The Cultural Context of Academic Motives

In a comparison of Filipino and American college students' self-reported academic motives, approval and self-improvement ranked higher for Filipino students and motives involving performance standards ranked higher for American students. Gender differences - men reported more assertive and competitive achievement modes, women stronger motives regarding performance standards -replicated across the two cultures, suggesting generalizable socialization differences for achievement. Intrinsic task motives-enjoyment of school tasks, persistence, and setting of high performance standards-were closely tied to affiliation and self-improvement motives for Filipino but not American students; achieving and affiliating motives may be less distinct in the Philippine setting than implied by Western theory.