The Achievement Motivation Scale Revisited: a Cross-Validation Study

The Achievement Motivation Scale (AMS), a brief, non-theoretical self-report measure of motivation to do well in school, was administered to 10 classes of male and female undergraduates at two Southeastern universities. That correlation coefficients between AMS scores and undergraduate quality-point averages ranged from .30 to .53 generally supported findings by other investigators who had used the AMS with high school samples. The AMS also demonstrated cross-validated incremental validity when it was added to a conventional two-predictor regression equation involving a high school achievement index and scholastic aptitude test scores. The addition of the AMS scores raised the cross-validated multiple correlation coefficients .08 and .06 for males and females, respectively; both increments were statistically significant at the .01 level.