Implicit Motives: Theory, Methods, and Applications

"The second edition of "Implicit Motives: Theory, Methods, and Applications", now featuring an extended title , arrives at a time when motive research in the tradition of McClelland, Atkinson, Veroff and Winter, with its focus on coding narrative texts for motivational themes, may be at a turning point. For decades, this research was restricted to a small circle of highly committed specialists who knew the value of this measurement approach, did not shy away from devoting considerable resources to training and certifying research assistants and graduate students for coding work and then invested even more time into coding imaginative stories collected from research participants for motive imagery to predict relevant phenomena and outcomes. Many students who had been trained to do this kind of work did not continue it once they left the laboratory of a motive researcher. This is a lament that McClelland (e.g., McClelland, 1984) voiced repeatedly and also one that we, the editors of this book, readily echo. Motive research has always suffered from a lack of popularity that is due in part to the amount of work it requires to get it done. Work on substantial issues in motivation science as viewed from the particular conceptual and methodological vantage point represented by the motive approach therefore progressed more slowly than it should or could have"-- Provided by publisher.