The Achieving Society

The Achieving Society is a 1961 book written by Professor David C. McClelland. McClelland was a Professor of Psychology in the Department of Social Relations at Harvard University.

The book focused on the question of the causes which result in a society having a high rate of economic growth at one time and/or falling into a state of economic decline at another time. Due to his academic focus, McClelland focused on the "internal", psychic factors in economic development rather than the physical and "external" factors.

The Institute of Developing Economies review of McClelland's book The Achieving Society indicates:

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However, why is it that a high level of n Achievement leads to a high rate of economic growth, and does not necessarily bring about developments in other fields, such as the military or artistic fields of development? Inanswer to this question the author finds the link between the two social phenomena of a high level of n Achievement and a high rate of economic growth in the entrepreneur Cp. 205), and in regard to this matter he employs two approaches. The first of these is an attempt to determine whether people with high n Achievement behave in an entrepreneurial way, and the other is to determine whether actual entrepreneurs, particularly the more successful ones, have higher n Achievement than do other people of roughly the same status. However, what is meant by " behave in an entrepreneurial way" in this context? As decisive characteristics of the entrepreneur the author cites the taking of risks and the carrying out of innovation, and a human being who merely follows behind the established order is not considered to be an entrepreneur. We can perceive that McClelland is making a distinction between the "entrepreneur type" and the " bureaucrat type" (pp. 227-228). Hereupon the author, with the help of psychological tests which show that boys with high n Achievement tend to perform better and to work harder under conditions of moderate risk, shows that the boys with high n Achievement behave like entrepreneurs. Again, it is confirmed that actual business executives in the United States of America, Italy, Turkey, and Portugal, with the exception of those of Turkey, are all possessors of high n Achievement.

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Project Muse description of the book The Achieving Society

Project Muse description of the book The Achieving Society:

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David C. McClelland. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961. Pp. xvi, 512. $7.95. In The Achieving Society, Harvard psychologist David McClelland presents the hypothesis that a basic motivational factor—the need for achievement—plays a decisive role in economic growth and decline. Specifically, he posits this causal chain: certain childhood experiences produce a high need for achievement, which is the motivational base for entrepreneurial activity and technological innovation, which, in turn, determine economic growth. In order to put this linkage to the broadest possible test, the author relates measures of achievement motivation to indices of economic activity in a wide range of cultural settings and historical periods. McClelland’s technique for measuring the achievement motive stems from the development of projective tests in clinical psychology. Briefly, the method consists of tapping the “inner concern with achievement” by asking the subject to make up stories about a series of stimulus pictures. The strength of the need is indicated by the number of achievement-related ideas which are projected unwittingly into the fantasy productions. The categories which have been standard­ ized for individual productions also have been used to assess the achievement motivation represented in such cultural products as folk tales, literature, art, and children’s books, thus extending the range of analysis to historical records and anthropological data. In earlier studies, McClelland and his co-workers explored the corre­ lations of achievement measures with a wide range of behavior and attitudes. One of these studies concerned boys with high achievement scores and revealed a pattern of childhood experience—parental stress on self-mastery, early independence, and high performance standards — which bore a striking similarity to the traits Max Weber described in his well-known analysis of “ the spirit of capitalism.” It was this similarity which led McClelland to make a motivational analysis of the problems of economic development. Three general areas are studied. In the first, measures of achievement motivation based on cultural products are related to over-all rates of economic activity and technological development. The cultural pro­ducts utilized in this analysis are (1) folk tales for primitive societies, (2) stories from elementary school primers from various nations, including Communist countries, and (3) samples of the imaginative literature of selected historical periods ranging from ancient Greece to medieval Spain to industrial England. The second type of study traces the roots of the achievement motive to parental values and attitudes, and also examines the effects of the motive on the behavior and interests of samples of adolescent boys in Japan, Germany, Brazil, and India. Particular attention is paid to their entrepreneurial interests. The third area of concern is with the origins, motivation, and be­ havior of businessmen in the United States, Italy, Turkey, and Poland. The “ innovative entrepreneur ” is analyzed as the agent of economic and technological change. Analysis of the historical material reveals a rise or decline of the index of achievement imagery preceding the rise or decline of the index of economic activity.</ref>The Achieving Society by David C. McClelland (review), Robert C. Davis. Technology and Culture. Johns Hopkins University Press. Volume 3, Number 3, Summer 1962. pp. 351-353</ref>

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Book

• The Achieving Society by David C. McClelland. Martino Fine Books (December 10, 2010). (Reprint of a 1961 book)

Book reviews

• DAVID C. McCLELLAND, The Achieving Society, Princeton, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961, xv+512, Institute of Developing Economies website

• The Achieving Society, American Psychological Association

• The Achieving Society, University of Chicago Press.

See also

• McClelland's Need Theory
• Achievement
• Achievement orientation

Other achievement related books:

• Books about having a winning mindset

External links

• EARL NIGHTINGALE : The Achieving Society