Pursuing goals for us: Relationally autonomous reasons in long-term goal pursuit.

People pursue goals for a variety of reasons, including reasons that take into account close relationships (termed relationally autonomous reasons, or RARs). Two longitudinal studies examined the degree to which relational self-construal, RARs, and personally autonomous reasons (PARs) predicted goal attainment. In Study 1, 166 participants rated 7 goals on several goal outcomes at 2 sessions. Results revealed that self-construal was positively associated with RARs and that RARs predicted goal attainment, controlling for PARs. Study 2 (N = 177) added a 3rd follow-up to the Study 1 design, and results showed perceived progress toward one's goals predicted enhanced RARs but not enhanced PARs. Both studies showed that RARs are an effective motivational component in goal pursuit and attainment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol breeds empty goal commitments.

According to alcohol-myopia theory (C. M. Steele & R. A. Josephs, 1990), alcohol leads individuals to disproportionally focus on the most salient aspects of a situation and to ignore peripheral information. The authors hypothesized that alcohol leads individuals to strongly commit to their goals without considering information about the probability of goal attainment. In Study 1, participants named their most important interpersonal goal, indicated their expectations of successfully attaining it, and then consumed either alcohol or a placebo. In contrast to participants who consumed a placebo, intoxicated participants felt strongly committed to their goals despite low expectations of attaining them. In Study 2, goal-directed actions were measured over time. Once sober again, intoxicated participants with low expectations did not follow up on their strong commitments. Apparently, when prospects are bleak, alcohol produces empty goal commitments, as commitments are not based on individuals’ expectations of attaining their goals and do not foster goal striving over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in learning the affective value of others under minimal conditions.

This paper provides the first demonstration that people can learn about the positive and negative value of other people (e.g., neutral faces) under minimal learning conditions, with stable individual differences in this learning. In four studies, participants viewed neutral faces paired with sentences describing positive, negative or neutral behaviors on either two (Study 1) or four (Studies 2, 3, and 4) occasions. Participants were later asked to judge the valence of the faces alone. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that learning does occur under minimal conditions. Study 3 and 4 further demonstrated that the degree of learning was moderated by Extraversion. Finally, Study 4 demonstrated that initial learning persisted over a period of 2 days. Implications for affective processing and person perception are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Importance of participative goal setting and anticipated rewards on goal difficulty and job performance.

In Study 1, 76 engineers/scientists either participated in the setting of, or were assigned, specific behavioral goals during their performance appraisal. Participative goal setting resulted in more difficult goals being set than was the case when the goals were assigned. Perceptions of goal difficulty, however, were not significantly different in the 2 goal-setting conditions. In Study 2, the analysis of the performance data collected 6 mo later on 132 engineers/scientists revealed main effects for both goal setting and anticipated rewards. Only participative goal setting led to significantly higher performance than a "do your best" and a control group condition. There was no significant difference between the performance of the latter 2 conditions despite the fact that the individuals in the do-your-best group received knowledge of results. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Achievement goals and optimal motivation: Testing multiple goal models.

Currently, there is a debate about which types of achievement goals promote optimal motivation. A number of theorists argue for a mastery goal perspective focusing on the adaptive consequences of mastery goals and the maladaptive consequences of performance goals. Others endorse a multiple goal perspective in which both mastery and performance goals can be beneficial. The purpose of the present investigation was to review why this debate has emerged and to offer a critical test of the mastery versus multiple goal perspectives. In Study 1, a correlational approach was used to identify the optimal goals for college participants to adopt for a learning activity. In Study 2, an experimental approach was used to identify the optimal goals to assign for the same activity. Each study revealed benefits of both mastery and performance goals, providing support for the multiple goal perspective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexual overperception: Power, mating motives, and biases in social judgment.

