Further Evidence of Independence Between the Motive to Achieve Success and the Motive to Avoid Failure: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Abstract

The Motive to Achieve Success (MAS) and the Motive to Avoid Failure (MAF) are the most widely measured factors of achievement motivation. The relationships between MAS and MAF are controversial. To test the validity of these relations, we compared three models with different relationships between MAS and MAF by confirmatory factor analyses. Items from the achievement motivation subscale of the personality research form (Jackson, 1999) and from the motive to avoid failure scale (Hagtvet & Benson, 1997) were administrated to a large sample ('N' = 1179). The model in which MAS and MAF were separable and weakly correlated factors showed better results than independent and unitary models. Implications for the selection of participants were also discussed.