Achievement motive, test anxiety, sex-role orientation and the motive to avoid success in college women

Abstract

The objective of this study was two-fold: first to find whether measures of achievement motive and test anxiety predicted the academic performance of female college students; an attempt was also made to further validate the use of the two tests. Secondly, to explore Horner's (1968) findings that women internalize a motive to avoid success which acts as a psychological barrier to their achievement strivings; the relationships between the motive to avoid success, test anxiety and sex-role orientation, educational and occupational aspirations, socioeconomic background were also examined. The objectives were studied in two separate investigations. Study 1. Test anxiety was measured by the Alpert and Haber (1960) Achievement Anxiety Test. The French Test of Insight and Mehrabian Achievement Orientation Scale were used to measure achievement motive. The tests were completed by 67 female and 23 male college students. Academic performance level was derived from the final year examination grading. The results indicated that only test anxiety measure appeared to predict grades. For female Ss, the Facilitating Anxiety Scale was positively correlated with grades. For male Ss, the Debilitating Anxiety Scale was negatively correlated with grades. Other findings were largely inconclusive. Study 2. The prevalence of the motive to avoid success was assessed by Horner's (1968) projective technique. Resultant test anxiety was derived from the Alpert and Haber (1960) Achievement Anxiety Test. Sex-role orientation was measured by Gough's (1952) Brief Feminine Scale. The Ss were 118 female and 36 male college students. The results showed evidence of the motive to avoid success in both men and women. The female Ss elicited more fear of success in response to a traditionally male competitive success cue, while the male Ss wrote more fear of success stories in response to a traditionally female role cue. Traditionally oriented women gave the highest percentage of fear of success stories, obtained the lowest mean resultant test anxiety score, the highest mean fear of failure score and in-dicated a preference for marriage rather than carreer. The nontraditional women, on the other hand, showed fewer fear of success stories, higher mean resultant test anxiety score, and expressed great concern about achieving their educational and occupational aspirations. The general pattern of results points to the importance of sex-role orientation in understanding achievement-related needs in women.