The Comparative Validity of Likert, Projective, and Forced-Choice Indices of Achievement Motivation

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Abstract
It was hypothesized that as well as being more reliable than projective tests, behavior inventory measures of achievement motivation would also be more valid. The most valid of the several available such inventories was also sought. Seventy-five Australian males selected by students as “people who you most feel able to rate in terms of their achievement motivation” received a questionnaire containing six behavior inventories, one forced-choice test, and one projective test. Ss rated themselves on achievement motivation after completing the battery and were also rated covertly by those interviewing them. The projective test scores were virtually unrelated to the peer-ratings, while all of the behavior inventories were significantly correlated. The three most valid measures appeared to be the Ray-Lynn scale, the Costello scale I, and the forced-choice Mukherjee “SCT” (roughly in that order). New scales to measure Task orientation and Success orientation as the two most important subcategories of achievement motivation were also developed.

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