Achievement Imagery in Women's Lives From Adolescence to Adulthood

Situational influences have long been recognized as a primary source of variation in the relation between achievement imagery and behavior. These situational influences occur within the evolving life course and reflect both the past and the anticipated future. Using a well-known longitudinal archive, this study views situational incentives in the anticipated careers of adolescent girls as a contextual determinant of the relation between their achievement imagery and behavior from adolescence,to early adulthood. The analysis identifies two motivational trajectories: the social-marital path of achievement-oriented girls who claimed a domestic or family-centered future and the worklife-career sequence of highly motivated girls (high need for Achievement) who favored family and work interests. The first career sequence links achievement motivation with investment in activities that are part of the sequence of dating, courtship, and marriage. Boys and dating ranked high in the adolescence of these young women, and they tended to bear more children in their adult years. In the second career of education and work, the achievement imagery of girls is related to their IQ, grades, and conversational topics that are about other than boy-girl issues. In young adulthood these women tended to finish school, marry, and start a family at a later age. The study highlights the value of a life-course perspective on achievement thoughts and motivation across the life span. The relation between achievement motivation and behavior warrants greater consideration within the life course. Typically, the behavioral expression of need for Achievement (« Ach) has been examined within a situation-specific framework, 1 but the temporal frame of action extends beyond specific situations to the experienced and anticipated life course. Achievement motivation acquires more precise meaning and direction when examined within the context of life goals (e.g., vocational desires). Two goal frameworks (family-centered/domestic and career oriented) specify different lines of action for

[1]  D. Kaufman,et al.  Achievement and women : challenging the assumptions , 1984 .

[2]  John W. Atkinson,et al.  Studying personality in the context of an advanced motivational psychology. , 1981 .

[3]  A. Rossi.  Life-Span Theories and Women's Lives , 1980, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.

[4]  G. Elder.  Family Structure and Socialization , 1980 .

[5]  W. Walsh,et al.  Traditionality and congruence of career aspirations for college women , 1979 .

[6]  J. Crawford.  Career Development and Career Choice in Pioneer and Traditional Women. , 1978 .

[7]  L. Hoffman,et al.  Changes in Family Roles, Socialization, and Sex Differences. , 1977 .

[8]  G. Elder.  Age Differentiation and the Life Course , 1975 .

[9]  J. Veroff,et al.  Marriage and Work in America: A Study of Motives and Roles. , 1971 .

[10]  A. Skolnick.  Motivational imagery and behavior over twenty years. , 1966, Journal of consulting psychology.

[11]  R. Lazarus.  Story telling and the measurement of motivation: the direct versus substitutive controversy. , 1966, Journal of consulting psychology.

[12]  D. Mcclelland.  Longitudinal trends in the relation of thought to action. , 1966, Journal of consulting psychology.

[13]  G. S. Lesser,et al.  SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVE IN WOMEN. , 1964, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[14]  Willard Waller,et al.  The family : a dynamic interpretation , 1951 .

[15]  E. Stern.  The Adolescent and the Family , 1950 .

[16]  Jean Lipman-Blumen,et al.  How Ideology Shapes Women's Lives , 1972 .