Content area
Personality research has more and more shifted from a trait to a state perspective over the last decades. Psychological states, including motivation, are influenced by a complex interplay of personal characteristics and situational factors. As early as 1938, Murray emphasized the importance of this interaction in the study of motivation with his distinction between need and press, yet this foundational idea has remained largely untested, not least because frameworks and instruments for the assessment of the situation have been lacking for a long time. The present dissertation focuses explicitly on achievement motivation and examines how perceptions of the situation relate to fluctuations in achievement motivation, building on recent advances in state-oriented research (e.g., Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015) as well as situation research (e.g., Rauthmann et al., 2014). Both a naturalistic and a laboratory design are utilized. By examining the interplay of these constructs at a highly frequented, momentary level, Murray’s (1938) needpress concept can be put to the test.
Study 1 used an experience sampling approach to investigate if achievement motivation varies at state level in daily life, thereby extending previous research that employed longitudinal designs over larger timespans to assess states in educational settings. For this purpose, constructs from different conceptualizations were included (i.e., need for achievement and goal theory). The results, characterized by substantial within-person variability, support the notion of fluctuating achievement motivation states. Multilevel models were applied to explore whether these states are related to situation perception. Findings suggest that momentary achievement motivation was indeed linked to specific situation perception variables, yielding evidence for the dynamic relationship between these constructs in real-life contexts and providing first indication that the motivation must be stimulated by the situation to unfold.
Building on these initial insights, Study 2 aimed to extend the findings by implementing Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models to fathom the directionality of the link between situation perception and achievement motivation at state level, particularly for those variables that had shown substantial associations with different motivational constructs in everyday life (i.e., Duty and Intellect). This study was conducted within an academic context and used a standardized learning task with three successive measurement occasions to discover whether it is actually the perception of the situation that triggers the motivation. As hypothesized, significant spillover effects were found, mainly from situation perception to achievement motivation, providing first causal insights into the directionality of the relation. In contrast to expectations, Intellect did not elicit motivational states. Only the perception of Duty was associated with increased levels of achievement motivation.