Achievement Motivation of Higher Secondary Students in relation to ...

International Journal of Teacher Educational Research (IJTER) Vol.2 No.5 May, 2013 ISSN: 2319-4642 www.ijter.com

ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION OF HIGHER SECONDARY STUDENTS IN RELATION TO LOCALITY AND TYPE OF FAMILY K. VELMURUGAN Ph.D. Research Scholar Department of Education, Annamalai University Annamalai Nagar-608 002

Dr. V. BALAKRISHNAN Assistant Professor Department of Education Annamalai University Annamalai Nagar-608 002

ABSTRACT The present study was conducted to investigate the achievement motivation of higher secondary students in relation to locality and type of family. The study was conducted on a random sample of 600 students studying in Ariyalur and Perambalur districts in Tamil Nadu. The Achievement Motivation Test constructed and validated by Gopal Roa (1974) was used to collect the data. The result of the study reveals that there is no significant difference between the rural and urban school students in their achievement motivation. Also, it is inferred that there is no significant difference between the general stream higher secondary students coming form joint family and nuclear family in their achievement motivation. Keywords: Achievement Motivation, Higher secondary students, Locality, Type of family INTRODUCTION Achievement motive is a concept developed by the social psychologist McClelland to denote the strong urge felt by an individual or society for achievement in various aspects like education, culture, money, etc. that satisfies the need of self-esteem. The achievement motive is the deciding factor in attaining success in different fields. An achieving society is characterized by the history of a strong and persistent achievement motivation. McClelland et al (1959) defined achievement motivation as a competition with a standard of excellence. Thus the achievement motivation is characterized by a desire to attain a high standard of excellence and to accomplish the unique objective. The self-imposed requirement for good performance or accomplishment of some unique work may be called as need to accomplish something worthwhile, unique or excellent or need for mastery. The achievement motive move or drives an individual to strive to gain mastery of difficult and challenging situation or performances in the pursuit of excellence. It comes into the Achievement Motivation of Higher Secondary Students in relation to locality and type of family 7


picture when an individual knows that his performance will be evaluated, that the consequence of his actions will lead either to success or failure and that good performance will produce a feeling of pride in accomplishment. The achievement motive may thus be considered to be a disposition to approach success or the capacity to take pride in accomplishment when success is achieved in an activity. As for the original and development of the achievement motive, it can be safely said that it is conditioned by one’s early training, experiences and subsequent learning. In general, children usually acquire the achievement motive from their parent’s lifestyle. Studies have shown that the children whose independent training starts at an early age and who get more autonomy within a cooperative, encouraging and less authoritarian family environment usually develop an achievement oriented attitude. Later, on the experiences and learning based on the circumstances and situations in his life may lead an individual to provide a level for the intensity of his achievement motive to struggle for attaining the standard of excellence desired by him. There are several studies conducted on achievement motivation among the students. These studies reveal that achievement motivation among the students differs with reference to gender (Petel 1987 and Chauhan 1989), socio-economic status (Abrod 1977), birth order (Haripande 1976), mediam of instruction (Parith 1976), and locality (Vimal Kishor and Kalpana Rana 2010 Rama and Nirmala Devi 2011). From the studies reviewed, it is inferred that the achievement motivation of higher secondary students of general stream in Ariyalur and Perambalur districts has not been studied so far so deeply. Therefore the investigators wish to choose the higher secondary students of general stream for their study. Methodology The present study has been conducted on the higher secondary school students of Ariyalur and Perambalur Districts in Tamil Nadu. A random sample of 600 higher secondary school students has been selected for the present study. The Achievement Motivation Test constructed and validated by Gopal Roa (1974) was used as the tool. It was revalidated through the expert’s opinion and the reliability was also found by test – retest method. In this test 20 statements having two options is used. The General Achievement Related (GAR) options are assigned a score of one where as the High Achievement Related (HAR) options are assigned a score of three. An individual’s score is sum of all the scores for the 20 items. The cumulative weighted score of all the responses as provided in the key forms the achievement motivation score of the individual. The scores in this scale range from 20 to 60. The pupils obtaining a score in the range of 50-60 on the test may be considered as ‘high’ in their achievement motive, and the Achievement Motivation of Higher Secondary Students in relation to locality and type of family 8


pupils obtaining a score in the range of 33-49 as ‘average’ and the pupils obtaining a score in the range of 20-32 as ‘low’ in their achievement motive. The maximum score that one can get in this test is 60. The investigators used arithmetic mean analysis to find out the level of achievement motivation among the higher secondary students. They also used‘t’ test to find out the significant difference among the categories of the sample based on locality and type of family. OBJECTIVES OF STUDY 1. To find the achievement motivation of higher secondary students. 2. To find out if there is any significant between rural and urban area students of general steams higher secondary course in their achievement motivation. 3. To find out if there is any significant between joint and nuclear family students of general steam higher secondary course in their achievement motivation. RESULT AND DISCUSSION Table – 1 Mean scores of achievement motivation of General streams higher secondary students S.No. 1.

