The Relationship Between Basic Psychological Need, Self-efficacy And Achievement Motivation Of College Students

Achievement motivation is the tendency people engage in competition and strugglefor success accordant to their learned criteria. College students are in an key period of thecareer development, when achievement motivation influences their study, life, work andfuture development notably. To improve college students’ achievement motivation, toexplore the influencing factors is essential. Different theories have different views onachievement motivation. Self-Efficacy Theory claims that people with higherself-efficacy are more inclined to continue and struggle in difficulty or failure. WhileBasic Psychological Needs Theory emphasizes that people’s motivation is severelybruised by unmet psychological needs. This study want to explore the relationshipbetween basic psychological needs, self-efficacy and achievement motivation in collegestudents, which can provide a more systematic and comprehensive perspective.This study employed questionnaire on607college students in Hebei Province, aimsto:1.Investigate the traits of basic psychological needs, self-efficacy and achievementmotivation in college students.2.Discuss the relationship among basic psychological needs, self-efficacy andachievement motivation, to analyze the internal mechanisms of achievement motivation.Through data analysis, the conclusions are as follows:1. College boys are generally in poor condition in relatedness, competence andautonomy, especially for high grades (the junior and senior undergraduates and thesenior graduates).2. In undergraduates, the sophomores and juniors are lower in autonomy, and thejuniors are lower in relatedness. What’s more, the sophomores’ sense of self-efficacy isthe lowest, and the juniors’ failure-escaping motivation is the highest. As for thegraduates, the seniors’ motivation for success is generally lower than the juniors.3. Students of science and engineering are lower in scores of relatedness satisfaction and dissatisfaction than students of liberal arts. And the former are lower onfailure-escaping motivation.4. In the three basic psychological needs, competence and autonomy have greaterimpact on achievement motivation, especially competence. And need satisfaction hasgreater impact on success-pursuing motivation, while need dissatisfaction has greaterimpact on failure-escaping motivation.5.Self-Efficacy plays a part mediate role between basic psychological needs andachievement motivation, while the latter predicts more.