Theoretical Concepts and Background

From its beginnings, research into the motives behind people's efforts to be successful (the achievement motive), have an impact on others (the power motive), establish and maintain social contact with others (the affiliation motive), and become involved in affectionate relationships (intimacy motive) has been bound up with the question of which methods are best suited to assessing individual differences in underlying motives (cf. Schmalt & Sokolowski, 2000). As described in Chapter 6 of this volume, McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, and Lowell (1953) developed a version of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) to measure the strength of the achievement motive. McClelland and colleagues considered the achievement motive to be an affectively charged need that is activated by challenging tasks and satisfied by the continual improvement of the skills involved and the outcomes achieved. The TAT was devised to allow the achievement motive to be assessed without the influence of:

• response bias tendencies (e.g., social desirability bias),

• cognitive abilities (e.g., the respondent's actual aptitude), or

• situational influences (e.g., external demands).

McClelland (1958b) doubted that methods of direct assessment, measures of achievement, or observations of behavior would permit conclusions to be drawn about the strength of the achievement motive. Instead, he worked on the assumption that the achievement motive can only be measured indirectly, by tapping into the stream of thoughts and fantasies that people produce in response to motive-arousing picture cues.