Prediction of Persistence and Performance With the Hermans Prestatic Motivation Test

Abstract

Hermans' Prestatic Motivation Test, a questionnaire measure of achievement motivation, is easier to administer and to score than are its projective counterparts, the Thematic Apperception Test and the French Test of Insight; and it need not be administered under controlled conditions. In two independent studies of its predictive validity, Hermans' measure was found to be positively related to persistence and to performance in academic examinations, both when the measure was used alone and when it was combined with the Mandler-Sarason Test Anxiety Questionnaire as a measure of resultant motivation. Moreover, although the French Test of Insight was found to be related to persistence as in earlier research, it was not related to Hermans' measure. It is concluded that Hermans' questionnaire taps a psychological characteristic that is manifest in achievement directed behavior, but that this characteristic is something other than the achievement motive of McClelland and his colleagues.