Academic Motivation Scale — College Version
AMS-C 28Permission: Free for research use. Free for non-commercial academic research, with no license fee. Cite the original publication.
A 28-item multidimensional measure of academic motivation grounded in Self-Determination Theory. Assesses seven motivational orientations: three forms of intrinsic motivation, three forms of extrinsic regulation, and amotivation. Stem: "Why do you go to college?"
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Reliability & validation
Subscales
Response anchors
Does not correspond at all · 2 · 3 · Corresponds moderately · 5 · 6 · Corresponds exactly
Known limitations
Validated originally in English with university students in Ontario, Canada (the French-language original, the EME, was developed with French-Canadian students); factor structure has been replicated inconsistently in later English-language samples (e.g., Fairchild et al., 2005). The Identified Regulation subscale has the lowest reliability (α ≈ .62). For non-college contexts use the high-school (AMS-HS) or elementary (AMS-E) versions.
Original citation
Vallerand, R. J., Pelletier, L. G., Blais, M. R., Brière, N. M., Senécal, C., & Vallières, É. F. (1992). The Academic Motivation Scale: A measure of intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivation in education. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 52(4), 1003-1017.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164492052004025Questions researchers ask
What does the AMS-C 28 measure?
A 28-item multidimensional measure of academic motivation grounded in Self-Determination Theory. Assesses seven motivational orientations: three forms of intrinsic motivation, three forms of extrinsic regulation, and amotivation. Stem: "Why do you go to college?"
How many items does the AMS-C 28 have?
The Academic Motivation Scale — College Version (AMS-C 28) has 28 items across 7 subscales: Intrinsic Motivation — To Know, Intrinsic Motivation — Toward Accomplishment, Intrinsic Motivation — To Experience Stimulation, Identified Regulation, Introjected Regulation, External Regulation, Amotivation.
Is the AMS-C 28 free to use?
The AMS-C 28 is free to use for non-commercial academic research. You don't need to pay a license fee, but you should always cite the original publication.
Who developed the AMS-C 28, and how do I cite it?
Vallerand, R. J., Pelletier, L. G., Blais, M. R., Brière, N. M., Senécal, C., & Vallières, É. F. (1992). The Academic Motivation Scale: A measure of intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivation in education. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 52(4), 1003-1017. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164492052004025
Related scales
Library entry verified September 2026. Metadata is provided for reference. Questionnaires are built in Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing, and can be taken to Qualtrics, Google Forms or Microsoft Forms, with their CSV responses brought back for scoring.