Achievement Motivation as Predictive of Academic Performance: A Multivariate Analysis

Author(s): Randall B. Dunham

Source: The Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 67, No. 2 (Oct., 1973), pp. 70-72
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
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THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
(Volume 67, Number 2, October 1973)

Achievement Motivation as Predictive of Academic

Performance: A Multivariate Analysis1
RANDALL B. DUNHAM, Hanover College8

ABSTRACT
Attempts to predict college academic performance consistently have been only moderately successful. Tradi
tional approaches to the problem have utilized intellective predictor variables. The explained variance using these
variables has reached an asymptote of approximately 25 percent. In the present study, a testing instrument is uti
lized to assess several non-intellective variables. With a sample of 303 Ss a step-wise multiple regression analysis
produces a R = .67 for a variance explained of 45 percent when utilizing three n Ach measures in conjunction
with high school grades and sex for the criterion of college first-term GPA. Future use for selection purposes of
non-intellective factors is discussed and the plan for a longitudinal follow-up of the present study is presented.

THE PREDICTION of academic performance would significantly contribute to the prediction

presents many problems to researchers. The pri
mary difficulty is the isolation of variables which
accurately and consistently predict the criterion
of college GPA. Are there non-intellective factors
which can be valuable for student selection?
A review by Binder and others (2) suggests
that past attempts to predict GPA with aptitude
measures have established multiple correlation co
efficients which reach an asymptote in the area of
.50. Certain non-intellective factors have been in
vestigated in attempts to increase this predictive
ability. A number of recent studies have found
improvement with the use of different forms of
self-prediction or self-ability ratings (1, 2, 7).
One of the basic reasons for the endeavors to in
crease GPA predictive power is for use in selec
tion procedures. The use of self-predictions for
selection programs can be expected to be doomed
to possible failure for the accuracy of self-judg
ments can be expected to rapidly decline with stu
dent knowledge of the purposes of those ratings.
Therefore, the value of these techniques appears
limited to short-term, therapeutic programs for
certain underachievers (1). I
Achievement motivation (n Ach) has been re
lated to many indicators of overt performance
including GPA (9,10). A few studies offered evi
dence that n Ach level is directly correlated with
GPA (5, 6, 11). However, there has been rela
tively little effort to utilize these measures spe
cifically for improvement of prediction of aca
demic success for selection purposes. The present
study is the first phase of a longitudinal investiga
tion designed to isolate non-intellective factors
which might increase this power to predict.
Non-intellective factors investigated in the cur
rent study included n Ach measures, self-concept
scores, a family relations factor, and birth order.
Sex and a past performance measure of high
school GPA also were utilized. It was hypothe
sized that the use of these non-intellective factors
of GPA.
Method
The Ss consisted of the 161 male and 142 fe
male 1970-71 new freshmen at Hanover College,
Indiana. A special testing instrument was pre
pared to obtain measures of the desired variables.
The Abasement-Assurance scale from Stern's
Activities Index (12) and the Sense of Personal
Worth scale from the California Test of Person
ality (13) were utilized to obtain measures of
self-concept. The Family Relations scale, from the
California Test of Personality, was included. The
Activities Index provided three measures of n
Ach : need achievement, ego achievement, and f an
tasied achievement. The Edwards Personal Pref
erence Schedule (EPPS) (3) yielded a fourth n
Ach measure. Additional self-report items on the
instrument determined GPA from the senior year
of high school, sex, and ordinal position of birth.
The Ss were given the testing instrument and
appropriate directions for completing it at the
orientation assembly. At a later date, seventy
eight of the Ss were administered a form of the
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) scored for
n Ach as described by McClelland and others
(10). The instrument scales were scored by pro
cedures in the original scoring manuals. GPA's
for the first full term of the freshman year were
obtained from official records of the college.
Results
Table 1 presents the means and standard devi
ations of the variables investigated and Table 2
presents the intercorrelations of these variables.
A step-wise method of multiple regression was
utilized with the variables to determine which of
them would best predict the criterion of college
GPA. The result was that five with significant
correlations with the criterion were retained as

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 DUNHAM 71
Table 1.?Means and Standard Deviations of Variables research with these variables. The power of these
variables is evident when compared with that of
the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). A study was
Variable Mean S N conducted by Terry3 with the same sample using
the verbal and quantitative scores from the SAT
Abasement (aba) 5.04 1.39 303 in place of the n Ach variables used in this study.
Nach (ach) 5.56 1.30 303 The resultant multiple correlation coefficient was
Ego ach (e/a) 4.90 1.10 303 .67 which is the same as that found with the n
Ach measures.
Fanach(f/a) 5.42 1.38 303
Pers worth (pw) 10.92 2.75 303 These findings suggest a more thorough exam
Family rel (fr) 11.08 2.69 303 ination of the use of certain non-intellective fac
GPA-college (gpa/c) 2.57 0.66 303 tors for selection and prediction procedures. It
N ach (ach/E) 12.74 3.82 303 must be recognized that the college GPA from
N ach (ach/T ) 5.83 4.24 78 only the first term was used as the criterion in
GPA-high school the present analysis. Subsequent phases of this
(gpa/H) 3.17 0.49 303 longitudinal study will serve to better isolate the
predictive powers of these variables over time.
There is evidence (8) which suggests that the
contributing significantly to the unique explained predictive power of ability determinants decreases
criterion variance: (a) high school senior GPA
(.44) ; (b) the TAT n Ach?ach/T (.22) ; (c) Table 3.?Step-Wise Multiple Regression
sex (.21) ; (d) ego achievement?e/a (.17) ; and
(e) the EPPS n Ach?ach/E (.11). A regression
equation was obtained which yielded a multiple Standardized
correlation coefficient of .67 for a variance ex Weights
plained of .45. Table 3 presents the results of the
multiple regression. Need Achievement (ach/E) 0.845
Need Achievement TAT (ach/T) 3.270
Discussion High School GPA (gpa/H ) 0.059
Sex 0.074
The identification of high school senior GPA
and sex as predictors of college GPA is not un Ego Achievement (e/a) 1.118
expected. However, the results of the addition of K = 3.170
three easily assessed measures of n Ach to in R2 = 0.451 R = 0.671
crease the predictive power encourages further

