Reframing Assumptions: Collegiate Peer Mentors’ Motivation to Lead

Abstract:This study explored what motivated undergraduates to serve as peer mentors in a leadership-themed living-learning community. Using McClelland’s Acquired Needs Theory (1961) as the theoretical framework, we conducted a deductive content analysis to describe peer mentors’ motivation to lead. We found evidence of all three of McClelland’s identified needs categories, but noted the need for power as the most prevalent need behind the peer mentors’ motivation to lead. Peer mentors were struggling to reframe their conceptualization of power as something not solely viewed as a negative. The findings improve our understanding of peer mentors’ motivation to lead as part of their development as leaders.