Results from 4 experiments suggest that power motivates heightened perceptions and expectations of sexual interest from subordinates. Having power over a member of the opposite sex activated sexual concepts that persisted across a temporal delay, indicating the activation of a mating goal (Study 1). Having power increased participants' expectations of sexual interest from a subordinate (Study 2) but only when a mating goal was attainable (i.e., when the subordinate was romantically available; Study 3). In a face-to-face interaction between 2 participants, power heightened perceptions of sexual interest and sexualized behavior among participants with chronically active mating goals (i.e., sexually unrestricted individuals; Study 4). Tests of mediation demonstrated that sexual overperception mediated power's effect on sexually tinged behavior. Through its capacity to induce goal pursuit, power can activate mating goals that sexualize interactions between men and women. This research demonstrates one route through which power might lead to sexual harassment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Task Interest and Actual Performance: The Moderating Effects of Assigned and Adopted Purpose Goals.

This research examined whether and which purpose goals moderate the relationship between task interest and actual performance and whether assigned goals have different effects (Study 1) than adopted goals (Study 2). Two studies were conducted using a full 2 X 2 design of the performance-mastery and approach-avoidance distinctions, plus control conditions. In the control conditions, that is, in a neutral purpose goal context, the expected positive relationship between initial task interest and actual performance was found. In a purpose goal context, this link held only for a congruent mastery-approach goal (either assigned or adopted). The gain in task interest found in a neutral purpose context was observed in the purpose goal conditions only when participants attained their purpose goals. It was concluded that having an incongruent purpose goal may undermine the positive effect of prior task interest on actual performance as well as on subsequent task interest. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schema reliance for developmental goals increases from early to late adulthood: Improvement for the young, loss prevention for the old.

People tend to encode and retrieve information in terms of schemata, especially when processing resources are low. This study argues that the life-span schema about developmental goals constitutes a generalized expectation about the life course that associates young adults with growth and older adults with loss prevention. Predictions were that young and older adults possess this schema; that both age groups rely on it when remembering age-associated information about goals; and that this schema reliance is particularly pronounced among older adults, due to age-related difficulties in overcoming schemata. In Experiment 1, participants assigned growth or loss-prevention orientations to young and older faces and adhered to the life-span schema. In Experiment 2, participants were presented young and older faces paired with growth or loss prevention. When later asked to recognize faces and remember goal orientations, participants were more likely to remember young faces with growth and older faces with loss prevention than vice versa. This effect was more pronounced among older adults. Conclusions are that reliance on life-span schemata when remembering developmentally relevant information increases with age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Culture as common sense: Perceived consensus versus personal beliefs as mechanisms of cultural influence.

The authors propose that culture affects people through their perceptions of what is consensually believed. Whereas past research has examined whether cultural differences in social judgment are mediated by differences in individuals’ personal values and beliefs, this article investigates whether they are mediated by differences in individuals’ perceptions of the views of people around them. The authors propose that individuals who perceive that traditional views are culturally consensual (e.g., Chinese participants who believe that most of their fellows hold collectivistic values) will themselves behave and think in culturally typical ways. Four studies of previously well-established cultural differences found that cultural differences were mediated by participants’ perceived consensus as much as by participants’ personal views. This held true for cultural differences in the bases of compliance (Study 1), attributional foci (Study 2), and counterfactual thinking styles (Study 3). To tease apart the effect of consensus perception from other possibly associated individual differences, in Study 4, the authors experimentally manipulated which of 2 cultures was salient to bicultural participants and found that judgments were guided by participants’ perception of the consensual view of the salient culture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The dilution model: How additional goals undermine the perceived instrumentality of a shared path.

Six experiments tested a dilution model of self-regulation, whereby increasing the number of goals (e.g., building muscles and losing weight) that a single means (e.g., exercising) can satisfy reduces the perception of its instrumentality with respect to each goal. The authors found that an increase in the number of simultaneous, salient goals that can be satisfied via a single means weakens the associative strength between that means and each individual goal, and as a result, individuals perceive the means as less effective for the attainment of each goal. Consequently, means that are connected to multiple (vs. single) goals are less likely to be chosen and pursued when only one of these goals is activated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Striving to be known by significant others: Automatic activation of self-verification goals in relationship contexts.

