Assessing the implicit achievement motive: effects of input-condition, administration and picture-position

Abstract

Implicit measurements are sensitive for influences of experimenter and situation. An assessment using computers could therefore avert those negative effects, if there is an adequate translation to computer (Blankenship, 2010). We split the achievement motive into the two components hope of success (HS) and fear of failure (FF) and investigated the effects of input condition (handwritten vs. keyboard), administration (online vs. computer vs. human experimenter) and picture-position for each of these two components. Therefore 140 undergraduates were randomly assigned to 18 experimental groups of a counterbalance within-between-design and assessed with the Thematic-Apperception-Test (TAT; Heckhausen, 1963). The outcome is that handwriting increases the HS-score, whereby FF-score did not differ in typed and handwritten answers. People instructed by human experimenter show higher FF and lower HS compared to computer based tested people in the labor and online. There is no statistical significant interaction effect of administration and input condition. There is either no position effect for any of these motive-components. The TAT seems to be more robust than commonly thought.