The Measurement of Motivation through the use of Objective Indices

Abstract

While abilities and attitudes are frequently subjected to measurement, motivation has largely escaped the attention of experimental psychologists and psycho-metrists. Attempts to use subjective and interpretive techniques have not met with any notable success, and it would seem that this whole area represents one of the most neglected fields of psychology, in spite of its obvious major importance both from the fundamental and from the applied points of view. We would argue that the objective measurement of motivation or drive in human beings is an essential requirement for clinical psychology, and we would further suggest that such objective measurement can only be accomplished in terms of some theoretical system in which drive has a recognized place and mode of interaction with measurable variables. It has been suggested by Eysenck and Maxwell (1961) that only the Hullian system provides such an account, and some evidence is to hand (Kimble, 1950; Wasserman, 1951; Claridge, 1960; Eysenck and Maxwell, 1961) to reinforce the view that deductions can be made from this system which will generate testable hypotheses relating to the measurement of motivation.

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