Ayelet Fishbach

A theory of goal systems

「動機づけ 対 認知」(motivation versus cognition)アプローチ: 社会心理学者は動機づけ(motivation)を認知(cognition)とは「別々の」(separate)ものと考え、また、 いくぶん「静的」(static)なアプローチがされてきた。例えば、Bem(1972)の dissonance vs. self-perception、Kelley(1972) vs. Miller & Ross(1975)。 この分離主義では、動機づけ的変数と認知的変数に別々の機能を割り振った。例えば、説得の二重 モード理論(Petty & Cacioppo, 1986; Chaiken & Chen, 1999)では処理の動機づけの程度が説得モ ードのセレクタになっている。対案である”unimodel”(Kruglanski & Thompson, 1999aなど)にお いてもこれは同様である。

Goals as Excuses or Guides: The Liberating Effect of Perceived Goal Progress on Choice

Consumer choices are often driven by multiple goals (e.g., career and family), each of which if viewed in isolation may appear to suggest conflicting choices. This article examines the effect of initial goal pursuit on consumers’ interest in pursuing unrelated or even conflicting goals. Four studies were conducted to test whether perceived goal progress hinders the pursuit of the focal goal. These studies demonstrate that in the course of self-regulation progress along one goal liberates people to pursue inconsistent goals. Furthermore, merely planning to make goal progress in the future may facilitate incongruent choice of immediate action. P eople’s choices are usually driven by multiple underlying goals, each of which if viewed in isolation may appear conflicting. For example, individuals simultaneously believe in saving for retirement as well as taking luxurious vacations, doing well academically and socializing actively with friends, and so forth. Previous research has often portrayed the self-regulation processes as involving setting abstract goals that then motivate consistent choice of actions (Gollwitzer 1999; Higgins 1997; Locke and Latham 1990). The empirical work supporting this basic premise has focused mainly on situations where the individual has set a single goal. If individuals simultaneously hold multiple goals, an account of consumer behavior needs to address the manner in which consumers pursue sequential choices among these potentially conflicting goals. This article examines subsequent consumer choice following initial goal pursuit. We propose that when individuals hold multiple goals, the pursuit or the intention to pursue the initial goal (hereafter referred to as the focal goal) may liberate the individual to subsequently pursue unrelated or even conflicting goals (e.g., succumbing to temptation). For instance, the opening of a new savings account may suggest to the individuals that one’s goal of saving for the future is being actively pursued, and, as a result, new savers might become more willing to spend money on indulgences. Specifically, this article explores the hypothesis that actions that are used to infer goal progress act to liberate the individual and thereby increase the likelihood of pursuing incongruent actions, whereas the same actions interpreted in terms of

Self-Control in Action: Implicit Dispositions Toward Goals and Away From Temptations

Five studies examined whether, in self-control dilemmas, individuals develop an implicit disposition to approach goals and avoid temptations, psychologically as well as physically. Using a method developed by A. K. Solarz (1960; see also K. L. Duckworth, J. A. Bargh, M. Garcia, & S. Chaiken, 2002), the authors assessed the time for pulling and pushing a lever in response to goal- and temptation-related stimuli (e.g., studying and partying). The results show that individuals offset the influence of tempting activities by automatically avoiding these stimuli (faster pushing responses) and by approaching stimuli related to an overarching goal (faster pulling responses). These implicit self-control dispositions varied as a function of the magnitude of the self-control conflict, itself defined by how strongly individuals were attracted to temptations and held the longer term goal. These dispositions were further shown to play a role in successful self-control.

Subgoals as substitutes or complements: The role of goal accessibility.

The self-regulation process often involves breaking an ongoing goal (e.g., keeping in shape) into many individual, constituent subgoals that monitor actual actions (e.g., eating healthy meals, going to the gym). The article examines how pursuing each of these subgoals may influence subsequent goal pursuit. The authors show that when people consider success on a single subgoal, additional actions toward achieving a superordinate goal are seen as substitutes and are less likely to be pursued. In contrast, when people consider their commitment to a superordinate goal on the basis of initial success on a subgoal, additional actions toward achieving that goal may seem to be complementary and more likely to be pursued. These predictions were tested in four studies that explored the conditions under which subgoals attainment have a counterproductive versus favorable effect on further pursuit of similar actions.