Extending research on the automatic activation of goals associated with significant others, the authors hypothesized that self-verification goals typically pursued with significant others are automatically elicited when a significant-other representation is activated. Supporting this hypothesis, the activation of a significant-other representation through priming (Experiments 1 and 3) or through a transference encounter (Experiment 2) led participants to seek feedback that verifies their preexisting self-views. Specifically, significant-other primed participants desired self-verifying feedback, in general (Experiment 1), from an upcoming interaction partner (Experiment 2), and relative to acquaintance-primed participants and favorable feedback (Experiment 3). Finally, self-verification goals were activated, especially for relational self-views deemed high in importance to participants’ self-concepts (Experiment 2) and held with high certainty (Experiment 3). Implications for research on self-evaluative goals, the relational self, and the automatic goal activation literature are discussed, as are consequences for close relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Balancing connectedness and self-protection goals in close relationships: A levels-of-processing perspective on risk regulation.

A model of risk regulation is proposed to explain how low and high self-esteem people balance the tension between self-protection and connectedness goals in romantic relationships. This model assumes that interpersonal risk automatically activates connectedness and self-protection goals. The activation of these competing goals then triggers an executive control system that resolves this goal conflict. One correlational study and 8 experiments manipulating risk, goal strength, and executive strength and then measuring implicit and explicit goal activation and execution strongly supported the model. For people high in self-esteem, risk triggers a control system that directs them toward the situations of dependence within their relationship that can fulfill connectedness goals. For people low in self-esteem, however, the activation of connectedness goals triggers a control system that prioritizes self-protection goals and directs them away from situations where they need to trust or depend on their partner. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Erratum to Latham, Mitchell, and Dossett.

Reports an error in the original article by Gary P. Latham, Terence R. Mitchell, and Dennis L. Dossett (Journal of Applied Psychology, 1978, Vol. 63, No. 2, pp. 163-171). In Table 1 of the article, the mean for assigned goal setting and public recognition is incorrect. The corrected mean is given. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1979-02470-001.) In Study 1, 76 engineers/scientists either participated in the setting of, or were assigned, specific behavioral goals during their performance appraisal. Participative goal setting resulted in more difficult goals being set than was the case when the goals were assigned. Perceptions of goal difficulty, however, were not significantly different in the 2 goal-setting conditions. In Study 2, the analysis of the performance data collected 6 mo later on 132 engineers/scientists revealed main effects for both goal setting and anticipated rewards. Only participative goal setting led to significantly higher performance than a "do your best" and a control group condition. There was no significant difference between the performance of the latter 2 conditions despite the fact that the individuals in the do-your-best group received knowledge of results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Separation of performance-approach and performance-avoidance achievement goals: A broader analysis.

In the literature on achievement goals, performance-approach goals (striving to do better than others) and performance-avoidance goals (striving to avoid doing worse than others) tend to exhibit a moderate to high correlation, raising questions about whether the 2 goals represent distinct constructs. In the current article, we sought to examine the separability of these 2 goals using a broad factor-analytic approach that attended to issues that have been overlooked or underexamined in prior research. Five studies provided strong evidence for the separation of these 2 goal constructs: Separation was observed not only with exploratory factor analysis across different age groups and countries (Studies 1a and 1b) but also with change analysis (Study 2), ipsative factor analysis (Study 3), within-person analysis (Study 4), and behavioral genetics analysis (Study 5). We conclude by discussing the implications of the present research for the achievement goal literature, as well as the psychological literature in general. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tool Use Affects Perceived Distance, But Only When You Intend to Use It.

Recent research demonstrates neurologic and behavioral differences in people's responses to the space that is within and beyond reach. The present studies demonstrated a perceptual difference as well. Reachability was manipulated by having participants reach with and without a tool. Across 2 conditions, in which participants either held a tool or not, targets were presented at the same distances. Perceived distances to targets within reach holding the tool were compressed compared with targets that were beyond reach without it. These results suggest that reachability serves as a metric for perception. The 3rd experiment found that reachability only influenced perceived distance when the perceiver intended to reach. These experiments suggest that the authors perceive the environment in terms of our intentions and abilities to act within it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-esteem and persistence in the face of failure.

