the motivation of 80 college students in different streams. The
results of the study indicated that students from the science stream have a significantly higher
motivation than arts students.

PSYCHOMETRICS

Reliability

The test-retest method was applied to obtain the reliability coefficient of the scale. Taking
different sets of samples, the administration of the scale was repeated on several occasions. The
results are given below:

Sample N Interval r Significance

level

Mixed Group 51 4 weeks 0.69 0.01

Males 33 5-6 weeks 0.67 0.01

Females 50 5-6 weeks 0.78 0.01

These coefficients of reliability are sufficiently high and the scale can be considered reliable for
use.

Validity

The coefficient of correlation between the scale and the projective test was observed to be .04,
which speaks to the validity of the scale. Also, it is concurrent.

The scale scores were also correlated with scores obtained by administering the Aberdeen
Academic Motivation Inventory of Entwistle(1968) to yield a coefficient of correlation of .75 for
a mixed sample of 93; which established the validity of the scale.
Norms

The scores can theoretically range from zero to 200. For interpretation of the score, norms are
presented in three forms: Frequency distribution with mean and standard deviation, Percentile
norms, and T- scores. Norms can be applied according to the needs and purpose of the
investigation.

Frequency distributions for males and females

Scores Frequency of Males Frequency of Females

180-194 17 16

165-179 78 56

150–164 90 94

135-149 80 51

120-134 50 26

105-119 32 14

90-104 10 4

75-89 1 1

60-74 1 1

45-59 3 1
 N = 362 N = 264

M 147.22 151.83

SD 24.02 21.55

Percentiles

Percentile Score

98 188

95 180

90 176

80 168

70 162

60 157

50 152

40 146
 30 140

20 131

10 118

5 108

2 94

T-Scores

Score T-Scores

188 71

173 61

158 53

143 46

128 41

113 36

98 31

83 27
 68 26

53 23

METHODOLOGY

Objective: To measure the level of Achievement Motivation of the individual.

Materials Required: DEO-MOHAN Achievement Motivation Test, Manual, Writing

instrument.

Participant’s Name: B.S

Age: 18

Gender: Female

Occupation: Student

Procedure

The participant was made to sit comfortably, after taking their consent to participate in this
experiment, and a rapport was easily established with them. They were explained the objective of
the test and that it contained 50 items that would measure their level of achievement and
motivation. The scoring was done according to the Scoring Stencil given in the manual, and the
results were interpreted accordingly. The participant was assured of the confidentiality of the test
and was made to understand that they would not be pressured to do anything they had not agreed
to. They were also told that they could withdraw at any time, and that the results of the test did
not permanently determine their personality and were told not to stress on the result.
Instructions

“Please sit comfortably. You have been given a questionnaire consisting of 50 items. There are 5
categories-Always, Frequently, Sometimes, Rarely, Never; of which only one box is to be ticked
or crossed. Please make sure to answer honestly and take as much time needed to finish but not
spend too much time on one item. Feel free to ask any questions. It is mandatory to answer every
item.”

Analysis or Scoring

Two keys, one for positive and one for negative items are to be used. The categories are Always,
Frequently, Sometimes, Rarely, never. For positive items the core would be 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, and for
negative items it would be 0, 1, 2, 3, 4- both across the same categories. The total score (raw
score) is the summation of all the items. This is a self- administered test which is quick and easy
to use.

Result and Discussion

Aim- The test to measure the level of achievement-motivation of the subject.

Definition- The definition of achievement test in psychology is-

“Achievement-Motivation is affected in connection with evaluated performance in which

competition with a standard of excellence was paramount.” (McClelland, Atkinson, Clark,
& Lowell, 1953, pp.76-77)

Result table-

Raw Score Z score Interpretation

 127 -0.52 Below Average Motivation

Explanation-

By the addition of negative and positive item score the raw score obtained was 12. And the
negative items were scored reversed. The raw score was converted into the z-score according to
the scoring key given in the manual, and z-score was -0.52. So, as per the norms given un the
manual, the subject has below average level of motivation.

Interpretation-

As the result of the test conducted on the subject is found to be falling under below average
category of motivation, it means that the subject’s not motivated enough and can try harder to
learn and develop motivation, can try to become more confident and social and develop trust in
oneself, and push themselves toward harder towards reaching the goal. Participant’s achievement
motivation is below average. It is interpretated that the subject can improve and try better to
attain success and excellence.

Applications
Achievement motivation tests are a psychological tool to measure an individual's internal drive to
achieve. So, it can be used to indirectly evaluate the following:

1. Motivation to do well in academic assignments, such as exams and projects.

2. Seriousness towards their jobs.

3. Relationship with colleagues, boss, peers, and/or teachers.

 4. Anxiety about scrutiny of their work.

5. Identifying their field of interest.

Conclusion- It is concluded that the subject B.S, of age 18 years, has below average level of
achievement motivation.

References

Cherry, K. (2022, August 10). Motivation: Theories, Examples, Types, and How to Find It. Very
Well Mind. Retrieved September 5, 2022, from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-
motivation-2795378

A Guide To Achievement Motivation. (2019, December 12). Indeed. Retrieved September 2,

2022, from
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/achievement-motivation

Mind Tools Content Team. (n.d.). McClelland's Human Motivation Theory - From
MindTools.com. Mind Tools. Retrieved September 3, 2022, from
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/human-motivation-theory.htm

Souders, B. (2019, November 5). 20 Most Popular Theories of Motivation in Psychology.

Positive Psychology. Retrieved September 2, 2022, from
https://positivepsychology.com/motivation-theories-psychology/

Vroom expectancy motivation theory. (n.d.). Your Coach. Retrieved September 5, 2022, from
https://www.yourcoach.be/en/employee-motivation-theories/vroom-expectancy-motivatio
n-theory/

Deo, P., & Mohan, A. (1985). Manual for Deo-Mohan Achievement Motivation (n-Ach) Scale.
National Psychological Corporation.