Motivational feedback loops in the structure of action

Tested the hypothesis that level of aspiration, preparation for implementation, and execution are action stages with separate feedback loops, controlled by different motivational variables. 60 Romanian 8th-grade males in a vocational training class were required to choose and to manufacture work pieces of various degrees of difficulty. Ss completed self-assessments of vocational aptitude and skills, measures of attitudes toward work and authority figures, evaluations of task difficulty and their expectations for success, and the Mehrabian Risk Preference Scale and Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Smallest-space analysis of the data confirmed the hypothesis. In a nonroutine act, the link between achievement motivation and performance is mediated through variables that control the sequence of the action stages. (29 ref)