We present two openly accessible databases related to the assessment of implicit motives using Picture Story Exercises (PSEs): (a) A database of 183,415 German sentences, nested in 26,389 stories provided by 4,570 participants, which have been coded by experts using Winter's (1994) coding system for the implicit affiliation/intimacy, achievement, and power motives, and (b) a database of 54 classic and new pictures which have been used as PSE stimuli. Updated picture norms are provided which can be used to select appropriate pictures for PSE applications.Based on an analysis of the relations between raw motive scores, word count, and sentence count, we give recommendations on how to control motive scores for story length, and validate the recommendation with a meta-analysis on gender differences in the implicit affiliation motive that replicates existing findings. We discuss to what extent the guiding principles of the story length correction can be generalized to other content coding systems for narrative material. Several potential applications of the databases are discussed, including (un)supervised machine learning of text content, psychometrics, and better reproducibility of PSE research.

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This preregistered study (N = 250; 148 women; after exclusions) aimed at replicating findings by Köllner and Bleck (2020) regarding relationships of the implicit power motive (nPower) and activity inhibition with their proposed new marker of pubertal organizational hormone effects, the ulna-to-fibula ratio (UFR). Our cross-sectional design included the Picture-Story Exercise (nPower, activity inhibition) and anthropometry of ulna and fibula length, facial width and height, shoulder/waist/hip circumference, and 2D:4D digit ratio. As a validation check for organizational hormone effects’ relationships to motivation, we tested UFR’s sex-dimorphism, independence of body height, and interrelationships with other markers. Results showed that the validation check was successful. UFR was sex-dimorphic, independent of body height, and significantly associated with other possible markers of pubertal organizational hormone effects, including facial width-to-height ratio, waist-to-hip ratio, and shoulder-to-hip ratio. As predicted, a “sex-typical” UFR, low for women and high for men, was associated with the inhibited power motive (outliers excluded). nPower’s sex-dimorphic relationship with UFR reported by Köllner and Bleck (2020) was not replicated. UFR’s relationship with the inhibited power motive, in conjunction with findings by Schultheiss et al. (2019) for prenatal organizational hormone effects, add to accumulating first evidence for hormonal contributions to implicit motive development but also call for larger-sample replication.