Assessment of Implicit Motives With a Research Version of the TAT: Picture Profiles, Gender Differences, and Relations to Other Personality Measures

Abstract

Four hundred twenty-eight participants wrote imaginative stories in response to 6 picture cues of a research version of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; Morgan & Murray, 1935). Story protocols were coded for n (need) Power, n Achievement, and n Affiliation using Winter's (1991) integrated scoring system that provided detailed information about the motive profiles of individual picture cues. In general, picture cues differed strongly from each other with regard to how many scorable instances of power, achievement, or affiliation imagery they elicited. The n Affiliation, but not n Power, n Achievement, or activity inhibition--a measure of impulse control--was found to be higher in (a) women than in men and (b) individuals tested in a group than in individuals tested individually. TAT motive measures showed no significant overlap with questionnaire measures of motivational orientation (German Personality Research Form; Stumpf, Angleitner, Wieck, Jackson, & Beloch-Till, 1985) or traits (German NEO-Five-Factor Inventory; Borkenau & Ostendorf, 1993).