International Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences 2016, 6(3): 133-138 DOI: 10.5923/j.ijpbs.20160603.06 Achievement Motivation as a Function of Participation, Strive, Willingness to Work and Maintaining Work: Application of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) Afrifa-Yamoah E. Department of Mathematical Sciences, NTNU, Norway Abstract Achievement Motivation is an interesting topic that should be carefully examined to find its core purpose. Self-report measures of achievement motivation are available, but are embodied in questionnaire measuring variety of personality traits. Researchers often require only the score on an achievement motivation scale, and a less time-consuming method of obtaining such scores is needed. Ellez (2004) proposed a 23-item scale instrument, named Achievement Motive Scale (AMS), to examine and measure the construct of achievement motivation. The items are intended to measure the students' achievement motive in the size of strive, participation, willingness to work and maintaining the working on a five scores Likert scale. The aim of this article is to study the relationship, formulate a model and test the significance of the four dimensions of the AMS. The survey design was employed involving 295 first and second year senior high school students. Using Hu and Bentler (1999) suggested benchmarks for continuous data, the analysis reported a RMSEA = 0.188 > 0.06, TFI = 0.395 < 0.95, CFI = 0.798 < 0.95, giving an indication the model fit cannot be concluded to be good. The hypothesis that the model is correct was falsified by the application of SEM. Among the four dimensions, participation was statistically insignificant in measuring one’s achievement motivation level. Although, the three other dimensions were identified as significant, the indicator items do not explain much of their variability. This suggests that more other items should be considered to bridge the huge gap of variability left to randomness. Keywords Structural Equation Modelling, Achievement Motive Scale 1. Introduction Achievement Motivation is an interesting topic that should be carefully examined to find its core purpose. It is first developed in an individual who has an extreme interest in accomplishing a task, therefore, is determined to put forth an effort in accomplishing the task. There are people who take on the role of achievement motivation in a different manner. Achievement motivation theorists’ attempt to explain people’s choice of achievement tasks, persistence on those tasks, vigor in carrying them out, and performance on them have lead to the development of variety of constructs to explain how motivation influences choice, persistence, and performance. Researchers have attributed the main factor bringing achievement motivation into existence as the need for achievement (Erdogan et al., 2011). The need for achievement shows itself as a desire to complete a task or behaviour according to perfection criteria or even better than these criteria. For instance, doing something much * Corresponding author: kingmorose@ymail.com (Afrifa-Yamoah E.) Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/ijpbs Copyright © 2016 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved more than the rivals, reaching or obtaining a difficult goal, solving a complex problem, improving skills, and completing homework successfully show the need for achievement. Individuals with high achievement need to take reasonable risks prefer activities that can be achieved easily, reach inner satisfaction stemming from their successes, and do not care for anything except their tasks. Low need for achievement is thought to be associated with a sense of low competence, low expectations, and orientation toward failure (Erdogan et al., 2011). The concept of achievement motivation is viewed as a complex human incentive to bring about results. It stimulates a systematic pattern of behaviours towards the desired ends, continuously urging them till results actually manifest. Elliot and McGregor’s (2001) model of achievement motivation, discuss two broad classes of goals: mastery goals, that is, to “master” the task at hand and performance goals. Research indicates that when students adopt mastery goals, they tend to engage in more effective cognitive processing strategies (Noar, Anderman, Zimmerman & Cupp, 2005). Social goals are another important type of goals, although not examined at length as mastery and performance goals (Dowson & McInerney, 2001). In these goals, social reasons are the main concerns for trying to achieve in academics. According to