41 male college students were administered six simple motor tasks and performance was examined in relation to need for approval as assessed by the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Results supported the hypothesis that Ss with high need-for-approval scores would tend to perform better than Ss less approval-motivated. Although the effect was greater for simple motor tasks than for paper and pencil tests, both high and low need-for-approval Ss appeared to maintain a stable performance level with no significant improvement or decrement over trials. These findings were discussed in relation to Crowne and Marlowe's theory of need for approval as a personality variable.
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