| Abstract: | The relative strength of mastery motivation and need for approval was tested among 2 groups of 11-yr-olds, 40 high and 40 low scorers on the Children's Social Desirability Scale. Mastery motivation was inferred from the amount of time that Ss spent in 1 of 2 discrimination tasks, a challenging (unsolvable) or a solvable problem. To measure need for approval, Ss were tested in either a social-reinforcement or an E-absent condition. As predicted, low scorers spent more time in the unsolvable than the solvable task, with negligible condition differences. High scorers spent more time in the social-reinforcement than in the E-absent condition, with negligible task differences. On the solvable task, high Ss demonstrated poorer learning than low Ss. Sex differences revealed greater mastery motivation for boys and greater need for approval for girls. The need to study the developmental course of these motives and to investigate the antecedents of the group differences obtained is emphasized. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