Independent variable Achievement Motivation

N

Mean

S.D

600

47.66

5.55

Table-1 shows that the mean value for achievement motivation of general stream higher secondary students is found to be 47.66. It is concluded that level of achievement motivation of general stream higher secondary students is average. The pupils of general stream higher secondary students have obtained the score of 47.66 on the test. On the basis of the manual of achievement motivation test, it is concluded that the higher secondary students of general stream is having average achievement motivation. The result of present study is patronized by Godwin and Krishna Prasad (2010) and reported moderate level of achievement motivation among the higher secondary students. In contrast, the studies by Pratibha Sood

Achievement Motivation of Higher Secondary Students in relation to locality and type of family 9


(2006), Moly Kuruvilla and Usha (2009), Godwin and Krishna Prasad (2010), Vimal Kishor and Kalpana Rana (2010); Thanalakshmi and Rasul Mohaidaen (2011) and Yashpal Singh and Rekha Rani (2012) showed that students are having high level of achievement motivation. Table – 2 Significance of difference between urban and rural area general stream higher secondary students in their achievement motivation Independent variable GAR

HAR

Total Achievement motivation

Location of the school

N

Mean

SD

Urban

300

6.02

3.02

Rural

300

6.30

2.28

Urban

300

42.10

9.06

Rural

300

41.10

6.84

Urban

300

47.9267

6.38885

Rural

300

47.4033

4.56033

‘t’

LEVEL OF

VALUE

SIGNIFICANCE

1.26

N.S

1.53

N.S

1.15

Not significant

Table –2 shows that the ‘t’ value for total achievement motivation is found to be 1.15 which is not significant. Therefore, it is concluded that there exist no significant difference between urban and rural areas general stream higher secondary students in their achievement motivation. The result of present study is supported by Ahluwalia (1985), Sodhi (1989), and Thanalakshmi and Rasul Mohaidaen(2011). The result of present investigation is contradictory to the studies of Vimal Kishor and Kalpana Rana (2010) and Rama and Nirmala Devi (2011). In their studies they found that the achievement motivation of rural and urban students differs significantly from one another.



Table – 3 Significance of difference between joint family and nuclear family students of general stream higher secondary course in their achievement motivation Independent variable

Type of family

GAR

Joint family Nuclear family Joint family Nuclear family Joint family Nuclear family

HAR

Total Achievement motivation

N

Mean

SD

262

6.21

2.74

‘t’ VALUE 0.51

338

6.11

2.64

262

41.66

7.97 0.16

338

41.55

8.10

262

47.6603

5.60335 0.01

338

47.6686

LEVEL OF SIGNIFICANCE N.S

N.S Not significant

5.52010

Table–3 shows that the‘t’ value for total achievement motivation is found to be 0.01which is not significant. Therefore, it is concluded that there exist no significant difference between joint family and nuclear family students of general stream higher secondary course in their achievement motivation. CONCLUSION It is concluded that the higher secondary students of general stream have average motivation to accomplish valued goals and to avoid failure. There is no significant difference in their concern for doing well in relation to a standard of excellence with respect to their locality and type of family. REFERENCES Gopal Rao (1974). Manual for achievement motivation test. Agra Psychological Research Cell, Agra. Pratibha Stood (2006). Educational Choice in Relation to Academic Stress, Achievement Motivation and Academic Self-concept, Journal of Community Guidance and Research, 23(2), Pp.141-152. McClelland, D., Atkinson, J., Clark, R., & Lowell, E (1959). The Achievement Motive, New York: AppletonCentury-Crofts. Moly Kuruvilla and Usha, P (2009). Emotional Adjustment, Achievement Motivation and Academic Achievement of the Adolescents of Working and Non-working Mothers. Journal of Community Guidance and Research, 26(3), Pp.355-363. Achievement Motivation of Higher Secondary Students in relation to locality and type of family 11


Godwin, S and Krishna Prasad, B (2010). Achievement Motivation and Self-esteem of the Socially Challenged Higher Secondary Students. Research and Reflections on Education, 8(2), Pp.23-25. Vimal Kishor and Kalpana Rana (2010). Achievement Motivation among Secondary School Students. Experiment in Education, XXXVIII(4), Pp.23-27. Rama, C and Nirmala Devi, S (2011). Self-acceptance in Relation to Achievement Motivation among Adolescent Students, Meston Journal of Research in Education, 10(2), Pp.22-28. Thanalakshmi, G and Rasul Mohaideen, S. (2011). Achievement Motivation of the Students of the Fisherman Community in Tuticorin District. Research and Reflections on Education, 9(3), Pp.6-8. Yashpal Singh Deswal and Rekha Rani (2012). Achievement Motivation of Parented and Orphan Adolescents. Journal of Educational and Psychological Research, 2(1), Pp.69-73.
