Evaluation of the Big-Two-Factor Theory of academic motivation orientations: An evaluation of jingle-jangle fallacies

Academic motivation orientation research has consistently found two factors, typically called Performance (or Ego) and Learning (or Mastery or Task) that appear to overlap substantially with other factors coming from different theoretical perspectives. Similar to related work in the Big Five Theory of Personality, we posit a Big-Two-Factor Theory of academic motivation orientation and evaluate the implicit but largely untested assumption that selected motivation constructs can be represented as higher-order (110) Performance and Learning factors. We collected test-retest data (multi-item scales designed to measure 8 motivation constructs - Ego, Competition, Mastery, Intrinsic, Cooperation, Individual, Approach Success, and Avoid Failure) from a diverse group (N = 606) of able students in grades 3-6 (M age = 9.7 years). Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) provided support for each of the 8 scales. HO CFA models fit the data reasonably well for each time considered separately and demonstrated well-defined, HO Learning and Performance factors. For the combined T1 and T2 data, however, the substantial test-retest correlations for first-order factors were not fully explained by the HO factors. Gender differences in the eight specific scales were captured by the two HO factors, thus supporting Big-Two-Factor Theory.