ABSTRACT
The Measurement and Analysis of Motivation ........................................... 18 Commonalities in Motivation Theory .......................................................... 19 The Measurement of Motivation ................................................................... 20
Traditional Types of Motivation Measures ......................................... 23 Projective ...................................................................................... 23 Objective ....................................................................................... 24 Subjective...................................................................................... 25 Implicit ......................................................................................... 29
Contemporary Measurement Issues .................................................... 31 Multilevel Implications for Measurement ............................... 31 Longitudinal Implications for Measurement .......................... 32 Measurement Methods versus Constructs.............................. 33
Summary and Integration: A Framework for Measures ................... 33 The Evaluation of Motivation Measures ....................................................... 35
Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Reliability ....................................... 35 Conrmatory Factor Analysis (CFA).................................................... 36 Item Response Theory (IRT) .................................................................. 39
The Statistical Analysis of Motivation Measures and Theories ................ 41 Cross-Sectional Models .......................................................................... 42
Multilevel Methods ..................................................................... 43 Cross-Level Models .................................................................... 44 Homologous Models ................................................................... 47
Longitudinal Methods ........................................................................... 47
Theory, methods, and statistics are inherently interrelated and synergistic. Theories that are interesting and testable become great theories. Methods that best test popular theories become paradigms. Statistics that unite theory and methods become dominant and uncontroversial. When theory, methods, and statistics t like pieces of a puzzle, the gestalt becomes visible in ways not possible from the individual pieces. In practice, however, these three pieces frequently do not t together. Theories become framed in terms of statistics (e.g., the hammer syndrome, where the favored statistic becomes the lens through which all research questions are perceived). Methods are based on convenience or availability (e.g., self-report measures are used because they are easy to administer). Statistics are inconsistent with the theory or suboptimal because they are the ones the researcher is familiar with. In this world, theories become subjugated to method and statistics.