In 2 studies, the authors examined self-esteem, persistence, and rumination in the face of failure. Study 1 manipulated degree of failure and availability of goal alternatives. When an alternative was available, high self-esteem (HSE) participants persisted more than low self-esteem (LSE) participants after a single failure, but less after repeated failure. When no alternative was available, no self-esteem differences in persistence emerged. LSE participants ruminated more than HSE participants. Study 2 examined persistence and rumination for 10 personal goals across an academic year. HSE participants were better calibrated (higher within-subject correlations between perceived progress and persistence across goals), had higher overall levels of persistence, higher grade point averages, and lower levels of rumination than LSE participants. Although traditional views that emphasize the tenacious persistence of HSE individuals need revision, HSE people appear more effective in self-regulating goal-directed behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals.

Unfulfilled goals persist in the mind, as asserted by ample theory and evidence (e.g., the Zeigarnik effect). The standard assumption has been that such cognitive activation persists until the goal is fulfilled. However, we predicted that contributing to goal pursuit through plan making could satisfy the various cognitive processes that usually promote goal pursuit. In several studies, we activated unfulfilled goals and demonstrated persistent goal activation over time. Unfinished goals caused intrusive thoughts during an unrelated reading task (Studies 1 and 5B), high mental accessibility of goal-related words (Studies 2 and 3), and poor performance on an unrelated anagram task (Study 4). Allowing participants to formulate specific plans for their unfulfilled goals eliminated the various activation and interference effects. Reduction of the effects was mediated by the earnestness of participants' plans: Those who ultimately executed their plans were those who also exhibited no more intrusions (Study 4). Moreover, changes in goal-related emotions did not appear to be a necessary component of the observed cognitive effects (Studies 5A and 5B). Committing to a specific plan for a goal may therefore not only facilitate attainment of the goal but may also free cognitive resources for other pursuits. Once a plan is made, the drive to attain a goal is suspended—allowing goal-related cognitive activity to cease—and is resumed at the specified later time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Featural evaluation, integration, and judgment of facial affect

The paradigm of the fuzzy logical model of perception (FLMP) is extended to the domain of perception and recognition of facial affect. Two experiments were performed using a highly realistic computer-generated face varying on 2 features of facial affect. Each experiment used the same expanded factorial design, with 5 levels of brow deflection crossed with 5 levels of mouth deflection, as well as their corresponding half-face conditions, for a total stimulus set of 35 faces. Experiment 1 used a 2-alternative, forced-choice paradigm (either happy or angry), whereas Experiment 2 used 9 rating steps from happy to angry. Results indicate that participants evaluated and integrated information from both features to perceive affective expressions. Both choice probabilities and ratings showed that the influence of 1 feature was greater to the extent that the other feature was ambiguous. The FLMP fit the judgments from both experiments significantly better than an additive model. Our results question previous claims of categorical and holistic perception of affect.     

Line bisection and perceptual asymmetries in normal individuals: What you see is not what you get.

Two experiments were conducted to examine pseudoneglect as reflected in line bisection (LB) errors made by normal individuals and the relationship between LB and perceptual asymmetries. In Study 1, 63 dextral and 48 sinistral participants transected lines significantly to the left, and sinistrals' biases were stronger than dextrals' biases. Hemispatial effects were also present. Perceptual asymmetries for chimeric faces, dot-filled rectangles, and comparisons of Muller-Lyer illusion lines to arrows did not correlate with LB scores. In Study 2, 24 dextral participants had leftward bisection errors for a paper-and-pencil version of LB but not a computer version, although scores were correlated. Average perception of prebisected lines was unbiased, and correlations between this and LB tasks were lower than correlations between paper-and-pencil and computer LB tasks. These findings suggest that some nonperceptual, and possibly motor, factor contributes to the LB bias. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)