Effects of Goal Type on Performance,Task Interest,and Affect Over Time1

The purpose of this study was to increase understanding regarding the effects of goal-setting practices on a wide range of dependent variables over time. Goal type (control group, quality goal, quantity goal, and dual goal) was manipulated across 3 time periods. Goal × Time interactions were predicted such that quantity, effort, task interest, and positive affect would initially be low, but by later trials would be higher in the quantity and dual-goal conditions compared to the quality goal and control groups. Quality was expected to be greatest in the quality goal condition and to be relatively constant over time. Participants (N= 80) were undergraduates at a large midwestern university. Results indicated some support for our hypotheses in that Goal × Time interactions were found for quantity produced, rated effort, task interest, and positive affect.     

The Interaction of Neuroticism and Gender and Its Impact on Self-Efficacy and Performance

Self-efficacy has been linked to performance in many areas of human endeavor. Examinations of personality correlates of self-efficacy suggest that emotional stability or neuroticism is consistently related to self-efficacy. Other findings suggest a gender difference in emotional stability. In this article, it is proposed that emotional stability and gender interact to affect self-efficacy and that efficacy, in turn, affects performance. The hypothesized interaction and mediation are confirmed using longitudinal data collected from college students. The model and results also provide evidence of one mechanism whereby personality affects performance even in the absence of direct personality–performance relationships.     

Affective Match in Leadership: Leader Emotional Displays,Follower Positive Affect,and Follower Performance1

Leader emotions may play an important role in leadership effectiveness. Extending earlier research on leader emotional displays and leadership effectiveness, we propose that the affective match between follower positive affect (PA) and leaders’ emotional displays moderates the effectiveness of leader emotional displays. Leader display of emotions has more positive effects on follower behavior if the match between the valence of leader emotion and follower PA is strong rather than weak. Support for this hypothesis was found in 2 experiments. Congruency between leader emotional displays and follower PA determined follower task performance and extra‐role compliance. Results from the second experiment indicated that this effect is a due to affective aspects of leader behavior and not to the valence of message content.     

Positive Affect,Self-Efficacy,Goal-Related Variables,and Life Satisfaction: the Role of Goal Attainment and Domain Value

The present study sought to extend work on subjective well-being using Lent’s (2004) model. Specifically, the role of goal attainment in the academic and social domains, and the value accorded these domains, in the pathway to life satisfaction was examined using self-report data from 354 Singapore university students. Results demonstrated a role for goal attainment and domain value. For goal attainment, it was found to be able to predict life satisfaction and to play a mediating role in the pathway to life satisfaction – specifically for the link between domain goal progress and domain satisfaction – although the full serial mediation model (from positive affect to life satisfaction) was supported only for the social domain. As for domain value, a moderating role was found in one instance, where the value of benevolence in the social domain moderated the link between social satisfaction and life satisfaction. Overall, the inclusion of both goal attainment and domain value can thus enable a better understanding of subjective well-being.

     

Affect and Performance on Cognitive Task as a Function of Crowding and Noise1

Sixty undergraduate males participated in an experiment with a 2 × 3 factorial design involving two levels of density and three levels of noise to demonstrate effects of the independent variables (density, noise) on cognitive task performance and affect. As predicted, it was found that crowding and noise lead to deterioration of subject's performance on cognitively complex tasks but not on simple (cognitive) task. Also, density and noise generated a negative feeling in the subjects. Significant two-way interaction for complex task, showed variation in performance of Ss of high and low density under low and high noise conditions. In addition, crowded-condition subjects reported more dissatisfaction about their performance and evaluated the presence of the experimenter as significantly less pleasant than their noncrowded-condition counterparts.     

A Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Situationally Induced Achievement Goals on Task Performance

The purpose of this research was to meta-analyze studies which experimentally induced an achievement goal state to examine its causal effect on the individual’s performance at the task at hand, and to investigate the moderator effects of feedback anticipation and time pressure. The data set comprised 19 papers, 79 individual effect sizes, and 3,482 participants. Performance measures represented task performance across a variety of tasks. The findings indicate that relative to avoidance goals (either performance-avoidance goals or mastery-avoidance goals), approach goals (either mastery-approach goals or performance-approach goals) enhance task performance. Furthermore, relative to performance-approach goals, mastery-approach goals lead to better performance, particularly when individuals do not anticipate feedback and when there is no time pressure. Implications and future directions for research are discussed.     

