The benefits of interpersonal regulatory fit for individual goal pursuit

The present work examines whether individual goal pursuit is influenced by advice and suggestions from interaction partners whose regulatory orientation is perceived to fit (vs. not fit) the individual's orientation. We sought to investigate whether such interpersonal regulatory fit yields motivational consequences for goal pursuit that parallel those of intrapersonal regulatory fit. Furthermore, we investigated whether these effects occur in a symmetrical fashion for promotion- and prevention-oriented individuals. The results of 6 experiments revealed that promotion-oriented individuals profit from interpersonal regulatory fit, experiencing motivational benefits when receiving goal-relevant advice from promotion-oriented interaction partners; however, prevention-oriented individuals do not profit from prevention-oriented interaction partners. These findings support the proposal that regulatory fit can fruitfully be examined as an interpersonal phenomenon, highlighting the role that interaction partners may play in the pursuit of personal goals.     

The impact of associative strength on performance in goal pursuit

The present research explored the hypothesis that strengthened attainment means–goal association leads to enhanced performance in goal pursuit. We hypothesize that because of the instrumental nature of means–goal association, strengthened associative strength leads to greater instrumentality expectancy of the means, which elicits greater motivation in the pursuit and hence better actual performance. We demonstrated in four studies that when the means is believed to facilitate goal attainment, a strong (vs. weak) means–goal association leads to greater performance in goal pursuit. Conversely, when the means is perceived to undermine goal attainment, a strong (vs. weak) association results in worse performance in goal pursuit.     

Negative affect and ruminative self-focus during everyday goal pursuit

Models of self-regulation propose that negative affect is generated when progress towards goals is perceived to be inadequate. Similarly, ruminative thinking is hypothesised to be triggered by unattained goals (Martin & Tesser, 1996). We conducted an experience-sampling study in which participants recorded their negative affect, ruminative self-focus, and goal appraisals eight times daily for one week. Negative affect and ruminative self-focus were each associated with low levels of goal success and (with the exception of sadness) high levels of goal importance. As predicted, the combination of low goal success and high goal importance was associated with the highest levels of negative affect, and this interaction was marginally significant for ruminative self-focus. Decomposition of the ruminative self-focus measure revealed that the success by importance interaction was significantly associated with focus on problems but not focus on feelings. Findings did not differ for individuals reporting high versus low levels of depressive symptoms or trait rumination. These results suggest that self-regulatory models of goal pursuit provide a useful explanatory framework for the study of affect and ruminative thinking in everyday life.     

Priming against your will: How accessible alternatives affect goal pursuit

Four studies examined how diverse aspects of goal pursuit are influenced by the accessibility of alternative goals. It was consistently found that such an accessibility often affects the resources allocated to a focal goal, influencing commitment, progress, and the development of effective means, as well as one's emotional reponses to positive and negative feedback about one's striving efforts. Moreover, the direction of these influences was found to depend on how the alternative goals relate to the focal pursuit. Alternatives unrelated to the focal goal pull resources away from it, whereas alternatives facilitatively related to a focal goal draw resources toward it.     

Imagining how you'd feel: the role of motivational experiences from regulatory fit

The authors propose that how people imagine they would feel about making a choice is affected not only by the outcome's anticipated pleasure or pain but also by regulatory fit. Regulatory fit occurs when people pursue a goal in a manner that sustains their regulatory state and it intensifies the motivation to pursue that goal. Considering positive outcomes fits a promotion focus more than a prevention focus, whereas the reverse is true for negative outcomes. Thus, it is proposed that anticipating a desirable choice is more intensely positive for promotion than prevention, and anticipating an undesirable choice is more intensely negative for prevention than promotion. The results of three studies support these predictions. Studies 2 and 3 also demonstrate that motivational intensity underlies the stronger responses. Thus, to understand fully what it means to feel good or bad about a prospective choice, motivational experiences from regulatory fit must be considered.     

Power and goal pursuit

Powerful individuals more easily acquire desired outcomes compared to powerless individuals. The authors argue that these differences can partly be attributed to self-regulation. The effects of power on the ability to act in a goal-consistent manner were analyzed across different phases of goal pursuit. Study 1 examined goal setting, Study 2 focused on the initiation of goal-directed action, Study 3 examined persistence and flexibility, and Study 4 assessed responses to good opportunities for goal pursuit and the role of implementation intentions. Consistently across studies, power facilitated prioritization and goal-consistent behavior. Power had, however, independent effects from implementation intentions. Consequences for performance are discussed.     

