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EVALUATIONS OF THREE FACTORS THAT MIGHT INFLUENCE RESPONSES TO TESTS OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION
Author(s) -
BUXTON CLAUDE E.
Publication year - 1967
Publication title -
british journal of educational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.557
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 2044-8279
pISSN - 0007-0998
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8279.1967.tb01932.x
Subject(s) - psychology , test (biology) , likert scale , social psychology , confidentiality , developmental psychology , paleontology , political science , law , biology
S ummary . The effects of three manipulations in test conditions were compared for a forced‐choice and a Likert‐type test of academic achievement motivation. (1) Answering as one's friends would, rather than for one's self, slightly decreases mean score, depending upon the school rather than the type of test, and significantly increases variability. (2) Administration of tests by an authority figure (staff member) rather than an outsider produces no significant change in mean score for either type of test when the written instructions indicate confidentiality of responses. (3) Instructions to ‘fake’ so as to please a teacher produce large and significant changes in mean score in both kinds of test. Satisfactory reliabilities of the tests and mostly significant relations to criteria of academic motivation are reported. It was concluded that under the conditions typically used in these studies, the Likert test shows somewhat greater effects of social desirability than the forced‐choice test, but that more important than test format were the instructions to answer truthfully, and the promise of confidentiality of responses.