The Relationship between Cultural Context, Thinking Styles & Achievement Motivation with Academic Achievement

The purpose of present study was to investigate the relationship of cultural context, thinking styles and achievement motivation with academic achievement among behavioral sciences students from university of Tehran. Three hundred and three students (96 boys, 207 girls), selected through stratified sampling method, answered a questionnaire, which consisted individualism / collectivism & power distance scale, thinking styles inventory (TSI), and achievement motivation scale – revised (AMS_R). In this study, the average of previous semesters was indicator of academeic achievement. Research data was analyzed by regression coefficient. Results indicated that contextual variable of individualism / collectivism and complex thinking styles (also known as type 1 styles) & achievement motivation to avoid failure were positively correlated with academic achievement and the situation / task - dependent thinking styles (also as known type 3 styles) were negatively correlated with academic achievement. Also, there is no significant associatin between contextual variable of power distance & achievement motivation to approach success with one. The study showed the role of contextual and environmental variables & independently of ability variables on academic achievement. Moreover, it emphasized on understanding of effective factors on academic performance.