How character goal pursuit “moves” audiences to share meaningful stories

ABSTRACT

Recent research has examined the theme-level determinants of how stories move readers. Our research examined what moves readers in more nuance. Specifically, we examined how readers’ perception of a character’s goal pursuit (i.e., their motivation to complete a goal, goal desire intensity, and goal pursuit struggle) leads to narrative engagement, which we posit is an antecedent to being moved. The degree to which readers are moved should then influence their intention to share the story. Across two studies, character motivation consistently influenced narrative engagement, particularly emotional engagement, which evokes the experience of being moved. Being moved by the story – but not enjoyment – increased readers’ intentions to share it with others. We argue that media psychology researchers should incorporate being moved into their broader models of narrative engagement for both basic and applied research.     

Quantified or nonquantified: How quantification affects consumers' motivation in goal pursuit

Being exposed to more data and devices with tracking functions than ever, quantification is concerned by an increasing number of consumers. The self‐reflection from data may raise consumers' awareness of their own goals to better modify their behaviors. This paper describes consumers' reaction to quantification and confirms its motivational effect in goal pursuit. First, we investigate the motivational effect of quantification and reveal its internal mechanism from the individual–community perspective. Results show that quantification can promote consumers' goal pursuit motivation. A quantified (vs. nonquantified) way to track progress in pursuit of a goal can strengthen consumers' self‐empowerment (individual level) and difference‐insight (community level), thus enhancing the goal pursuit motivation. Second, we explore the moderating effect of some factors on the motivational effect of quantification. Results confirm that self‐empowerment can be enhanced with high data–color consistency, and difference‐insight can be increased with low outcome–process consistency. Third, we identify the validity of various data presentation modes. Using the interactive progress framing (to date with to go) together with the several subunits mode to deliver data in different progress stages is found to be an effective way to promote consumers' goal pursuit motivation.     

Mental contrasting with implementation intentions enhances self-regulation of goal pursuit in schoolchildren at risk for ADHD

Self-regulation is an important prerequisite for successful academic achievement, particularly for children who are at risk for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). We taught Mental Contrasting with Implementation Intentions (MCII), a technique that is known to facilitate the self-regulation of goal pursuit, to schoolchildren (sixth- and seventh-graders) both at risk and not at risk for ADHD. Parents rated their children’s level of self-regulation 2 weeks after the intervention. Children at risk and not at risk benefited from MCII more than from a learning style intervention only and the benefits of MCII were particularly strong for children at risk for ADHD. The results have implications with respect to supporting children’s self-regulation in their everyday school lives.     

Interaction of irrational beliefs with goal pursuit

152 subjects reported affective and cognitive reactions at several stages of pursuing a hypothetical goal related to the taking of a classroom test, then gave Anxious Overconcern and High Self-expectations ratings from Jones' Irrational Belief Test. Subject groups differed in kinds of goals set; e.g., easy vs. difficult. Affective and attributional correlates of the irrational beliefs appeared maladaptive, but differed as a function of difficulty and phase of pursuit of the hypothetical goal. These results supported a contextual model in which irrational beliefs are general cognitive structures which interact with other internal and/or external factors to influence reactions in particular situations. Motivational variables-such as type of goal pursued and number of steps taken in pursuit of it-appear to be important among such factors. The study thus points to growing complexity in our knowledge of how B functions in the ABC paradigm.Frank W. Wicker is Professor of Educational Psychology in the Department of Educational Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin. His research interests are focused on the cognitive bases of motivation and emotion.Gail Brown is a graduate student in the program in Cognition, Learning, and Instruction in the Department of Educational Psychology, University of Texas at Austin. Her primary research interests relate to theoretical explorations of motivation and emotion.Anastasia S. Hagen is a graduate student in the program in Cognition, Learning, and Instruction. She is especially interested in motivation as it pertains to learning and instruction.Wayne Boring is a graduate student in the program in Cognition, Learning, and Instruction. He is interested in cognitive approaches to the understanding of animal behaviors.James A. Wiehe is also a graduate student in the program in Cognition, Learning, and Instruction. He combines interests in cognitive, motivation, and the psychology of music.     

Illegitimacy improves goal pursuit in powerless individuals

The effects of power legitimacy on self-regulation during goal pursuit were examined. Study 1 focused on goal-setting and goal-striving. Specifically, it examined how much time legitimate and illegitimate powerless individuals needed to set goals, and how many means they generated to pursue these goals. Study 2 examined persistence in the face of difficulties. Consistently across these studies illegitimacy improved self-regulation in powerless individuals. Illegitimate powerless individuals behaved similarly as control participants. They took less time to decide on a course of action, used more flexible means to strive for goals, and persisted longer in the face of difficulties, compared to their legitimate counterparts. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Relational mechanisms in the goal pursuit process

Four studies tested a model for goal pursuit, which proposed three relational mechanisms that yield motives for a goal. These motives, in turn, predict goal outcomes, but the association was expected to be stronger among women than among men. Study 1 (n = 116) tested the model for a short‐term, collaborative project between strangers; Study 2 (n = 186) examined parents being motivated by their children to be healthier; Study 3 (n = 124) examined nontraditional college students' career searches; and Study 4 (n = 181) examined young adults' progress toward a self‐improvement goal. Results showed support for the model in all four studies, with the exception that feeling accountable to others was not a consistent predictor of relational motives.     

