This chapter describes the theoretical background to, and the development and use of, an Approaches-to-Studying Inventory. This inventory covers the two main components consistently found to be predictive of academic success—organized study methods and active learning processes (Weinstein & Underwood, 1985)—but it also includes a series of motivational components. It is, of course, commonplace to attribute levels of attainment to the degree of effort exerted which, in turn, is explained in terms of the motivational characteristics of the learner. But the research based on the use of this inventory goes further. It indicates clearly that there are distinctive forms of motivation which affect the outcome of learning both quantitatively and qualitatively. The differing forms of motivation are associated with contrasting learning processes and, so, with qualitatively different outcomes.