Behavioral facilitation: A cognitive model of individual differences in approach motivation.

Approach motivation consists of the active, engaged pursuit of one's goals. The purpose of the present three studies (N = 258) was to examine whether approach motivation could be cognitively modeled, thereby providing process-based insights into personality functioning. Behavioral facilitation was assessed in terms of faster (or facilitated) reaction time with practice. As hypothesized, such tendencies predicted higher levels of approach motivation, higher levels of positive affect, and lower levels of depressive symptoms and did so across cognitive, behavioral, self-reported, and peer-reported outcomes. Tendencies toward behavioral facilitation, on the other hand, did not correlate with self-reported traits (Study 1) and did not predict avoidance motivation or negative affect (all studies). The results indicate a systematic relationship between behavioral facilitation in cognitive tasks and approach motivation in daily life. Results are discussed in terms of the benefits of modeling the cognitive processes hypothesized to underlie individual differences motivation, affect, and depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Identified and introjected forms of political internalization: extending self-determination theory

Canadian voters' reasons for following political events were assessed prior to the 1992 Constitutional Referendum and the 1993 federal election. Results showed that reasons reflecting identification were endorsed more frequently than those reflecting introjection, and distinctive patterns of cognitions, emotions, and actions were associated with the 2 types of internalization. Identification was associated with actively seeking information about political events, possessing a complex set of political attitudes, and being more likely to actually vote. Introjection was associated with relying on the influence of important others, experiencing conflicted emotions about political outcomes, and vulnerability to persuasion. The study also provided evidence that identification and introjection toward politics are distinguishable from intrinsic motivation and amotivation.     

Does self-threat promote social connection? The role of self-esteem and contingencies of self-worth.

Six studies examined the social motivations of people with high self-esteem (HSE) and low self-esteem (LSE) following a threat to a domain of contingent self-worth. Whether people desired social contact following self-threat depended on an interaction between an individual's trait self-esteem and contingencies of self-worth. HSE participants who strongly based self-worth on appearance sought to connect with close others following a threat to their physical attractiveness. LSE participants who staked self-worth on appearance wanted to avoid social contact and, instead, preferred a less interpersonally risky way of coping with self-threat (wanting to enhance their physical attractiveness). Implications for theories of self-esteem, motivation, and interpersonal processes are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship between student attitudes about cooperation and competition and attitudes toward schooling.

Responses to the Minnesota School Affect Assessment made by approximately 2,400 students in grades 2-12 of a midwestern school district were submitted to correlational analyses of relationships between scales measuring attitudes toward cooperation and competition and scales measuring attitudes toward school personnel, motivation to learn, involvement in learning, self-worth as student, other students, and restraints on student behavior. Attitudes toward cooperation and competition were virtually independent across grades. Cooperativeness was consistently related to a broad range of positive attitudes toward schooling experience at all grade levels. Competitiveness changed its pattern of correlates, showing relationships to several positive attitudes only in high school. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Construction et validation de l'échelle de motivation en éducation (EME).

Studied the construction, psychometric properties, and validity of an instrument to measure motivation toward education—the EME. The scale consists of 7 subscales assessing 3 types of internal motivation (to know, to accomplish, and to experience sensations) and 3 types of external motivation (external, introjected, and identified regulation). Human subjects: 746 male and female Canadian adults (mean age 17.62–18.97 yrs) (college students). The EME was administered to 3 groups of students during class time. One group was given the scale twice to determine internal stability. Internal consistency, factorial structure, and construct validity were determined using factorial analysis and the LISREL VI statistical software package (K. G. Joreskog and D. Sorbom, 1984). (English abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in the correlates of cooperative and competitive school attitudes.

Reports of sex differences in cooperative and competitive attitudes have assumed that these constructs are the same for boys and girls. Previous findings that the attitudinal correlates of these attitudes are different at different grade levels suggest that there might be sex differences in the attitudinal patterns in which cooperation and competition are embedded. In this study, subscales of the Minnesota School Affect Assessment were administered to a systematic sample of 2,432 2nd–12th graders. Attitudes toward cooperation and competition in school were correlated with other school attitudes separately for males and females. Significant sex differences were found in correlation patterns at all grade levels. Males progressively lost completely the negativistic correlates that competition had in lower grades, whereas females retained some. In senior high school, females finally showed positive correlations of competition with self-worth and internal motivation, whereas males almost lost the correlation between cooperation and self-worth. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exercising self-control increases approach motivation.

