Picture Identification Test Prediction of Four Year College Academic Achievement
Picture Identification Test Prediction of Four Year College Academic Achievement
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essay discussing basic problems of world cultures: "The
Combative Dominance Syndrome"Learning is essential for optimal human development. Motivation is widely believed to promote (and sometimes hinder) learning. Thus, a strategic approach to promoting human development may be based on investigations of how motivation affects learning that in turn enhances development. The role of motivation in learning at the college level is especially important. Learning and development occur throughout life but college is an intense learning and developmental time. The present study was designed to assess motivational factors in college academic achievement.
Published studies investigating the effects of motivation on college learning are surprisingly few and show little in the way of convergent findings (Bean & Bradley, 1986); Malloch & Michael, 1981; Sid & Lindgren, 1982; Thompson, 1976). The research that has related motivation most consistently to academic performance has focused on the relationship between social interaction and learning (Lehtinen, Vauras, Salonen, Olkinuora, 1995; Kumar, 1983; Nichols, 1996; Urdan & Maehr, 1995). A comprehensive study of social motivation research by Wentzel (1996) concluded that students who pursue multiple goals reflecting social as well as academic objectives are those who are most successful in school. These studies were with K - 12 students. The possibility that social factors might also be significantly related to college academic performance was thus additionally considered for the present study.
Motivation involves internal behavior. Therefore, motivation may be concealed, may be unconscious, or sometimes undefined by subjects. Accordingly, assessment of motivation by self-report or by observer is problematic. A projective approach could perhaps better reveal the presence and nature of motives.
The Picture Identification Test (PIT) (see Synchronic Motivation System) is a projective instrument that has been effective in relating motivation to adjustment (see PIT publications). The ability to differentiate needs that are synchronically incompatible has been the strongest PIT predictor of adjustment. Since adjustment can affect learning, the PIT was seen as an appropriate instrument for investigating relationships between motivation, learning, and academic achievement.
On the assumption that mental conflicts and poor adjustment adversely affect learning, the major hypothesis of the present study proposed that high college academic achievers would differentiate synchronically conflicting needs more definitely than would low achievers. Based on the previously noted research relating social motivation with educational success, it was further proposed that the above predicted differences between high and low college academic achievers would show up more strongly in the PIT personal-social dimension than in the combative and competitive dimensions.
To provide a stringent test of the college academic achievement predictive power of the PIT, the four year QPA of students was used as the dependent variable rather than the traditional freshman year GPA. The QPA (quality point average) does not include courses in which students are given uniform grades based only on attendance.
Opposing needs were defined for each dimension by target model needs (see target model) located greater than .5 MDS standard units above the dimension mean and needs located by the target model less than -.5 MDS standard units below the mean. Adding a subject's positive need MDS scores and subtracting the negative need MDS scores (positively increasing the sum) produced a differentiation score that reflected the subject's degree of appropriate need differentiation (the greater the score, the stronger the differentiation).
The PIT was mailed to all entering freshmen at a medium size state university two to three weeks before the beginning of the fall semester for each of the years 1984 through 1990. Response rates varied between 45% and 50%. Responding students who graduated within six years of admission provided a pool of 2078 female and 1607 male subjects.
Male and female data were analyzed separately. For each of the seven data collection years, subjects in the upper third of the QPA distribution for their entrance year were classified as High group members. Middle third subjects were classified as Mid group members. The lowest third subjects were classified as Low group members. The High, Mid, and Low groupings corresponded roughly but not exactly to A, B, and C letter grades. Classification was made separately for each entering class to guard against the possibility of changes in grading practices for different years or for possible changes in admission procedures. At the completion of this process, subjects of the same sex were recombined into total High, Mid, or Low classification groups.
The SAT verbal score mean for female students entering for the years 1984 to 1987 was 595 with a SD of 72; the female math mean was 618 with a SD of 68. The SAT verbal score mean for the males (same time period) was 574 with a SD of 78; the male math mean was 632 with a SD of 73. These statistics indicate a moderately select and homogeneous student population with regard to academic potential. Such a population should increase the relative importance of motivation and other nonintellectual factors that might affect academic performance.
For each dimension, the subjects' dimension differentiation scores were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine the significance of differences between the High, Mid, and Low academic achievement groups. Males and females were analyzed separately.
