Background of the Study

Academic success is recognized to be strongly influenced by achievement motivation, which

energises and guides behavior toward achievement (e.g., Robbins et al., 2004; Hattie, 2009;
Plante et al., 2013; Wigfield et al., 2016). Goals, task values, motivational beliefs, and
achievement motives are only a few of the many diverse structures that make up achievement
motivation, which is not a single construct in and of itself (see Murphy and Alexander, 2000;
Wigfield and Cambria, 2010; Wigfield et al., 2016). However, there are relatively few research
that (1) looked into several motivational factors in relation to students' academic achievement in
one sample and (2) also took into account students' cognitive ability and prior accomplishments
(Steinmayr and Spinath, 2009; Kriegbaum et al., 2015).It is crucial to incorporate students'
cognitive ability and prior achievement in the analyses when assessing the significance of
motivating factors for students' achievement because they are two of the best single predictors
of academic success (e.g., Kuncel et al., 2004; Hailikari et al., 2007). In doing so, Steinmayr and
Spinath (2009) found that, in comparison to objectives and achievement motives, domain-
specific ability self-concepts and domain-specific task values were the best predictors of
students' math and German grades. The study's shortcoming is that not all motivational factors
were evaluated with the same level of specificity as the accomplishment criterion.For instance,
task values and motivational beliefs were examined domain-specifically whereas students'
accomplishment and motivational beliefs were measured on a domain-general level (e.g.,
"Difficult tasks appeal to me") (e.g., math grades, math self-concept, math task values).
Because the specificity levels of the predictor and criterion variables did not coincide, it is
possible that the significance of students' achievement motives for their math and German
grades was understated (e.g., Ajzen and Fishbein, 1977; Baranik et al., 2010).The current study
set out to determine if the ground-breaking conclusions made by Steinmayr and Spinath (2009)
would still hold true when motivational beliefs, task values, goals, and achievement motives
were all evaluated at the same level of specificity as the accomplishment criteria. With regard to
motivation theory and upcoming research in this area, this is a crucial question. Furthermore,
based on the results, it might be easier to determine which type of motivation should be
promoted in particular at school to boost performance. This information is crucial for initiatives
designed to increase pupils' motivation at school.