The Achievement Motive in the Brain: BOLD Responses to Pictures of Challenging Activities Predicted by Implicit Versus Explicit Achievement Motives

Abstract

The achievement motive refers to a preference for mastering challenges and competing with some standard of excellence. Along with affiliation and power motives, the achievement motive is typically considered to occur on the level of implicit versus explicit representations. Specifically, whereas implicit motives involve pictorial, emotional goal representations and facilitate corresponding action effortlessly, explicit motives involve propositional ("verbalized") goal representations but need some effort to translate into action (McClelland et al., 1989). We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate whether and to which degree the implicit and explicit achievement motives differentially predict blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) responses to pictures of individuals engaging in challenging activities. Whereas the implicit AM predicted activity in areas associated with emotion (orbitofrontal cortex) and visual processing (right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, premotor and occipital cortices), the explicit AM predicted activity in areas associated with cognitive self-control or verbal goal processing (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). The findings support the commonly assumed distinction between implicit and explicit motives with neuronal data. They also suggest that explicit motives require cognitive self-control to overcome potential lacks of motivation.

Keywords: achievement motive; fMRI; implicit vs. explicit motives; motivational neuroscience; operant motives test.

FIGURE 1

Sample of stimuli related to achievement (left) versus control (right).

FIGURE 2

Clusters predicted by the explicit achievement motive. (A) Left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity (44 voxels; x,y,z = –24, 42, 30); (B) left anterior cingulate cortex activity (34 voxels; x,y,z = –9, 12, 39).

FIGURE 3

Clusters predicted by the explicit achievement motive. (A) Left parahippocampal gyrus activity (74 voxels; x,y,z = –24, –45, 6) and left orbitofrontal cortex activity (31 voxels; x,y,z = –24, –15, 9); (B) dorsal premotor cortex activity (46 voxels; x,y,z = 33, –3, 48); (C) right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity (27 voxels; x,y,z = 51, 9, 27).