Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Dissertation

Keywords

Parks--Iowa--Employees--Attitudes; Municipal officials and employees--Iowa--Attitudes; Risk-taking (Psychology);

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine the risk-taking propensity and achievement motivation among selected park and recreation directors in the state of Iowa. More specifically, the study is designed to determine the relationships between risk-taking propensity and achievement motivation. In addition, the study seeks to explore the relationships between various demographic variables such as age, gender, education level, city size, agency size, organizational budget, and years of professional experience in the park and recreation field and either risk-taking propensity or achievement motivation.

Atkinson's Theory of Achievement Motivation and McClelland's Need for Achievement were employed to better understand the relationship between achievement motivation and risk-taking propensity, in support of the present study. In addition, three research instruments (1) Demographic Characteristics Survey, (2) The Choice Dilemmas Questionnaire (CDQ) developed by Kogan and Wallach (1964), and Achievement Motive Questionnaire (AMQ) developed by Elizur (1979), were utilized to collect data. Statistical methods, such as Descriptive Statistical Analysis, Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, Spearman's Rho Correlation Coefficient, Independent-sample t-test, and One-way ANOVA, were employed to analyze data in this study.

Results indicated that: (1) 81.4% of respondents demonstrate a moderate propensity for risk-taking; (2) 96.6% of respondents scored at the moderate or high levels of motivation achievement; (3) there exists a statistical correlation between propensity for risk-taking and achievement motivation at 0.01 level (r = .341, p = .0008); (4) there was only one demographical variable (age) weakly correlated with risk-taking propensity at 0.05 level; and (5) There were three demographical variables (full-time staff, city size, and organizational budget) moderately correlated with achievement motivation.

Year of Submission

2010

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

School of Health, Physical Education, and Leisure Services

First Advisor

Christopher R. Edginton, Chair

Second Advisor

Samuel V. Lankford, Co-Chair

Date Original

5-2010

Object Description

1 PDF file (ix, 188 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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