THE ASSESSMENT OF MOTIVATIONAL ORIENTATIO N - A GERMAN-LANGUAGE ADAPTATION OF THE MOTIVATIONAL ORIENTATION SCALES (MOS-D)

Until now, no instruments have been available to assess motivational o rientation in German-speaking countries, although this is one of the m ost important determinants of learning motivation and achievement moti vation. To counter this deficit, German-language scales assessing moti vational orientations (ego orientation, task orientation, work avoidan ce) were translated from the Motivational Orientation Scales of Nichol ls, Patashnik, and Nolen (1985). Two studies were used to assess the l evel of agreement between the German adaptations and the original Amer ican scales, as well as the psychometric properties of the German adap tations. Subjects were 212 and 189 college students. In both studies, the three scales could be identified clearly in factor analyses. The t wo studies also showed satisfactory reliability and validity coefficie nts.