The motivational properties of hope in goal striving

We argue that hope is not an expectancy based on beliefs about pathways to desired goals and personal capacities to act on them, but an experience of the mere possibility of a desired outcome. We propose that in the latter sense, hope has unique motivational consequences for goal striving. Specifically, we predicted that hope buffers against the detrimental impact of negative feedback on goal-progress. The results of the two studies confirmed this prediction. In Study 1, we measured participants’ hopes of attaining a weight-loss goal. In Study 2, we induced hope at solving an unsolvable mathematical puzzle. In both studies, receiving negative feedback on goal-progress resulted in lower levels of success (Study 1) and persistence (Study 2) in goal-striving, but not for participants who experienced hope. We discuss the role of hope as an affective mechanism that functions to regulate energy expenditure in goal-striving.     

The tenacious goal pursuit and flexible goal adjustment scales: a validation study

The flexible goal adjustment (FLEX) and tenacious goal pursuit (TEN) scales are used regularly in aging research. The current study examined their validity in a sample of 517 women (30-75 years) in multiple ways. Overall, the findings show that the scales do not clearly distinguish between FLEX and TEN. The direction in which the items were formulated was just as important as what was being measured. Moreover, face validity of the inversely phrased items in particular appeared to be weak. On the basis of these findings, the authors recommend a revision of the concept definitions as well as of the items.     

Psychological momentum: The phenomenology of goal pursuit

Psychological momentum (PM) is thought to be a force that influences judgment, emotion, and performance. Based on a review of the extant literature, we elucidate two distinct approaches that researchers have adopted in their study of PM: the input‐centered approach and the output‐centered approach . Consistent with the input‐centered approach, we conceptualize PM as a process whereby temporal and contextual PM‐like stimuli (i.e., perceptual velocity, perceptual mass, perceptual historicity, and perceptually interconnected timescales)—initially perceived as an impetus—are extrapolated to imagined future outcomes through mental simulation. In turn, and consistent with the output‐centered approach, we posit that mental simulation elicits experiential (e.g., perceptual, cognitive, emotional) and behavioral states that govern goal pursuit, and that the pursuit of goals further influences perceptions of self, environment, and action quality. In all, we suggest that PM is interdependently linked to perceptions and behaviors in the sense that PM both influences and is influenced by changes in self‐perceptions, environmental perceptions, and behavior, and we conclude by linking the PM construct to recent work on prospection.     

Positive affect as informational feedback in goal pursuit

Two studies investigated the cognitive activation of a goal following a promise to complete it. Current theorizing about the impact of positive affect as informational feedback in goal pursuit suggests two contradictory conclusions: (1) positive affect can signal that sufficient progress towards a goal has been made, but also (2) positive affect can signal that commitment to a goal should be maintained. When individuals infer that significant progress toward goal achievement has been made, the goal should be deactivated, but when individuals infer that commitment to the goal should be maintained, goal activation should be increased. To determine the conditions in which positive affect leads to increased goal activation as opposed to goal deactivation, we proposed that competing goals serve as a moderator. We found that positive affect led to decreased goal activation when competing goals were present, but to increased goal activation when competing goals were absent.     

End-of-semester syndrome: How situational regulatory fit affects test performance over an academic semester

Psychology researchers often avoid running participants from subject pools at the end of the semester because they are "unmotivated". We suggest that the end of the semester induces a situational prevention focus (i.e., sensitive to losses) unlike the beginning of the semester, which may induce a situational promotion focus (i.e., sensitive to gains). In two experiments, we presented participants with math problems at the beginning or end of an academic semester. End-of-semester participants performed better minimizing losses as compared to maximizing gains, while the opposite was true for beginning-of-semester participants.     

Nonconscious goal pursuit: Acting in an explanatory vacuum

Nonconsciously activated goals and consciously set goals produce the same outcomes by engaging similar psychological processes (Bargh, 1990; Gollwitzer & Bargh, 2005). However, nonconscious and conscious goal pursuit may have different effects on subsequent affect if goal pursuit affords an explanation, as nonconscious goal pursuit occurs in an explanatory vacuum (i.e. cannot be readily attributed to the respective goal intention). We compared self-reported affect after nonconscious versus conscious goal pursuit that either violated or conformed to a prevailing social norm. When goal-directed behavior did not require an explanation (was norm-conforming), affective experiences did not differ after nonconscious and conscious goal pursuit. However, when goal-directed behavior required an explanation (was norm-violating), nonconscious goal pursuit induced more negative affect than conscious goal pursuit.