I want to be creative,but … preference for creativity,perceived clear outcome goals,work enjoyment,and creative performance

In today’s quickly changing work environment, many individuals want to be creative at their workplace, but only some of them succeed at manifesting these tendencies. In three studies, using both field and experimental data, we focused on transforming individuals’ preference for creativity, defined as an inclination for liking and wanting to be creative, into actual creativity. We first conducted a pilot Study 1 to establish discriminant validity to related constructs and provided initial evidence on predictive and incremental validity of the preference-for-creativity scale. Next, we performed a field Study 2, where we found that transforming preferences for creativity into supervisor-rated creativity is contingent upon employees’ perceptions of clear outcome goals. Clear outcome goals fostered individuals’ preference for creativity to result in higher levels of supervisor-rated creative behaviour—a finding that was replicated in an experimental Study 3. Furthermore, we explored whether work enjoyment mediated the moderated relationship between preference for creativity and creative outcomes. The results supported our mediated moderation model, whereby the manipulation of clear goals led to higher work enjoyment, influencing individuals’ preference for creativity to result in higher ratings of their creative outcomes.     

Réguler ses émotions quand on apprend,oui mais pourquoi ? Motivations à réguler ses émotions,buts émotionnels et stratégies de régulation émotionnelle mises en œuvre par des étudiants universitaires primo-arrivants en situation de préparation d’examen

Studying for the first exam period is a big challenge for freshmen students, especially because they must be able to regulate emotions emerging from this new learning situation. Indeed, it is now recognized that cognitions and emotions interact in learning and that emotion can hinder or support it. However, we argue that it is not only emotions per se but rather how students manage them in the targeted situation (i.e. their emotional regulation skills) that impacts students’ adaptation to this academic context. Using an online survey, this study explored motives in emotion regulation, emotion goals and concrete emotion regulation strategies implemented by students during the preparation of a significant course evaluation. It focuses both on “why” students engage in emotion regulation in the target situation and on “how” this regulation is implemented. A thematic content analysis, processing the data of the 235 respondents, indicates that different motivations in emotion regulation are present among students (hedonic and instrumental motivations to regulate emotions) and that these motivations can be plural among the same students. When instrumental and hedonic motivations are both reported, although the students’ discourse argues that hedonic motivation (feeling good/better) is at the service of instrumental motivation (studying the course), concrete SRE prioritize well-being, through distraction from the course, more than the study of the course (the SRE rarely supports learning). In addition, the most reported emotion regulation strategy is distraction from the course (taking a break and doing something to distract yourself from the course), even in the absence of motivational conflicts. As a result, the theoretical model of motivated regulation (Tamir, 2009; Tamir, 2015) applied to this learning situation offers an innovative reading of why and how university students attempt to manage their emotions in order to learn successfully. Although the current study approaches only the conscious side of emotion regulation, it provides an original perspective on this complex phenomenon without ignoring the context in which it emerges. Finally, this insight should help students, teachers and educational coaches to see emotion regulation as necessary for learning and to set up pedagogical and coaching practices that support the development of SRE, adapted to the learning situation and linked to the emotional states that students wish to experiment in order to optimize learning.     

The predictive role of achievement goals adoption on sensation-seeking and risk taking in driving

Risk taking in driving is a major road safety issue. Understanding the individual psychological differences that may influence risk taking may contribute to better overcome its negative consequences. Recently, four achievement goals were highlighted in the driving domain: striving to drive well or to improve as much as possible (mastery-approach goals), to avoid driving badly or to avoid being a worse driver than before (mastery-avoidance goals), to outperform other drivers (performance-approach goals), and to avoid being a worse driver than other drivers (performance-avoidance goals). The first purpose of the present study was to examine the predictive role of these achievement goals in driving on self-reported drivers’ risk taking (ordinary and aggressive violations) and sensation-seeking. The second purpose of the study was to test the mediating role of sensation seeking between achievement goals adoption in driving and violations. A total of 341 French drivers voluntarily filled out the questionnaires assessing the variables of interest. The main results showed that performance-approach goals adoption was found to positively predict sensation seeking, ordinary and aggressive violations, whereas mastery-avoidance goals adoption was found to negatively predict these variables. The results also highlighted that sensation seeking was a significant mediator of the relationships between the two previous achievement goals (performance-approach and mastery-avoidance goals) and ordinary and aggressive violations. In conclusion, the achievement goal model may now be considered a relevant theoretical framework in the driving literature focusing on risk taking, sensation seeking, and road safety.     

How partner‐satisfying decisions benefit relationships: An experience sampling study

Sometimes, individuals must choose between acting in a way that satisfies their own desire or acting in a way that satisfies their partner's desire. What are the consequences of choosing one over the other for individuals' well‐being and relationship? Using experience sampling data (934 reports by 106 participants) that assessed daily decision conflicts in relationships, we examined consequences of partner‐satisfying decisions. A higher proportion of partner‐satisfying decisions predicted more perceived needs fulfillment and marginally higher perceived relationship quality over the course of a week. Additionally, immediately after the partner‐satisfying decision, participants reported feeling closer to their partner, and reported more positive and less negative affect, even when controlling for the quality of the relationship.     