Dynamics of Self-Regulation: How (Un)accomplished Goal Actions Affect Motivation

Two factors increase the motivation to adhere to a goal: goal commitment and lack of goal progress. When people ask about commitment, focusing on what they have accomplished (to date) signals to them high commitment and increases motivation. Conversely, when commitment is certain and people ask about goal progress, focusing on what they have yet to accomplish (to go) signals to them lack of progress and increases motivation. Accordingly, 4 studies show that emphasizing to-date information increases goal adherence when commitment is uncertain--that is, when participants study for a relatively unimportant exam, consume luxuries, fulfill a desire, and make first-time contributions to a charity. Conversely, emphasizing to-go information increases goal adherence when commitment is certain--that is, when participants study for an important exam, consume necessities, fulfill a need, and make repeated contributions to a charity.

Attentional Priming Effects on Creativity

The authors tested the hypothesis that a broad or narrow scope of perceptual attention engenders an analogously broad or narrow focus of conceptual attention, which in turn bolsters or undermines creative generation. In the first two experiments, participants completed visual tasks that forced them to focus perceptual attention on a comparatively broad or narrow visual area. As predicted, broad, compared to narrow initial focusing of perceptual attention subsequently led to generation of more original uses for a brick (Experiment 1) and generation of more unusual category exemplars (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, participants were merely asked to contract their frontalis versus corrugator muscles, producing rudimentary peripheral feedback associated with broad versus narrow perceptual focus. As predicted, frontalis contraction, relative to corrugator contraction, led to the production of more original uses for a pair of scissors. Together, these three experiments provided converging initial support for our attentional priming hypothesis, suggesting that situationally induced variations in the scope of perceptual attention (and simple cues associated with such variations) may correspondingly expand or constrict the focus of conceptual attention within the semantic network, thereby improving or diminishing creativity.

Self-Control A Function of Knowing When and How to Exercise Restraint

To successfully pursue a goal in the face of temptation, an individual must first identify that she faces a self-control conflict. Only then will the individual exercise self-control to promote goal pursuit over indulging in temptation. We propose a new model that distinguishes between the problems of conflict identification and those of conflict resolution. We then review research on the factors that influence conflict identification and those that determine conflict resolution.

Be better or be merry: how mood affects self-control.

In 6 studies, the authors tested whether the effect of mood on self-control success depends on a persons accessible goal. We propose that positive mood signals a person to adopt an accessible goal, whereas negative mood signals a person to reject an accessible goal; therefore, if a self-improvement goal is accessible, happy (vs. neutral or unhappy) people perform better on self-control tasks that further that goal. Conversely, if a mood management goal is accessible, happy people abstain from self-control tasks because the tasks are incompatible with this goal. This pattern receives consistent support across several self-control tasks, including donating to charity, demonstrating physical endurance, seeking negative feedback, and completing tests.

When Healthy Food Makes You Hungry

Do subtle cues for imposed healthy eating make consumers hungry? Imposed healthy eating signals that the health goal was sufficiently met, and thus it increases the strength of the conflicting motive to fulfill one’s appetite. Accordingly, consumers asked to sample an item framed as healthy later reported being hungrier and consumed more food than those who sampled the same item framed as tasty or those who did not eat at all. These effects of healthy eating depend on the consumer’s perception that healthy eating is mandatory; therefore, only imposed healthy eating made consumers hungrier, whereas freely choosing to eat healthy did not increase hunger.

Mechanisms of motivation-cognition interaction : challenges and opportunities

Recent years have seen a rejuvenation of interest in studies of motivation–cognition interactions arising from many different areas of psychology and neuroscience. The present issue of Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience provides a sampling of some of the latest research from a number of these different areas. In this introductory article, we provide an overview of the current state of the field, in terms of key research developments and candidate neural mechanisms receiving focused investigation as potential sources of motivation–cognition interaction. However, our primary goal is conceptual: to highlight the distinct perspectives taken by different research areas, in terms of how motivation is defined, the relevant dimensions and dissociations that are emphasized, and the theoretical questions being targeted. Together, these distinctions present both challenges and opportunities for efforts aiming toward a more unified and cross-disciplinary approach. We identify a set of pressing research questions calling for this sort of cross-disciplinary approach, with the explicit goal of encouraging integrative and collaborative investigations directed toward them.