Nonconscious Goal Pursuit: Isolated Incidents or Adaptive Self-Regulatory Tool? (original) (raw)
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Self-Regulatory Responses to Unattainable Goals: The Role of Goal Motives
Self and Identity, 2014
Does motivation for goal pursuit predict how individuals will respond when confronted with unattainable goals? Two studies examined the role of autonomous and controlled motives when pursuing an unattainable goal without (Study 1) or with (Study 2) the opportunity to reengage in alternative goal pursuit. Autonomous motives positively predicted the cognitive ease of reengagement with an alternative goal when the current goal was perceived as unattainable, especially when participants realized goal unattainability relatively early during goal striving. Autonomous motives, however, were negative predictors of cognitive ease of disengagement from an unattainable goal. When faced with failure, autonomously motivated individuals are better off realizing early the goal unattainability. Otherwise, they will find it difficult to disengage cognitively from the pursued goal (despite reengaging cognitively in an alternative goal), possibly due to interfering rumination.
Nonconscious goal pursuit: Acting in an explanatory vacuum
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2006
Nonconsciously activated goals and consciously set goals produce the same outcomes by engaging similar psychological processes ( . However, nonconscious and conscious goal pursuit may have diVerent eVects on subsequent aVect if goal pursuit aVords an explanation, as nonconscious goal pursuit occurs in an explanatory vacuum (i.e. cannot be readily attributed to the respective goal intention). We compared self-reported aVect after nonconscious versus conscious goal pursuit that either violated or conformed to a prevailing social norm. When goal-directed behavior did not require an explanation (was norm-conforming), aVective experiences did not diVer after nonconscious and conscious goal pursuit. However, when goal-directed behavior required an explanation (was norm-violating), nonconscious goal pursuit induced more negative aVect than conscious goal pursuit.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2010
Previous research has found that performing norm-violating behaviors based on a nonconsciously-activated goal elicits negative affect . In the present research we explored whether this negative affect is eliminated when an earlier conscious goal with congruent behavioral effects can be used to explain the norm-violating behavior. Our findings suggest that applicable conscious goals are indeed used to interpret nonconsciously-activated goal striving (Study 1), and that this interpretation occurs reflexively rather than reflectively (Study 2), with implications for interpersonal behavior (Study 3). The role of social norms, applicable conscious goals, and negative affect in the interpretation of nonconscious goal pursuit is discussed.
Reciprocal feedback between self-concept and goal pursuit in daily life
Journal of Personality, 2017
Objective: We hypothesized that self-knowledge and goal-perseverance are mutually reinforcing because of the roles of self-knowledge in directing goal pursuit, and of goal pursuit in structuring the self-concept. Method: To test this hypothesis, we used a daily diary design with 97 college-aged participants for 40 days to assess whether daily self-concept clarity and grit predict one another's next day levels. Data were analyzed using multilevel cross-lagged panel modeling. Results: Results indicated that daily self-concept clarity and grit had positive and symmetric associations on each other across time, while controlling for their respective previous values. Similar crossed results were also found when testing the model using individual daily selfconcept clarity and grit items. Conclusion: The results are the first to indicate the existence of reinforcing feedback loops between self-concept clarity and grit, such that fluctuations in the clarity of self-knowledge are associated with fluctuations in goal resolve, and vice versa. Discussion centers on the implications of these results for the functional link between mind and action and on the study's heuristic value for subsequent research.
Nonconscious Activation of Achievement Goals
Swiss Journal of Psychology, 2009
In a series of experiments, Bargh, Gollwitzer, Lee-Chai, Barndollar, and Trötschel (2001) documented that achievement goals can be activated outside of awareness and can then operate nonconsciously in order to guide self-regulated behavior effectively. In three experiments (N = 69, N = 71, N = 56), two potential moderators of the achievement goal priming effect were explored. All three experiments showed small but consistent effects of the nonconscious activation of the achievement goal, though word class did not moderate the priming effect. There was no support for the hypothesis that the explicit achievement motive moderates the priming effect. Implications are addressed in the light of other recent studies in this domain and further research questions are outlined.
