The Construct Validity of Vallerand’s Academic Motivation Scale (AMS)

Abstract

It seems that the academic motivation structure is affected by cultural factors. Many studies have examined the factorial structure of the academic motivation scale (AMS), and the results showed different factorial structures of AMS (e.g., Taghipour Ali Hosein et al. (EL-yazidi and Louzani, 2017) concluded that the scale consists of two dimensions; Natalya and Purwanto (2018) concluded that it consists of three dimensions; Alruaili (2020) concluded that it consists of four dimensions; Abu Awad (2009) concluded that the scale consists of six dimensions). The AMS is one of the most widely used academic motivation measures across the world. It was built on the basis of the self-determination theory. The current study aimed at investigating the factorial structure of the AMS using the exploratory factor analysis (PCA) and the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The AMS was applied to a sample of 401 university students. The results of PCA suggested a three-factor solution (intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and Amotivation), and CFA was conducted for three competing structures (three factors, five factors, and seven factors); the results confirmed the three-factor solution for the AMS. The results also showed that the AMS dimensions had good alpha coefficient values which were greater than the acceptable cut-off value of 0.7. In conclusion, the Jordanian version of the AMS is a valid scale that consists of 24 items loaded on three factors (intrinsic, extrinsic, and Amotivation) for measuring academic motivation.