Information search and presentation in advisor–client interactions

When making a decision, people often search for more information supporting than conflicting with their preferred alternative. This can be counterproductive because potential risks and liabilities of the intended decision may be overlooked. However, when confronted with a decision problem, people often turn to advisors for help. We examined what kind of information advisors search for when confronted with a client’s decision problem and what information they present to their clients. Experiment 1 suggested that advisors (participants in the role of travel agents or friends) conducted a more balanced information search than personal decision-makers. However, when presenting information to their client, mock travel agents passed on more information supporting their recommendation than conflicting with it, whereas friends presented information in a balanced way. Experiment 2 replicated the balanced information search of advisors and suggested that this effect was partly mediated by the advisors’ increased accuracy motivation. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

BIS/BAS Levels and Psychiatric Disorder: An Epidemiological Study

Behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation levels have been theorized to relate to a broad range of psychopathologies. To date, however, studies have focused on a single diagnosis, and the measures used to assess different psychopathologies have varied greatly. This study assessed how levels of behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation relate to lifetime diagnoses of depression, anxiety, drug abuse and dependence, alcohol abuseand dependence, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and conduct disorder. A representative community sample of 1,803 individuals between the ages of 19 and 21 in the Miami area was surveyed with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview and the Behavioral Inhibition and Behavioral Activation Scales (BIS/BAS; C. S. Carver & T. White, 1994). Results supported the role of BIS as a vulnerability factor for depression and anxiety and of BAS Fun Seeking for drug abuse and noncomorbid alcohol diagnoses. Other models were not supported. Goals in understanding BIS and BAS are described, including the need for prospective studies with a broader array of behavioral indices.     

Of Power and Compassion

Abstract: While military and economic power are obviously central instruments of policy in international relations, there are a number of reasons why power alone is insufficient to succeed in fighting terrorism. Three central reasons are discussed in this essay: the limitations and the dilemma of power; the proposition that the most threatening form of terrorism, such as al‐Qaeda's, is conducted by nonstate actors, conventional deterrence against whom is less effective; and the role of motivation in conflicts where the distribution of power is asymmetrical. In addition to these objective reasons, it is argued that the foreign‐policy strategies pursued ultimately affect the actors' own values.     

Assessing individual differences in achievement motivation with the Implicit Association Test

The authors examined the validity of an Implicit Association Test (Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) for assessing individual differences in achievement tendencies. Eighty-eight students completed an IAT and explicit self-ratings of achievement orientation, and were then administered a mental concentration test that they performed either in the presence or in the absence of achievement-related feedback. Implicit and explicit measures of achievement orientation were uncorrelated. Under feedback, the IAT uniquely predicted students’ test performance but failed to predict their self-reported task enjoyment. Conversely, explicit self-ratings were unrelated to test performance but uniquely related to subjective accounts of task enjoyment. Without feedback, individual differences in both performance and enjoyment were independent of differences in either of the two achievement orientation measures.     

奖励对创造力的影响及其机制

在奖励对创造力的影响的问题上, 相关研究一直存在很大争议。在系统分析以往研究的基础上, 认为奖励既可以促进创造力也可以阻碍创造力, 这取决于对奖励的界定及对创造力的理解, 也受个体差异和外部环境因素的影响。在作用途径上, 奖励可以通过动机或认知因素以及它们的综合作用对创造力产生影响。研究在此基础上构建出一个综合了奖励和创造力及其影响因素的模型。     

愤怒的动机方向

动机是动物行为的基本推动力。愤怒作为一种特殊的负性情绪通常具有趋近动机的性质, 但在某些情境下却跟回避动机有关。对这些冲突的证据有两种解释, 其一认为愤怒的特异性成分可能与趋近动机有关, 而其非特异性成分与回避动机有关; 其二认为, 愤怒外投与趋近动机有关, 愤怒内投与回避动机有关。大量研究暗示了愤怒与趋近动机的关联具有优先性与一般性, 而愤怒与回避动机的关联则是有条件的, 受情境制约的。将来需要进一步探索愤怒与趋近动机的进化和认知神经机制, 并明确愤怒与回避动机相关联的情境特征。     

Mustering motivation to enact decisions: how decision process characteristics influence goal realization

Decision scientists tend to focus mainly on decision antecedents, studying how people make decisions. Action psychologists, in contrast, study post‐decision issues, investigating how decisions, once formed, are maintained, protected, and enacted. Through the research presented here, we seek to bridge these two disciplines, proposing that the process by which decisions are reached motivates subsequent pursuit and benefits eventual realization. We identify three characteristics of the decision process (DP) as having motivation‐mustering potential: DP effort investment, DP importance, and DP confidence. Through two field studies tracking participants' decision processes, pursuit and realization, we find that after controlling for the influence of the motivational mechanisms of goal intention and implementation intention, the three decision process characteristics significantly influence the successful enactment of the chosen decision directly. The the oretical and practical implications of these findings are considered and future research opportunities are identified. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The trichotomous achievement goal model and intrinsic motivation: a sequential mediational analysis

This experiment was designed to extend the research by Elliot and Harackiewicz (1996) on the trichotomous achievement goal model in several important ways and to more thoroughly document the processes through which the goals in the trichotomous model influence intrinsic motivation. Results indicated that performance-avoidance goals undermined intrinsic motivation relative to performance-approach and mastery goals; the latter goals evidenced the same intrinsic motivation. These results were obtained using highly evaluative performance goal manipulations, with early adolescent participants, and for a motor task relevant to physical ability. Sequential mediational analyses revealed that competence valuation, state anxiety, and task absorption processes accounted for the observed effects. Perceived competence served neither mediating nor moderating roles.     

Providing a Rationale in an Autonomy-Supportive Way as a Strategy to Motivate Others During an Uninteresting Activity

When motivating others during uninteresting activities, people typically use extrinsic contingencies that promote controlling forms of extrinsic motivation. In contrast, we investigated a motivational strategy that could support another person's capacity to personally endorse and value the effort he or she put forth during the uninteresting activity. That strategy is the provision of an externally provided rationale when communicated in an autonomy-supportive way. In two studies, we tested and found support for a motivational mediation model, based on self-determination theory, in which the presence of such a rationale (vs. its absence) adds to participants' identification with the task's personal value which, in turn, explains participants' subsequent effort. These studies suggest that extrinsically motivated behaviors can become self-determined through the process of identification and that the promotion of this identification experience depends on the presence of a rationale that is communicated in an autonomy-supportive way.     

中学生学习动机、成就归因、学习效能感与成就状况之间因果关系的研究

该研究采用测验法对中学生学习动机、成就归因、学习效能感与成就状况之间的因果关系进行了探讨,并建立起因果关系模型。研究结果表明：学习动机、成就归因、学习效能感与成就状况之间是相互联系和相互影响的,学习动机、成就归因、学习效能感直接或间接影响个体的成就状况。