The investigator proposes to address issues associated with college student's perceptions of success and how these perceptions vary based on demographic factors such as age, gender, race, income status, philosophical orientation, geographical environment, and educational and employment levels. The purpose is to fully understand how motivation for academic performance, and so academic performance varies among the previously stated strata of college students. The planning phase of the research will substantiate variations in motivation, or the lack thereof, controlling for age and current level of education. The results from this phase will be used to develop a proposal to create a survey instrument based on the instrument developed by the Higher Educational Research Institute. This survey will be distributed to a sample of students representing a cross section of the population based on the demographics previously mentioned but with a wider range in categories including age, economic level, income level, etc. The instrument will be distributed to participants in the eastern, central and western portions of the United States. This approach provides a variety of people and native and transient populations.
