A structural equation model analyzing the relationship of student achievement motivations and personality factors in a range of academic subject-matter areas

The question of subject-specificity of achievement motivations is important, both for educational psychology, as well as for educational policy. This study contributes to the investigation of the heterogeneity in achievement motivations in the context of the expectancy-value model. Whereas existing research deals with middle and high school students and their motivations for a range of broad domains, this article focuses on university students ( n = 264) and subject domains that are more congruent. We adopt an affect-extended version of the expectancy-value model. Using structural equation methods, we are able to decompose achievement motivations in generic and subject-specific components.