Achievement-motivation theory relates to the desire to perform well in a certain area and to attain success. Different factors motivate people to achieve success. According to a survey carried out by the Czech-based Research Institute of Labor and Social Affairs, male and female workers have different motivations for good performance at work. The survey indicates a good basic salary and bonuses motivate males to perform well, while the driving work force for female employees is healthy interpersonal relations at work, flexibility to balance work and family and proper treatment by other employees and the employer. This shows that different factors inspire males and females to achieve and perform well in their areas of work. According to the research, males are more motivated by "instrumental values" such as remuneration, compared with women.
The beliefs and expectations held by parents, peers and the school environment greatly influences the behavior patterns of males and females. Society grooms parents, peers and teachers to expect females and males to derive motivation from different things and to have different levels of achievements in certain areas. For example, teachers expect boys to excel better than girls in math and sciences, while girls are expected to excel better in languages. Additionally, society expects girls to be agreeable and expressive, while boys are expected to be aggressive and assertive. Children of both genders grow up and internalize these expectations and beliefs with a certain perception that they are more competent in certain areas than in others. This socialized view causes females and males to derive inspiration in those different areas, and thus, they may achieve success in these specific areas.
The attribution theory explains how achievement and motivation in both genders is determined by perceptions of effort and ability. This theory relates the gender differences in achievement and motivation on how individuals attribute their achievements. In areas such as math, science, technology or sport, males attribute their achievements to ability while females may attribute their success in these fields to effort. Unlike females, males are therefore able to show a higher level of motivation due to attributing their achievements to ability because they believe that their talents in these areas are natural attributes. The differences resulting from attributing achievements to ability rather than effort between the genders are that males attribute their success in areas such math, science and sport to ability and therefore show high motivation toward these areas. Females attribute their achievements to effort and their failures in fields such as math and sciences to lack of ability and thus tend to show lower motivation in these fields.
Self-efficacy is the belief in your capacity to achieve certain goals, whether through effort or ability. A strong sense of self-efficacy motivates a person to achieve highly, but lower self-efficacy dampens motivation and achievement. Like attribution, the level of self efficacy a person has is often influenced by parents, peers and teachers. According to research findings published in the Center for Positive Practices site, notable differences exist in how males and females students chose their majors in college. Self-efficacy toward subjects like mathematics is often higher in males than in females, whose self-efficacy is usually higher in subject areas such as reading.