MEASURING THE ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVE IN BRAZIL.

This article discusses research done in Brazil employing the projective technique for the measurement of human motivation developed in the U.S. The general purpose of the research was to evaluate the technique by applying it to individuals who belong to a culture different from the one in which the method was developed. The results confirm the hypothesis that the projective method of measuring achievement motivation under study yields results similar to those obtained in the U.S. More specifically, giving Brazilian students experiences of success and failure has similar effects on their achievement imagery, when it is defined in terms of competition with a standard of excellence. In spite of the cultural determination of such standards, the scoring definition is apparently sufficiently general to detect the same experimental effects on fantasy in Brazil. Of course the universal applicability of the scoring definition can only be admitted after satisfactory results have been obtained in a number of cultures. On the other hand, the results of the present study are sufficiently encouraging to support the belief that it will be possible to study the intensity of the achievement motive itself as it varies from culture to culture.