The present research tested the hypothesis that exercising self-control causes an increase in approach motivation. Study 1 found that exercising (vs. not exercising) self-control increases self-reported approach motivation. Study 2a identified a behavior—betting on low-stakes gambles—that is correlated with approach motivation but is relatively uncorrelated with self-control, and Study 2b observed that exercising self-control temporarily increases this behavior. Last, Study 3 found that exercising self-control facilitates the perception of a reward-relevant symbol (i.e., a dollar sign) but not a reward-irrelevant symbol (i.e., a percent sign). Altogether, these results support the hypothesis that exercising self-control temporarily increases approach motivation. Failures of self-control that follow from prior efforts at self-control (i.e., ego depletion) may be explained in part by increased approach motivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relations of motivational traits with workplace deviance.

The authors developed and tested new theoretical relations between approach and avoidance motivational traits and deviant work behaviors. Approach motivation was divided into 3 traits: personal mastery (i.e., desire to achieve), competitive excellence (i.e., desire to perform better than others), and behavioral activation system (BAS) sensitivity (i.e., responsiveness to rewards). Avoidance motivation, which reflects one's sensitivity to negative stimuli and the desire to escape such stimuli, was conceptualized as a unitary construct. Using structural equation modeling, the authors examined the relations of these 4 motivational traits with interpersonal and organizational deviance in a sample of primarily part-time employees. For the approach motivation traits, results showed that personal mastery was negatively related to interpersonal and organizational deviance, BAS sensitivity was positively related to interpersonal and organizational deviance, and competitive excellence was unrelated to both types of workplace deviance. Finally, avoidance motivation was positively related to organizational deviance and interacted with organizational constraints to predict interpersonal deviance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Approach-avoidance motivation in personality: Approach and avoidance temperaments and goals.

The present research examined the role of approach and avoidance motivation in models of personality. Specifically, it examined the hypothesis that approach and avoidance temperaments represent the foundation of several basic dimensions espoused in the trait adjective, affective disposition, and motivational system approaches to personality. Factor analytic support for the hypothesis was obtained in Studies 1, 2, and 6; measures of extraversion, positive emotionality, and behavioral activation system loaded together on 1 factor (Approach Temperament) and measures of neuroticism, negative emotionality, and behavioral inhibition system loaded on another factor (Avoidance Temperament). This 2-factor structure was shown to be independent of response biases. In Studies 3-7, approach and avoidance temperaments were shown to be systematically linked to achievement goals (both nomothetic and idiographic). The findings are discussed in terms of an integrative approach to personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental trajectories of motivation in physical education: Course, demographic differences, and antecedents.

This study investigated changes in student motivation to participate in physical education and some determinants of these changes over a period of 3 years. Measures were taken twice a year, from age 13 until age 15, from a sample of Greek junior high school students. Multilevel modeling analyses showed significant decreases in task-involving teacher climate, relatedness, identified regulation, and intrinsic motivation. In contrast, there were significant increases in ego-involving climate and amotivation. For some of these variables, the observed linear decreases or increases were somewhat reversed by the beginning of the last year of junior high school. No significant changes were observed in competence need satisfaction and in extrinsic and introjected regulations. The authors found substantial between-student variability in the intercepts and growth trajectories of most variables, and therefore they tested a number of theoretical and demographic predictors to partly account for such variations. The results indicate that increases in maladaptive motivation in physical education over time are not uniform across all students and may be partly tackled by facilitating competence need satisfaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Accessibility of Motivational Tendencies Toward Alcohol: Approach, Avoidance, and Disinhibited Drinking.

Problematic drinking has been proposed to result from an overactivation of approach motivation toward the beneficial effects of alcohol and an underactivation of avoidance motivation away from aversive consequences of heavy alcohol use. The authors of the present study used a sequential priming task (R. H. Fazio, J. R. Jackson, B. C. Dunton, & C. J. Williams, 1995) to examine the extent to which alcohol cues automatically activate approach and avoidance motivational tendencies in college drinkers. Hierarchical regression analyses indicate that number of binge episodes and alcohol problems are correlated with weak associations between alcohol cues and avoidance motivation but not with strong associations between alcohol cues and approach motivation. Implications for understanding the self-regulation of alcohol use in college drinkers are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moving toward more perfect unions: Daily and long-term consequences of approach and avoidance goals in romantic relationships.

