The Journal of Educational Research
ISSN: 0022-0671 (Print) 1940-0675 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjer20
Predictive and Postdictive Validity of Need
Achievement Measures
A. W. Bendig
To cite this article: A. W. Bendig (1958) Predictive and Postdictive Validity of Need
Achievement Measures, The Journal of Educational Research, 52:3, 119-120, DOI:
10.1080/00220671.1958.10882550
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220671.1958.10882550
Published online: 23 Dec 2014.
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Date: 24 June 2016, At: 08:32
JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
(Volume 52, Number 3, November 1958)
PREDICTIVE AND POSTDICTIVE VALIDITY OF NEED
ACHIEVEMENT MEASURES
A. W . Bendig *
Downloaded by [Wilfrid Laurier University] at 08:32 24 June 2016
Univers ity of Pittsburgh
McCLELLAND et al., in reviewing a number of
small-scale studies of the relation 0 f s cor e s on
their projective measure of "need achievement" to
college achievement, attempt to reconcile conflicting results by suggesting the hypothesis "that the
measure of motivation has a higher relation to future than to past grades" (4). Assuming that the
fluctuating grade-oriented motivational level of students partially influences their achievementperformance in college classes, and ass u min g that the
McClelland projective need-achievement scale is an
indirect measure of this motivation, this hypothesis
appears quite reasonable. However, a recent study
(1) using a larger sample of students than those reported by McClelland (4) found that the pro j e c tive
nAch scale was not related to future achievement in
an introductory psychology course (N=244, r=.10),
but that Edwards objective scale of nee d achievement (2) was significantly related to class achievement (r=. 16). The obtained low relationship between the McClelland nAch scale and future achievement suggests that McClelland's hypothesis is not
adequate and that a study com par ing the relatio~
ship of the projective nAch scale to both past and
future college achievement is necessary.
Procedure
The students were 110 male students enrolled in
six sections of introductory p s y c h 0 logy for whom
complete achievement and psychometric data were
available. Three psychometric scales were administered to the students during two class s e s s ion s
within the first four weeks of the semester~ (a) a
30-item vocabulary test used as a mea sure of the
verbal intelligence level of the students, (b) the 28item forced-choice Need Achievement scale included in Edwards' Personal Preference Schedule (2),
and (c) the four-picture projective Nee d Achiev~
ment measure developed by McClelland, et al., (4).
The McClelland test was administered in the class-
room using" neutral" instructions and sco r e <1 by
two experienced administrators .
Two achievement criteria were available on each
student: (a) each one filled out a "census card" in
class at the beginning of the s e m est e r which requested, among other information, the student's
cumulative quality pOint average (QPA)inallcourses completed at this university during the student's
preceding semesters, and (b) the let t er grade received by the student in this introductory psychology
ogy course at the end of the present semester. The
second achievement criterion was based up 0 n the
student's relative performance on four objective departmental tests administered during the semester
to all students in the course. The tests and grading
standards were identical in all six sec t ions. The
five possible course letter grades were qualified in
the usual manner by assigning unit weights with an
A grade receiving a weight of 3, a B grade a weight
of 2, etc.
The students used in this study com p r i s e the
total male population in these six sections, excluding first semester freshmen students (who had yet
to earn a QPA at this university), students who
were absent from class at one of the class periods
during which the Need Achievement scales were administered, students who withdrew from the course
before the end of the semester, and t ran s fer students from other universities who were in the i r
first semester at the University of Pittsburgh.
Results
Raw scores on the three t est measures and the
two achievement criteria were apprOXimately normally distributed. Consequently, the v ar i a bl es
were intercorrelated by the usual product-moment
method and the results can be found in Table I. The
significance of the difference between the two validity coefficients for each of the psychometric scales
(the correlation of the test with the two achievement
• The author wishes to express his appreciation to Messers. Jack Dunsing and Oakley Ray for the i r administration and scoring of the projective need achievement test.
JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
120
TABLE I
CORRELATIONS BETWEEN NEED ACHIEVEMENT MEASURES AND
TWO INDICES OF COLLEGE ACHIEVEMENT (N = 110)
Raw Scores
Significance of
Mean
S. D.
QPA
Grade
Difference (F)
Vocabulary
14.09
4.33
.17*
.27***
1. 07
Edwards nAch
14.95
3.74*
.17*
.13
.19
McClelland nAch
7.00
4. 99
.22**
.02
3.74*
Scales
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Achievement Criteria
Intercorrelation of Criteria
*p = .10
.41 ***
***p = .01
**p = .05
criteria) was tested for significance by the usual
F-ratio method (5), which statistically controls for
the correlation (r=. 41) between the two achievement
criteria.
It can be seen in Table I that the v 0 cab u 1 a r y
relation between vocabulary and course grades (r =
.27) is about the same size as has been fou n d for
previous samples. The correlation be tw e e n Edwards Need Achievement scale and QPA (r = • 17)is
significant at the. 10 level (two-tailed test of significance), but is slightly lower (r = . 13) when correlated with course grades. However, the difference
between these two correlations is not significant at
the .10 level (F = .19). McClelland'sNeedAchievement scale is significantly (. 05 level) rei ate d to
QPA (r = .22), but shows a zero r e la tionship (r =
. 02) to grades. The difference between these two
validity coeffiCients is significant at the . 10 level
(F = 3.75). Adding either of the two NeedAchievement scales to the QPA measure by multiple corre1ation techniques did not significantly (F = .43 and
. 69) improve the accuracy in pre d i c tin g course
grades (R = .42) over the use of the QPA measure
alone (r = . 41).
the .10 level and opposite in direction to that suggested by McClelland's hypotheSiS. If our results
are confirmed by future samples, the da te would
suggest a reformulation of the hypothesized rei ationship between college achievement and the achievement imagery quantified by McClelland's procedure.
Achievement imagery may be the res u I t of the
past reinforcement history of students and not an
index of the current motivational 1eve 1 of the students. Positive academic reinforcement may act
to strengthen the occurrence of achievement thema
in the fantasy productions of students and a quantitative measure of these fantasy thema may be less
an index of the current level of Nee d Achievement
than it is a measure of the frequency 0 f ac ad emic
success as represented by grades in college classes.
REFERENCES
1.
2.
Discussion
The results of this study do not confirm the original McClelland hypothesis that the projective
measure of Need Achievement is more highly related to future achievement than it is to past achievement. The present results suggest just the opposite
since the correlation between the McClelland scale
scores and previous QPA (r = . 22)was significantly
different from zero while the scale scores were not
significantly related to future achievement as represented by course grades (r = . 02). The difference
between these two correlations was s i g n i £lcant at
3.
4.
5.
Bendig, A. W., Comparative Validity ofObjective and Projective Meas ures of Need Achieve ment in Predicting Student' Achievement in Introductory Psychology, unpublIShed study.
Edwards, A. L., Manual for Ed war d s Personal Preference Schedule. New York: Psychological Corporation, 1954.
French, J. W., Manualfor Kitof Select&d
Tests for Reference Aptitude and Achievement
Factors, Princeton: Educational Testing SerVice, 1954.
McClelland, D. C., Atkinson, J. W., Clark,
R. A., and Lowell, E. L., The Achieveme n t
Motive, New York: Appleton-Century-C r ofts,
1953. pp. 237-242.
Wert, J. E., Neidt, C. 0., and Ahmann, 1. S.,
Statistical Methods in Educational and Psychological Research, New York: App letonCentury-Crofts, 1954, p. 299.