This brief exercise is similar to one of the initial procedures developed by
psychologists to tackle the question of why some people work hard and achieve
in the business world, whereas others do not (McClelland, 1961, 1985;
McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, & Lowell, 1953; Stewart, 1982). Predicting suc-
cess in achievement situations has been a focus of personality research for more
than half a century. Much of the early work on this question was concerned
with individual differences in one of the needs identified by Henry Murray —the
need for Achievement. Murray described need for Achievement as the desire
“to accomplish something difficult; to master, manipulate or organize …to over-
come obstacles and attain a high standard; to excel one ’ss e l f”(1938, p. 164). To
assess this need, researchers sometimes use another of Murray ’s contributions to
psychology, the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). As described in Chapter 3,test takers create stories about the scenes they see in the TAT cards. Investigators
then use objective coding systems to obtain a need for Achievement score fromthe stories. For example, if you saw in the photograph a man working hard to
reach an important goal, your story would probably indicate a high need for
Achievement. On the other hand, if your story was about how this man wasthinking about his loved ones and personal goals when he should be working,
your response would probably yield a low need for Achievement score.
The TAT has been used in a large number of investigations into achieve-
ment motivation. However, the test is also time consuming and has been sub-ject to questions about interpretation of scores (Blankenship et al., 2006;
McClelland, 1980; Tuerlinckx, De Boeck, & Lens, 2002). Consequently, to-
day many investigators rely on easier to administer self-report inventories to
assess achievement motivation (Schmalt, 1999; Spence & Helmreich, 1983).
Who is this person? What is he doing? How will things turn out? Whether you see a
man thinking about a difficult business problem or dreaming about going fishing mayindicate your own level of need for Achievement.184 CHAPTER 8 The Trait Approach