In 2 daily experience studies and a laboratory study, the authors test predictions from approach-avoidance motivational theory to understand how dating couples can maintain feelings of relationship satisfaction in their daily lives and over the course of time. Approach goals were associated with increased relationship satisfaction on a daily basis and over time, particularly when both partners were high in approach goals. Avoidance goals were associated with decreases in relationship satisfaction over time, and people were particularly dissatisfied when they were involved with a partner with high avoidance goals. People high in approach goals and their partners were rated as relatively more satisfied and responsive to a partner's needs by outside observers in the lab, whereas people with high avoidance goals and their partners were rated as less satisfied and responsive. Positive emotions mediated the link between approach goals and daily satisfaction in both studies, and responsiveness to the partner's needs was an additional behavioral mechanism in Study 2. Implications of these findings for approach-avoidance motivational theory and for the maintenance of satisfying relationships over time are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivational profiles from a self-determination perspective: The quality of motivation matters.

The present research complements extant variable-centered research that focused on the dimensions of autonomous and controlled motivation through adoption of a person-centered approach for identifying motivational profiles. Both in high school students (Study 1) and college students (Study 2), a cluster analysis revealed 4 motivational profiles: a good quality motivation group (i.e., high autonomous, low controlled); a poor quality motivation group (i.e., low autonomous, high controlled); a low quantity motivation group (i.e., low autonomous, low controlled); and a high quantity motivation group (i.e., high autonomous, high controlled). To compare the 4 groups, the authors derived predictions from qualitative and quantitative perspectives on motivation. Findings generally favored the qualitative perspective; compared with the other groups, the good quality motivation group displayed the most optimal learning pattern and scored highest on perceived need-supportive teaching. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A meta-analysis of 25 years of mood-creativity research: Hedonic tone, activation, or regulatory focus?

This meta-analysis synthesized 102 effect sizes reflecting the relation between specific moods and creativity. Effect sizes overall revealed that positive moods produce more creativity than mood-neutral controls (r = .15), but no significant differences between negative moods and mood-neutral controls (r = -.03) or between positive and negative moods (r = .04) were observed. Creativity is enhanced most by positive mood states that are activating and associated with an approach motivation and promotion focus (e.g., happiness), rather than those that are deactivating and associated with an avoidance motivation and prevention focus (e.g., relaxed). Negative, deactivating moods with an approach motivation and a promotion focus (e.g., sadness) were not associated with creativity, but negative, activating moods with an avoidance motivation and a prevention focus (fear, anxiety) were associated with lower creativity, especially when assessed as cognitive flexibility. With a few exceptions, these results generalized across experimental and correlational designs, populations (students vs. general adult population), and facet of creativity (e.g., fluency, flexibility, originality, eureka/insight). The authors discuss theoretical implications and highlight avenues for future research on specific moods, creativity, and their relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivation for smoking cessation among pregnant women.

The authors evaluated an expanded measure of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for smoking cessation in a population-based sample of 897 pregnant smokers (500 current smokers and 397 recent quitters). The measure assessed motivation related to pregnancy and parenthood in addition to general intrinsic and extrinsic dimensions. Current smokers at baseline who quit smoking by 28 weeks of pregnancy (n?=?102) had significantly higher baseline levels of pregnancy-related motivation than continuing smokers. Extrinsic and pregnancy motivation dropped between baseline and 28 weeks of pregnancy among continuing smokers. Higher levels of intrinsic relative to extrinsic motivation at baseline were associated with sustained abstinence during the first 2 months postpartum. Results suggest that both general and pregnancy-specific motivation are important for smoking cessation and relapse prevention during pregnancy. Interventions to enhance the salience of health benefits over and above those related to pregnancy and other intrinsic benefits of a greater sense of self-control could protect against postpartum relapse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of embodied emotive states on cognitive categorization.

