This paper aims at showing confirmatory empirical evidence to validate the instrument for measuring achievement, affiliation and power motives suggested by Rego (2000). Data from a sample comprising 342 students from higher education level was collected. The main findings are the following: a) the three-factor model suggested fits well the data; b) reliabilities are higher than 0.70; c) as suggested by theory, affiliation relates negatively with academic performance; d) achievement motive explains performance mainly when perceived difficulty is of intermediate level; e) the hypothesis proposing that power motive explains performance when difficulty is high does not confirm; f) in general, the predictive value of motives for performance is low; g) the motivational profile of the sample is similar to those of previous studies concerning Portuguese samples. In general, the evidence is optimistic about the psychometric properties of the instrument proposed by Rego, although further studies are necessary.
motives; achievement; affiliation; power; perceived difficulty; performance of higher education students