ANOVA results of the High, Mid, and Low academic achievers' need differentiation scores showed significant differences for all three dimensions for both sexes (p less than .000 for each of the six ANOVA). For both sexes, the high groups had the greatest differentiation with the Mid group next and the Low group last for all three dimensions. These results are in accord with the primary hypothesis of the study that predicted that need differentiation of synchronically opposed needs would be positively related to academic achievement.
For males, the ANOVA F ratios for the three dimensions were: 11.18 for the personal dimension, 7.91 for the competitive dimension, and 7.70 for the combative dimension. For females, the ANOVA F ratios were: 23.04 for the personal dimension, 9.96 for the combative, and 9.40 for the competitive dimension. These results are in accord with the second hypothesis that predicted that need differentiation would be most pronounced in the personal dimension.
Although this research was primarily designed to search for general differences that could have theoretical implications, the significant ANOVA differences between the QPA groups suggested examination of the data by discriminant analysis to see how well individual subjects could be classified in High, Mid, or Low categories. Cross-validation (Minitab) discriminant analyses were performed using the need differentiation scores as potential discriminators for each of the three dimensions. The results were highly similar for males and females. Male Highs had 57% correct classification and male Lows had 52% correct classification (chance correct classification was 33%). Only 7% of the male Mid subjects were correctly classified. For the females, 57% of the Highs and 52% of the Lows were correctly classified with only 7% of the Mid group correctly classified. The similarity between the male and female results is noteworthy but the very poor predictability of the Mid group subjects argues against the use of the PIT for college entrance selection purposes.
So - What Does It All Mean?
The fact that the successful predictions of the study were based on a four year trial period attests to the long term interpretive reliability of PIT measures and the stability of motivation factors in college academic achievement.
While it may be argued that the PIT method of assessment does not directly measure needs or motives, the same can be said of all measures of motivation, whether they are based on drive deprivation, self-reports, or observational judgments. A long research history shows that the PIT projective technique provides effective predictive correlates of motivation (see Pit Publications). PIT measures reveal internal and unconscious experiences. The PIT use of facial expressions to identify aspects of motivation is an extension of the widespread identification of emotions by facial expressions reported by Eckman, Sorenson, & Friesen (1969) and others. Facial expression is an important form of body language that deserves further research.
The PIT measures of motivation used in this study are based on synchronic need associations. These measures may perhaps be best interpreted as indicators of beliefs about how needs simultaneously combine and interact with each other to promote satisfaction. The implications of this theory are consequential since it may be asserted that human actions (and most behaviors) are selected and initiated by beliefs, both conscious and unconscious.
A specific implication of the present study is that the most discriminating measures were located in the personal-social dimension rather than the competitive or combative dimensions. One might have expected that the competitive dimension would be the strongest dimension for predicting academic achievement since such achievement obviously involves competitive effort. However, the previously noted research by Wentzel (1996) and others, promoted the selection of the personal-social dimension as the most promising source of academic motivation and this proposal is supported by the results of this study.
Personal-social beliefs can affect motivation and academic achievement either positively or negatively. A negative effect may be produced by frustrations created by unsuccessful attempts to satisfy affiliation desires. Those who have provided psychological and medical help in college counseling centers and health services are familiar with the lonely isolated student who by passivity, handicap, or contentiousness is rejected (or feels rejected) by others and has withdrawn from academic endeavors. Failure to be accepted by a fraternity or sorority or to develop intimate relationships can result in loneliness and depression that handicap academic efforts. Also, socially withdrawn students lose the support, stimulation, and help from others who could assist their academic efforts. In some cases, lonely students come to feel that the whole academic situation is unfriendly, indifferent, and unfair and they react by rejecting the total academic environment. Such a reaction can obviously work against academic achievement. In such cases, even teachers and professors are apt to be negatively affected and less interested in helping the student.
The PIT results of this study suggest that the frustrations of less successful college achievers are often related to desires for friendship and intimacy that are synchronically (simultaneously) interacting with conflicting desires to exhibit success, superiority, and dominance. When a student attempts to synchronically combine and simultaneously assert these conflicting needs, they will experience frustration in their personal dimension in the form of social rejection and failure to satisfy such needs as play, affiliation, and succorance. They will also experience frustration in academic, competitive situations since failure to effectively and appropriately activate needs such as understanding, order, counteraction, and achievement (see need definitions) will diminish learning, academic success, and intellectual development.