The Influence of Affect on Goal Choice and Task Performance

The present study investigated the influence of mood on self-set goals and task performance. Results from 2 studies suggest a restricted view of mood effects in which affective state influences the level of self-set goals or task performance, but not both. Study 2 reveals asymmetrical mood effects on task performance, with positive- and negative-mood participants exceeding the baseline performance of neutral mood participants. Evidence indicates that goal-setting instructions may alter how individuals interpret motivational implications of mood. Although theory implies an inclusive view in which mood has both direct and indirect (through goal-setting) performance effects, the conflicting influences of affect infusion at different points of the goal-striving process may diminish the likelihood of observing inclusive effects.     

The Role of Subjective Task Complexity in Goal Orientation,Self-Efficacy,and Performance Relations

We examined the role of subjective task complexity in goal orientation effects on self-efficacy and performance on a computerized simulation of a class scheduling task (N = 138). Results indicated that goal orientation effects on performance were mediated by subjective task complexity. In addition, our results revealed that subjective task complexity was related to self-efficacy but not cognitive ability. Moreover, subjective task complexity effects on performance were mediated by self-efficacy, and goal orientation effects on self-efficacy were mediated by subjective task complexity. Results are discussed in terms of conceptual relations between goal orientation, subjective task complexity, self-efficacy, and performance.     

The Impact of Conflict Issues on Fixed-Pie Perceptions, Problem Solving, and Integrative Outcomes in Negotiation

It is argued that a negotiator's fixed-pie perception, cooperative motivation, problem-solving behavior, and integrative outcomes are influenced by the content of the negotiation—the conflict issue. Negotiation involves conflicting interests, conflicting ideas about intellective problems, or conflicting ideas about evaluative problems. Study 1 showed that individuals in a negotiation about interests have a stronger fixed-pie perception and have a lower cooperative motivation than individuals in an evaluative negotiation, with intellective negotiations taking an intermediate position. Study 2 showed that individuals in a negotiation about interests made more trade-offs and reached higher joint outcomes than individuals in an intellective or evaluative negotiation. Study 3 replicated this finding in a field study. The studies bridge insights from negotiation research and decision-making research and show that the conflict issue has important effects on the negotiation process.     

Positive Affect and Self-Efficacy as Mediators Between Personality and Life Satisfaction in Chinese College Freshmen

Personality traits and self-efficacy have been shown to predict subjective well-being, but the two predictors have rarely been investigated together and it remains unknown whether personality traits and self-efficacy are associated with life satisfaction through affect. In the present study, a total of 318 college freshmen in China were administered a battery of questionnaires that assessed Big Five personality traits, generalized self-efficacy, positive and negative affect, and life satisfaction. Results from path analyses (AMOS) indicated that generalized self-efficacy mediated the relationship of extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism to positive affect. Furthermore, the association between self-efficacy and life satisfaction was fully mediated by positive affect. However, the regression coefficient for self-efficacy on positive affect was low and self-efficacy was not predictive of negative affect. Contrary to expectations, self-efficacy was of limited value in the prediction of subjective well-being. The current study may help explain how personality operates with self-efficacy and affect to predict life satisfaction in Chinese college freshmen.     

Deindividualization,Interpersonal Affect and Productivity in Laboratory Task Groups1

In pursuit of efficiency, formal organizations often create deindividualized, uniqueness-depriving environments. The laboratory experiment reported here tests the effects of another's failure to acknowledge one's individuality on interpersonal affect and willingness to help that person. Undergraduate business students were shown a set of bogus ratings representing their task group leader's perceptions of them on 30 personality traits and 10 occupational interests. The ratings indicated that the group leader believed the subject was extremely similar (non-unique) or somewhat similar (unique) to the typical college student. In a highly individualistic culture another's failure to recognize one's uniqueness should be experienced as unwarranted harm and evoke responses mediated by the negative norm of reciprocity. As expected, subjects receiving non-unique feedback volunteered fewer hours to help the group leader perform his or her duties and were less productive when the group leader was believed to benefit from their effort. In spite of these behavioral effects, attitudes toward the leader were not influenced by the uniqueness feedback. After recognizing limits to generalizability, implications for behavior in deindividualized organizations are discussed.     

