Social Value Orientations and the Expression of Achievement Motivation

Individuals' egoistic and nonegoistic social value orientations were used as predictors of overall and component aspects of achievement motivation among an American sample of university students. Students whose dominant social values were those of competition and individualism had higher overall achievement motivation than students with cooperative social values. Analyses of component aspects of achievement motivation indicated, however, that this relationship was due solely to a difference between competitors and cooperators, and between individualists and cooperators, in their reported enjoyment of interpersonal competition. No other components of achievement motivation varied as a function of social values.