SEX, ETHNIC, AND SEX ROLE DIFFERENCES IN THE MOTIVE TO AVOID SUCCESS

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to determine if black women would show the same motive to avoid success as has been shown to occur in white women. It was hypothesized that black women perceive themselves as having less opportunity for fulfilling affiliative needs than do white women and were therefore less likely to anticipate such plans in their future. Because of their perceived need to be more self-reliant and independent, black women would also be more androgynous (that is, capable of combining both masculine and feminine traits in a positive way). Finally, black women would show less motive to avoid success than would their white female counterpart.;The subjects in this study consisted of 64 university and 97 high school black and white male and female students. They responded to verbal cues concerned with achievement motivation under a variety of situations, responded to a questionnaire designed to determine their sex role orientation, and answered questions which elicited information about their future plans and expectations for affiliation in the future.;It was found, as expected, that black women were more androgynous than were white women and black or white men. They were also less likely to show a motive to avoid success. However, contrary to expectation, black women had the same expectations for marriage and childbearing in their future as did white women.;Implications for further research focused on possible socioeconomic differences to account for some of the fluctuations in the amount of the motive to avoid success in black women. Attention was also drawn to the many questions raised by the results obtained from the white men who engaged in this study.