Effects of Temporal Delay and Achievement Motivation on the Choice of Achievement-Related Alternatives
Prior research has demonstrated that subjects high in achievement motivation prefer tasks of intermediate difficulty, while those low in achievement motivation prefer tasks of high or low difficulty (Weiner, Frieze, Kukla, Reed, Rest, & Rosenbaum, 1971). In the current experiment one task was described as easy, while the other task was described as being of moderate difficulty. It was anticipated that high achievers would find a task of moderate difficulty more attractive than an easy task and would perceive the easy task as relatively aversive, while low achievers would find the easy task more attractive and the moderately difficult task relatively aversive. Generalizing from the results of Mischel, et nl. to the current siruation involving achievement-related tasks, ic was predicted that high achievers should choose an easy (and for them more aversive) task first and a moderately difficult (and for them more attractive) task second, while low achievers should show the opposite pattern. Subjects were 85 (46 males, 39 females) students in introductory psychology. The tasks were a vowel-cancellation test, described as easy, and a word-construction test, described as moderately difficult. Subjects were asked to choose to take one of the tests immediately and the other in 4 wk. Subjects also rated some of their reactions to the tests and completed the Mehrabian Achievement Scale (Mehrabian, 1969). As intended, word construction was rared as more difficult than vowel cancellation (F = 108.72, df = 1/80, p < .0001). For the 41 high achievers there was a significant tendency to choose the word-construction test first (Z = 2.62, p < .01), while the 41 low achievers were almost evenly split in their preferences as to which test to take first. These results were opposite from predictions generated from the research of Mischel, et al. One post hoc speculative interpretation suggests that high achievers may have been attempting to maximize the positive consequences associated with taking the tests by choosing to first take the word-construction test (which they rated as the more enjoyable test) rather than taking it at a later time, when it was rared by high achievers as less enjoyable. Additional research clearly needs to be done, with atcention to characteristics of the tasks.