The Picture Story Exercise Questionaire (PSE-Q) was developed as an explicit motive measure that is maximally commensurable with the PSE, a measure of implicit motives. Specifically, it uses the same pictures as the standard PSE (Pang & Schultheiss, 2005, Journal of Personality Assessment) and combines them with self-report items developed on the basis of Winter's (1994, Running text system) 15 content-coding categories for the assessment of power, achievement, and affiliation imagery. The paper-and-pencil and Inquisit versions of the PSE-Q included here represent instruments that have been used in previous research (see below for references). Note, however, that the PSE-Q represents more of a toolbox than a fixed instrument: If you are interested in using a measure of explicit power motivation only, simply drop the achievement and affiliation items. If you use another picture set than the one described in Pang & Schultheiss (2005), replace the PSE-Q pictures with yours. And if you are using a different coding system altogether, develop your own self-report items based on that (for an example of self-report items matching Heckhausen's need acheievement coding system, see Schultheiss, O. C., & Murray, T. [2002]. Hope of success/fear of failure questionnaire. Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor). Be creative, but share your work with others, too!
To arrive at a total PSE_Q score, calculate sum scores for each scale (power, achievement, affiliation) per picture first and then add scale scores across pictures.
Original source for PSE-Q:
Schultheiss, O. C., Yankova, D., Dirlikov, B., & Schad, D. J. (2009). Are implicit and explicit motive measures statistically independent? A fair and balanced test using the Picture Story Exercise and a cue- and response-matched questionnaire measure. *Journal of Personality Assessment, 91,* 72-81.
Revised version:
Schultheiss, O. C., Patalakh, M., Rawolle, M., Liening, S., & MacInnes, J. J. (2011). Referential competence is associated with motivational congruence. *Journal of Research in Personality, 45,* 59-70.
