A review of previous investigations shows that achievement motivation can be produced by rewards and punishment in childhood only under special conditions not usually encountered. It is postulated that two other types of learning may also occur ( a ) the introjection of parental exhortation and standards, ( b ) identification with achievement‐oriented parents and others. These hypotheses were tested in a correlational study of five hundred grammar school and other children. Achievement motivation was measured both by the content analysis of imaginative stories and by a questionnaire; relations with parents were obtained from a modified version of the semantic differential. Both hypotheses were confirmed, though both processes were found to work only when there was sufficient identification with parents. An additional finding was that achievement motivation was found to be correlated with various measures of self‐aggression and guilt.
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Argyle et al. (1962) studied this question.