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Abstract

This book represents the state of the art of achievement motivation theory and research. The history of achievement motivation stretches back more than a quarter century (McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, & Lowell, 1953). Initally, its research focused primarily on the measurement of a particular motive denoted as “need for achievement” or N-ACH. Soon work with this construct began being related to specific child rearing patterns (Winterbottom, 1953) and to the economic growth of nations (McClelland and Winter, 1969). From these beginnings, research and theory on achievement motivation became quite multifaceted and multidirectional. The area of female achievement became investigated (Horner, 1966), new forms of measurement were proposed (Mehrabian, 1969), new concepts such as risk-taking (Atkinson and Feather, 1966), expectancy and attainment value (Crandall, 1969(, evaluation anxiety and negative motivation (Hill, 1972) and attributions (Weiner, 1971) were developed.

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© 1980 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Fyans, L.J. (1980). Introduction. In: Fyans, L.J. (eds) Achievement Motivation. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-8997-3_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-8997-3_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-8999-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-8997-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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