Positive Effects of Within-Group Cooperation on Between-Group Negotiation1

The present study simulated an organizational dispute to test two sets of alternative hypotheses regarding the effects of within-group cooperation and conflict on a subsequent negotiation with an out-group. The first set of hypotheses concerned in-group cooperation. We expected that either (a) in-group cooperation would produce greater cooperation toward an out-group, the result of a carryover effect; or (b) in-group cooperation would increase group cohesiveness and strengthen group boundaries, and thus produce greater competitiveness toward an out-group. The second set of alternative hypotheses concerned in-group conflict. We expected that either (a) in-group conflict would produce greater competitiveness toward an out-group, the result of a carry-over effect; or (b) in-group conflict would decrease group cohesiveness and weaken group boundaries, and thus produce less competitiveness toward an out-group. Subjects in three-person groups negotiated first with one another on a cooperative or competitive task, and then as a group, with another group. The data supported the carryover hypothesis for the effects of both in-group cooperation and conflict. Groups that experienced internal cooperation were more cooperative in the subsequent between-group negotiation and, to a lesser extent, groups that experienced internal conflict were more competitive in the subsequent between-group negotiation, relative to a control condition that had no prior in-group negotiation. Taken together, the results were consistent with recent research on dispute intervention that suggested that mediators in between-group conflict should foster within-group cooperation prior to between-group negotiations.     

Personal Accomplishment,Mentoring, and Creative Self-Efficacy as Predictors of Creative Work Involvement: The Moderating Role of Positive and Negative Affect

This research explores the relationships among personal accomplish- ment, mentoring, affect, creative self-efficacy, and creative involvement. With a sample of working adults (N = 242), structural equation modeling results revealed that the data fit the theoretical model well in that creative self-efficacy fully mediated the relationships between personal accomplishment and creative work involvement and between mentoring and creative work involvement. Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that positive affect moderated the relationship between personal accomplishment and creative self-efficacy but negative affect did not, signifying that positive affect may be a necessary situational factor to optimize the personal accomplishment-creative self-efficacy link. In contrast, negative but not positive affect moderated the link between mentoring experiences and creative self-efficacy, suggesting that mentoring experiences associated with negative affect situationally may have been likely to have a significant consequence in weakening creative self-efficacy. The findings expand upon self-efficacy and mentoring theories by highlighting the importance of employing theoretically relevant moderating and mediating variables in research investigating the etiology of possible variables associated with vital workplace outcomes.     

Conflict and Negotiation: Trends and Emerging Issues

Theory and research on dyadic conflict is traced from its historical roots in social exchange theory and interpersonal gaming to current concerns with the cognitive and tactical aspects of multiple issue bargaining and conflict in close personal relationships. This review examines the contributions of research with the Prisoner's Dilemma game, explicit two-person bargaining paradigms, and threat games, as well as work on representative negotiation and third-party intervention in conflict. The interplay of structural and motivational variables in the understanding of conflict and negotiation is emphasized. Criticisms of the typical theoretical and empirical approaches to the study of conflict are noted, especially the lack of general theory and the questionable representativeness of typical laboratory paradigms. Finally, recent research in integrative bargaining and entrapment is examined for insights concerning the active role the parties themselves play in the structuring of their conflict, and the implications of such a role for cognitive as well as motivational factors in conflict resolution.     