Self-esteem regulation after success and failure to attain unconsciously activated goals
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2009
People are motivated to establish and maintain a positive self-image. When people fail to attain their goals self-esteem is threatened, and this elicits the motivation to protect or repair self-esteem. We investigated whether success and failure to attain goals affects self-esteem if these goals were unconsciously activated.
When thinking about goals undermines goal pursuit
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2012
We explore how attending to the goals an activity achieves (i.e., its instrumentality) impacts the motivation to pursue the activity. We propose that the focus on the activity's instrumentality renders the activity more valuable yet its experience less positive. Because experience is mainly salient while pursuing (vs. planning) an activity, attending to the activity's instrumentality increases the intention to pursue the activity but decreases how persistently individuals pursue it. We document this impact of attending to goals on increased intentions but decreased persistence on various activities, from a exercising on a treadmill (Study 1) and creating origami (Study 2) to dental flossing (Study 3) and practicing yoga (Study 4).
SELF-CRITICISM, GOAL MOTIVATION, AND GOAL PROGRESS
The current research examined the relations among self-criticism, autonomous versus controlled motivations, and goal progress. Recent researchers have suggested that self-critics are less autonomously motivated, that is, that their goals are less tied to their interests and personal meaning than is true for other individuals, and that the effects of self-criticism on goal progress are mediated by lower levels of autonomous motivation. The results of two short-term, prospective studies conducted in the United States and Canada indicated that self-criticism was negatively associated with goal progress, while autonomous motivation was positively associated with goal progress in one study and marginally associated in the other. The results demonstrated an association between self-criticism and controlled motivation but not autonomous motivation, and they suggest that self-criticism and autonomy act independently on goal progress. In addition, the results indicated an association between self-criticism and rumination and procrastination that appears to mediate the impact of self-criticism on goal progress. These results highlight the need for consideration of both personality and motivational influences in the study of goal pursuits.
Emotional Suppression During Personal Goal Pursuit Impedes Goal Strivings and Achievement
Prior research indicates that emotional suppression exacerbates distress and reduces cognitive performance and self-control. We extend this prior work in the current studies by examining whether emotional suppression in specific goal-relevant contexts impedes people's goal strivings and progress. In Study 1, participants (N = 146) provided reports every 2 weeks across a 2-month period reporting the degree to which they engaged in emotional suppression during goal pursuit and reported important goal-related outcomes, including depressed mood, perceived support/closeness, goal effort, goal-related competence, and goal success. In Study 2, participants reported on the degree to which they engaged in emotional suppression while discussing a personal goal with their romantic partner (N = 100 heterosexual couples) and reported on the same outcomes as in Study 1 prior to, immediately following, and then 1 month after couples' discussions. In both studies, greater use of emotional suppression predicted increased depressed mood, reduced perceived support/closeness, and reduced goal effort, competence, and success across time. Corroborating individuals' self-reports, participants who engaged in emotional suppression were also perceived by their partners to experience greater depressed mood and lower feelings of support and closeness, and be less competent with regard to their goal (Study 2). The effects of emotional suppression were robust when controlling for a range of alternative explanations. These goal hindering effects are likely one important reason emotional suppression is linked with poorer psychological and health outcomes and extend our understanding of the detrimental impact that emotional suppression can have in people's everyday lives.
The cognitive-affective crossfire: When self-consistency confronts self-enhancement
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1987
Self-consistency theory assumes that people want others to treat them in a predictable manner. Selfenhancement theory contends that people want others to treat them in a positive manner. We attempted to help reconcile the two theories by testing the hypothesis that people's cognitive responses conform to self-consistency theory and their affeetive responses conform to self-enhancement theory. We presented individuals who possessed either positive or negative self-concepts with either favorable or unfavorable social feedback. We then measured cognitive reactions to the feedback (e.g., perceived self-descriptiveness) and alfective reactions to the feedback (e.g., mood states). Cognitive responses were primarily driven by the consistency of the feedback and affeetive responses were controlled by how enhancing it was. We propose that conceptualizing cognition and affect as partially independent mental systems helps resolve some long-standing paradoxes regarding people's responses to selfrelevant social feedback.