Assessment of learning goals in university students from the perspective of ‘person-situation interaction’: the Situated Goals Questionnaire (SGQ-U) / Evaluación de las metas de aprendizaje en estudiantes universitarios desde la perspectiva de la ‘interacción persona-situación’: el Cuestionario de Metas Situadas (CMS-U)

Academic behaviour takes place in a context in which the nature of class activities and interactions can influence the student’s motivation to learn. So, in order to study this influence, it is necessary to assess not only the personal variables that can motivate academic behaviour, but also the degree to which students are sensitive to different situational or task characteristics. In this case, the interaction person-situation is analysed using a new tool, the ‘situated-goal questionnaire’ for university students. Data of 770 students were analysed using confirmatory techniques, as well as Anova and regression techniques. According to results, the questionnaire has good psychometric characteristics. Besides, they showed the effect of the kinds of situation on the degree to which students declare the pursuit of different goals, as suggested by the person/situation interaction model, as well as the validity of both goals and sensitivity to situations for predicting engagement and self-estimated mean grade.     

Positive affect and physical activity: Testing effects on goal setting,activation, prioritisation,and attainment

Objective: The present research tested whether incidental positive affect promotes pursuit of physical activity goals. Four key features of goal pursuit were examined – setting physical activity goals (Study 1), goal activation (Study 2), and goal prioritization and goal attainment (Study 3).

Design: Participants (N_s = 80, 81, and 59, in Studies 1–3, respectively) were randomized to positive affect (joy, hope) or neutral affect (control) conditions in each study.

Main Outcome Measures: Questionnaire measures of goal level, goal commitment, and means selection (Study 1); a lexical decision task indexed goal activation (Study 2), a choice task captured goal prioritization and MET minutes quantified goal attainment (Study 3).

Results: Study 1 showed that positive affect led to a greater number of intended physical activities, and that joy engendered greater willingness to try activities. In Study 2, a positive affect induction led to heightened activation of the physical activity goal compared to the control condition. The joy induction in Study 3 led to greater physical activity, and a trend towards greater goal prioritization.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that positive affect enhances the pursuit of physical activity goals. Implications for health behavior theories and interventions are outlined.     

Linking personality states,current social roles and major life goals

Employing an experience‐sampling design, the interplay between personality states, social roles and major life goals was examined as it unfolds in the stream of people's daily lives. Multilevel analyses revealed a considerable amount of both within‐ and between‐person variability in state expressions of personality traits justifying further examination of predictors at both levels of analyses. Roles proved as predictors of current personality states albeit effects differed significantly between individuals. Life goals accounted for between‐person differences in average personality states but were not effective in predicting differences in relations between personality states and roles. Altogether, findings testify to the viability of the employed research strategy to analyse the interplay between both dispositional and fluctuating influences on individuals' trait expressions in behaviour. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptation of career goals to self and opportunities in early adolescence

Development of career goals that are adapted to self and opportunities is a central component of adolescent career preparation. The present longitudinal study (conducted throughout the eighth grade with three assessment points) investigated how 330 Swiss adolescents simultaneously adapt career goals to interests, scholastic achievement and environmental opportunities. Results demonstrated that students increasingly adapt their goals to the environment. Mean adaptation to environment related positively to degree of adaption to interests and achievement. Increased adaptation to environment over time related to increased adaptation to achievement but to decreased adaptation to interests. Gender, attended school type and nationality moderated adaptation processes. Structurally disadvantaged students (girls, lower requirements school track, immigrant students) reported more conflict in aligning adaptation to environment with adaptation to interests.     

Over and over again: Rumination, reflection, and promotion goal failure and their interactive effects on depressive symptoms

Research indicates that examining failure experiences using an immersed processing style versus a non-immersed, self-distanced open style influences cognitions about the self, motivation, and subsequent depressive symptoms. However, the effect of processing goal failure experiences using these different processing styles have not been adequately incorporated into existing self-regulation theories of depression. In a cross-sectional study, we examined the interactive effects of rumination (versus reflection) and failure to attain promotion goals on depressive symptoms. As predicted, greater levels of promotion goal failure were associated with having more depressive symptoms for individuals who engage in moderate to high levels of rumination. In contrast, among individuals who engage in high levels of self-reflection, promotion goal failure was not associated with an appreciable increase in depressive symptoms. We discuss the implications of these results for self-regulatory theories of depression and treatments for depression.     

ACACIA: an agent-based program for simulating behavior to reach long-term goals

We present ACACIA, an agent-based program implemented in Java StarLogo 2.0 that simulates a two-dimensional microworld populated by agents, obstacles and goals. Our program simulates how agents can reach long-term goals by following sensorial-motor couplings (SMCs) that control how the agents interact with their environment and other agents through a process of local categorization. Thus, while acting in accordance with this set of SMCs, the agents reach their goals through the emergence of global behaviors. This agent-based simulation program would allow us to understand some psychological processes such as planning behavior from the point of view that the complexity of these processes is the result of agent–environment interaction.