An Examination of the Cognitive Mechanisms by Which Assigned Goals Affect Task Performance and Reactions to Performance1

In this study, cognitive mechanisms by which assigned goals affect task performance and reactions to performance were examined. Subjects working on a creativity task were assigned one of three performance goals varying in difficulty. Ratings of subjective probability of goal attainment, expected performance, expected satisfaction with goal attainment, and desired performance were obtained prior to each of five blocks of trials. Ratings of satisfaction with performance were obtained after each trial block and ratings of ability were obtained after all trials were completed. As predicted, with increased goal difficulty, subjective probability of goal attainment decreased, but expected performance, expected satisfaction with goal attainment, and desired performance increased. Contrary to prediction, the effect of goal difficulty on task performance was not significant. LISREL analyses revealed that goal difficulty exerted both positive (through expected and desired performance) and negative (through subjective probability of goal attainment) effects on performance. Goal difficulty had a negative effect on satisfaction with performance and ratings of perceived ability. The importance of identifying the cognitive mechanisms by which assigned goals affect performance and the need to consider consequences of assigned goals other than task performance are discussed.     

Examining Situationally Induced State Goal Orientation Effects on Task Perceptions,Performance, and Satisfaction: A Two‐Dimensional Conceptualization1

We examined the longitudinal effects of situationally induced 2‐dimensional state goal orientations (i.e., achievement goals) on perceptions, performance, and satisfaction. Results (N = 268) indicated that high state learning cues led to higher perceived challenge and, for higher ability individuals, greater performance gains. Further, high state performance cues led to higher perceived effort. However, results revealed that state learning and performance effects were more complex than expected. State learning effects on challenge and state performance effects on effort were both stronger with other cues absent. Additionally, increasingly beneficial state learning cue effects were stronger for higher ability individuals. Thus, results provided support that state learning and performance goals are separate dimensions, and their interactive effects need further examination.     

Affect in Dyadic Negotiation: A Model and Propositions

The topic of affect has been described as an important, but underexplored area of the social psychology of negotiation. In this paper we seek to advance thinking about affective processes in two-party negotiation through an integration and conceptual extension of existing research. We briefly review conceptualizations and operationalizations of affect, and highlight findings relevant to the social-cognitive underpinnings of negotiation. A dynamic model of affect in two-party negotiation analyzes the role of moods and emotions that bargainers bring to and evolve within the negotiation encounter. The model illustrates how affect states influence (and in some cases are influenced by) one's decision to negotiate, selection of an opponent, formulation of expectations and offers, choice of tactics used within bargaining, economic and social-cognitive outcomes, and proclivity to comply with settlement terms. We develop specific research propositions that describe these influences and discuss their implications for broader questions about the role of affect in bargaining.     

Self-Efficacy and Political Skill as Comparative Predictors of Task and Contextual Performance: A Two-Study Constructive Replication

This study examined how competition within teams influences which type of achievement goals employees adopt. We studied how dispositional learning-goal and performance-goal orientation interact with team-level competition and predict whether team members adopt state learning or performance achievement goals. State achievement goals, in turn, were proximal antecedents of two outcome measures: job-related self-efficacy and supervisory ratings of job performance. The participants were 502 employees and 55 supervisors. Results confirmed that competition was positively associated with state performance goals. Trait performance-goal orientation influenced whether competition was negatively associated with state learning goals. In highly competitive teams, trait performance-goal orientation was negatively related to state learning goals, whereas in less competitive teams, a performance-goal orientation was positively related to state learning goals.     

Self-Efficacy and Memory Aging: The Impact of a Memory Intervention Based on Self-Efficacy

ABSTRACT

A multifactorial training program was developed for older adults, to improve self-efficacy and memory performance. Elements designed to raise self-efficacy were integrated into class discussions, homework readings, and practice exercises, including an emphasis on memory potential at any age, self-set goals, and opportunities for mastery. Strategy training focused on association, organization, attention, imagery, and PQRST. Significant improvements for the training group, as compared to a wait-list control group, were observed for memory self-efficacy, locus of control, name recall and story recall. Trained participants were using effective strategies more so than the control group. Final test scores were predicted by self-efficacy, condition assignment, and baseline ability (with some variation across the three tasks). These findings suggest that an integrated and comprehensive training program that incorporates principles of self-efficacy theory has great potential for improving older adults' memory ability.