Table 2.?Correlation Matrix

aba ach e/a f/a pw fr gpa/C ach/E ach/T gpa/H sex ord

1.00 -.03 -.01 -.02 -.01 -.05 -.01 -.12? -.33? -.08 .07 .03
1.00 -.03 .03 .01 .03 -.01 .04 -.17 -.03 -.12a .12a
1.00 .03 .03 -.08 .17l -.03 -.05 .10 .19 -.07
1.00 -.01 -.05 .02 -.06 .09 -.01 .02 .07
1.00 .24* -.03 -.03 -.11 .13a .10 -.01
1.00 .07 .06 -.03 .10s .09 -.05

.ll5
v
1.00 .22 .44* .21 -.02
1.00 .22 .11s .01

a = p^ .05 1.00 .13 .02 .05

b = p< .01 1.00 -.481 -.05

1.00 -.10

1.00

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 72 THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
with time while that of certain non-intellective
predictors may not. If this is the case, then the
use of these non-intellective variables can be ex
pected to be even more important for selection
than for short-term prediction. Cross-validation
with other samples may raise questions of appli
cation; Gallessich (4) has demonstrated that non
intellective factors typically lose predictive power
when used with samples other than those from
which they were derived.
Although the predictive power found in this
study is as high as with other potentially usable
sets of variables, it still identifies slightly less
than 50 percent of the total variance involved.
To be considered in the longitudinal application
of these findings is the increase in predictive effec
tiveness which may be obtained by utilizing tra
ditional intellective factors such as the SAT in
conjunction with the psychological factors.
With further development, a testing instrument
similar to the one used in this study might be
devised for standardized use with college appli
cations. The current instrument requires less than
20 minutes for administration yet apparently
yields useful information for prediction and,
potentially, for selection purposes.
FOOTNOTES
1. Based on the author's BA thesis.
2. Currently at the University of Illinois, Urbana.
3. Unpublished study. Personal communication, Hanover
College, 1971.
REFERENCES
1. Biggs, D. A.; Tinsley, D. J., "Student-Made Academic
Predictions," The Journal of Educational Research,
63:195-197, January 1970.
Research Briefs?continued from page 52
Class Play, and the school and classroom behaviors, the
experimental groups received a rank of 1 or 2 (greater
positive adjustment), eighteen of a possible twenty-four
times; the control groups received a rank of 1 or 2, six of
a possible twenty-four times.
The children in the experimental groups became in
tensively involved in their classes and demonstrated appro
priate skills in solving simulated conflict situations.
However, the adaptive behaviors which were demonstrated
in the groups either generalized minimally to situations
outside of the groups or were not significantly detected
by the instruments which measured changes in adjust
ment. Perhaps in future studies, changes in adjustment
may be detected by measuring specific behaviors as op
posed to more subjective traits. Also, by increasing the
amount of time which the children are exposed to the
behavioral science curriculum, greater changes in adjust
ment will likely occur.
FOOTNOTES
1. The research was conducted in the Atlanta, GA, public
school system. The author wishes to acknowledge the
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2. Binder, D. M.; Jones, J. G.; Strowig, R. W., "Non
Intellective Self-Report Variables as Predictors of
Scholastic Achievement," The Journal of Educational
Research, 63:364-366, April 1970.
3. Edwards, A. C, Manual for Edwards' Personal Pref
erence Schedule, Psychological Corporation, New York,
1953.
4. Gallessich, J., "An Investigation of Correlates of Aca
demic Success of Freshman Engineering Students,"
The Journal of Counseling Psychology, 17:173-176,
March 1970.
5. Hall, L. H., "Selective Variables in the Academic
Achievement of Junior College Students from Differ
ent Socioeconomic Backgrounds," The Journal of Edu
cational Research, 63:60-62, October 1969.
6. Irvin, F. S., "Sentence-Completion Responses and Scho
lastic Success or Failure," The Journal of Counseling
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7. Jones, J. G.; Grieneeks, L., "Measures of Self-Percep
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8. Keefer, K. E., "Self-Prediction of Academic Achieve
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10. McClelland, D. C; Atkinson, J. W.; Clark, R. W.;
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11. Reiter, H. H., "Prediction of College Success from
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12. Stern, G., Activities Index Manual, Psychological Re
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cooperation of the staff and students at Rock Springs
Elementary School.
2. Requests for the complete report should be sent to
Robert Kagey, Psychology Department, Randolph
Macon College, Ashland, VA 23005.
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