Research has uncovered that positive affect broadens cognitive categorization. The motivational dimensional model, however, posits that positive affect is not a unitary construct with only one cognitive consequence. Instead, this model puts forth that there are different positive affects varying in approach motivational intensity. According to this model, only positive affects lower in motivational intensity should broaden cognitive processes, whereas positive affects higher in motivational intensity should narrow cognitive processes. Consistent with these predictions, high approach positive affect has been shown to narrow attention, whereas low approach positive affect has been shown to broaden it (Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2008). High approach positive affect, therefore, might narrow categorization. Two experiments investigated this possibility by having participants respond to cognitive categorization tasks in 3 body postures designed to elicit different levels of approach motivation: reclining backward, which should evoke low approach motivation; sitting upright, which should evoke moderate approach motivation; and leaning forward, which should evoke high approach motivation. Participants smiled while in each posture in order to experience positive affect. Experiment 1 provided initial support for the idea that high approach positive affect narrows categorization and low approach positive affect broadens categorization. Experiment 2 replicated these findings with improved smiling instructions. These results extend previous work by showing that the motivational model's predictions hold for basic attentional processes as well as higher level cognitive processes such as categorization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social-cognitive processes of severly violent, moderately aggressive, and nonaggressive boys.

Examined social–cognitive processes of aggressive and nonaggressive boys at preadolescent and early adolescent age levels. The social-cognitive variables included processing of cues, attributions, social problem solving, affect labeling, outcome expectations, and perceived competence and self-worth. Results indicated that a wide range of social-cognitive processes is distorted and deficient for violent and moderately aggressive children, and that different types of social cognition contribute unique variance in discriminating among groups. Severely violent boys at both age levels had difficulties with cue recall, attributions, social problem solving, general self-worth, and a pattern of endorsing unusually positive affects that they may experience in different settings. Moderately aggressive boys shared some of the social-cognitive difficulties demonstrated by severely violent boys, but they also displayed indications that their aggression may be more planfully aimed to achieve expected outcomes. When the moderately aggressive and the violent boys differed from the nonaggressive boys on attributional biases and low perceived self-worth, a continuum existed with violent boys displaying more extreme social-cognitive dysfunctions than the moderately aggressive boys. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Making sense by making sentient: Effectance motivation increases anthropomorphism.

People commonly anthropomorphize nonhuman agents, imbuing everything from computers to pets to gods with humanlike capacities and mental experiences. Although widely observed, the determinants of anthropomorphism are poorly understood and rarely investigated. We propose that people anthropomorphize, in part, to satisfy effectance motivation—the basic and chronic motivation to attain mastery of one's environment. Five studies demonstrated that increasing effectance motivation by manipulating the perceived unpredictability of a nonhuman agent or by increasing the incentives for mastery increases anthropomorphism. Neuroimaging data demonstrated that the neural correlates of this process are similar to those engaged when mentalizing other humans. A final study demonstrated that anthropomorphizing a stimulus makes it appear more predictable and understandable, suggesting that anthropomorphism satisfies effectance motivation. Anthropomorphizing nonhuman agents seems to satisfy the basic motivation to make sense of an otherwise uncertain environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bring it on: Angry facial expressions potentiate approach-motivated motor behavior.

Although many psychological models suggest that human beings are invariably motivated to avoid negative stimuli, more recent theories suggest that people are frequently motivated to approach angering social challenges in order to confront and overcome them. To examine these models, the current investigation sought to determine whether angry facial expressions potentiate approach-motivated motor behaviors. Across 3 studies, individuals were faster to initiate approach movements toward angry facial expressions than to initiate avoidance movements away from such facial expressions. This approach advantage differed significantly from participants’ responses to both emotionally neutral (Studies 1 & 3) and fearful (Study 2) facial expressions. Furthermore, this pattern was most apparent when physical approach appeared to be effective in overcoming the social challenge posed by angry facial expressions (Study 3). The results are discussed in terms of the processes underlying anger-related approach motivation and the conditions under which they are likely to arise. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Procedural justice and the hedonic principle: How approach versus avoidance motivation influences the psychology of voice.

The authors investigate the relation between the hedonic principle (people's motivations to approach pleasure and to avoid pain) and procedural justice. They explore whether approach or avoidance motivation increases the effect that people feel they were treated more fairly following procedures that do versus do not allow them an opportunity to voice their opinion. Experiments 1 and 2 reveal that these procedures influence procedural justice judgments more strongly when people conduct approach motor action (arm flexion) than when they conduct avoidance motor action (arm extension). Experiment 3 indicates that individual-difference measures of participants' approach motivations predicted procedural justice judgments following voice versus no-voice procedures. The authors conclude that people's motivational orientations stimulate their fairness-based reactions to voice procedures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)