ACHIEVEMENT, AFFILIATION, AND ATTRIBUTION MOTIVATION OF ORTHODONTIC PATIENTS

NAGWA HELMY EL-MANGOURY, Marquette University

Abstract

The primary aims of the present dissertation were to: (1) Bridge the existing gap between orthodontic care and motivational psychology. (2) Provide a reasonably coherent picture of the concept as well as the psychological prediction of the misunderstood phenomenon of orthodontic cooperation. Three psycho-orthodontic models of motivation were developed. These models were based--in essence--on the following three motivational theories: achievement, affiliation, and attribution. A sample of seventy orthodontic patients was studied. A double-blind quasi-experimental design was performed. Psychological instruments were used in order to measure achievement, affiliation, and attribution motivation. The following dependent variables were recorded: headgear wear, elastic wear, appliance maintenance, non-broken appointments, punctuality in appointments, oral hygiene, and plaque index. The raw data were analyzed by three different techniques. For the first (Technique One), the one-tailed Spearman rho correlation coefficient and the one-tailed Mann-Whitney U test were employed. The second (Technique Two) was composed of a multivariate stepwise regression analysis and six stepwise discriminant analyses. The third (Technique Three) consisted of a multivariate factor analysis and two multivariate stepwise regression analyses. The results obtained from the present study indicate that orthodontic cooperation is predictable through psychological testing. Specifically: high need achievers cooperate better orthodontically than low need achievers; high need affiliators cooperate better orthodontically than low need affiliators; and internals cooperate better orthodontically than externals. Further, it was found that orthodontic cooperation does not involve a simple single general dimension of cooperation. Rather, orthodontic cooperation is composed of a more complex structure of two orthogonal constructs: Specific Orthodontic Construct of Cooperation (SOCC) and Perio-Orthodontic Construct of Cooperation (POCC). Because SOCC and POCC are orthogonal, a patient who is a good toothbrusher does not have to be a good headgear wearer, and vice versa. The relative contribution of motivational psychology on each of the variables constituting orthodontic cooperation was presented. The implications for clinical applications were discussed.

Recommended Citation

EL-MANGOURY, NAGWA HELMY, "ACHIEVEMENT, AFFILIATION, AND ATTRIBUTION MOTIVATION OF ORTHODONTIC PATIENTS" (1981). Dissertations (1962 - 2010) Access via Proquest Digital Dissertations. AAI8203760.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations/AAI8203760

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