On the positive side, students who can temporally separate their needs for friendship, sociability, and intimacy from their needs to excel, compete, and avoid failure are able to effectively satisfy both sets of needs. When they wish to socialize they are not conflicted by desires for dominance and recognition and when it is time to work, perform, and seek competitive recognition they are not distracted by personal-social needs. They are thus doubly rewarded by their ability to differentiate opposing needs and their actions in both cases add to their effectiveness and confidence. The present study suggests that academic success at the college level requires effective expression of not just competitive needs but of personal-social needs as well.
For a college student having academic problems, the PIT provides information about important aspects of her or his motivation system. It indicates which motivation dimensions (combative, personal-social, competitive) are well structured to avoid conflicts between synchronically opposed needs and which are not. The emphasis on the temporal synchronic functioning of the motivation system is important because opposing needs only conflict when they are simultaneously activated. The PIT is the only instrument that provides synchronic motivation information. The traditional psychological measures of traits do not provide this critical information.
Bean,J.P. & Bradley,R.K. (1986). Untangling of satisfaction-performance relationships
Kumar,R. (1983). Personality needs associated with high and low scholastic achievement. Asian Journal of Psychology & Education, 11(4), 14-20.
Lehtinen,E., Vauras,M., Salonen,P.,Olkinuora,E. (1995). Long term development of learning activity: Motivational, cognitive, and social interaction. Special issue: Influences of instructional settings on learning and cognitive development: Findings from European research programs. Educational Psychologist, 30(1), 21-35.
Malloch,D.C. & Michael,W.B. (1981). Predicting student grade point average at a community college from scholastic aptitude tests and from measures representing three constructs in Vroom's expectancy theory model of motivation. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 41(4), 1127-1135.
Nichols,J.D. (1996). The effects of cooperative learning on student achievement and motivation in a high school geometry class. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 21(4), 467-476.
Sid,A.K. & Lindgren,H.C. (1982). Achievement and affiliation motivation and their correlates. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 42(4), 1213-1218.
Thompson,M.E. (1976). The prediction of academic achievement by a British study habits inventory. Research in Higher Education, 5(4), 365-372.
Urdan,T.C. & Maehr,M.L. (1995). Beyond a two-goal theory of motivation and achievement: A case for social goals. Review of Educational Research, 65(3), 213-243.
Wentzel,K.R. (1996). Social goals and social relationships as motivators of school adjustment. In J. Juvonen & K.R. Wentzel (Eds.). Social Motivation: Understanding children's school adjustment, Cambridge studies in social and emotional development, 226-247. New York: Cambridge University Press.
The
Picture Identification Test (PIT) is a psychological
instrument based on the Murray need system. The PIT uses multidimensional scaling
to provide an analysis of needs (motives). It indicates needs that are being
met or expressed ineffectively. The PIT can be administered to subjects ages
twelve and older.
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For further information about
the Picture Identification Test contact
Jay L. Chambers, PhD: ibis@kalexres.kendal.org
160 Kendal Drive Apartment #205
Lexington, Virginia 24450
Phone: 540.462.3874
The Motivation Analysis web site has three sections:
Motivation Analysis: General
Systems Point of View | Combative Dimension
| Personal Social Dimension |
Competitve Dimension | PIT
Scores | PIT Publications |
PIT Dissertations | Motivation
System Target Model | Target Model
Reliability | GPA Predications | Need
& Cluster Definitions | Links
Essays: Combative
Dominance Syndrome (new) | Political
Motivation | Mental Sets |
Symbolic Thinking, Values, Motivation & Religion |
Needs, Values, Philosophy & Religion
Needs (Motives): Abasement
| Achievement |
Affiliation | Aggression | Autonomy
| Blame Avoidance | Counteraction
| Defendance | Deference
| Dominance | Exhibition
| Gratitude | Harm
Avoidance | Inferiority Avoidance
| Nurturance | Order
| Play | Rejection
| Sentience | Sex
| Succorance | Understanding
URL: http://www.overbooked.org/motivation/ma/gpaprediction.html
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