Goal
Goal pursuit is grounded: The link between forward movement and achievement
Michael Natanzon & Melissa Ferguson
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We tested whether forward movement is cognitively associated with the achievement goal. We exposed participants to simple visual cues of forward movement, or not, and then measured their achievement motivation. The findings show that incidental exposure to forward movement cues nonconsciously activated an achievement goal. In Experiment 1, those primed with forward movement versus control cues showed significantly greater implicit positivity toward the concept of achievement. In Experiment 2, those primed with forward movement versus control cues performed significantly better on word puzzles. There was no effect on participants' conscious achievement motivation. We discuss the implications of the results for the perspective of goal pursuit as grounded cognition.
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Born to learn or born to win? Birth order effects on achievement goals
Bernd Carette, Frederik Anseel & Nico Van Yperen
Journal of Research in Personality, forthcoming
Abstract:
Given the widespread use and well-known consequences of achievement goals in different competence-relevant situations, it is important to gain a thorough understanding of how these differences in goal pursuit are formed. Using different analytic approaches, we show that birth order lies at the heart of people's goal preferences as we consistently found that firstborns have developed a preference for mastery goals (which are based on self-referenced standards of competence), whereas secondborns have developed a preference for performance goals (which are based on other-referenced standards of competence). These findings may help explain why people differently define, experience, and respond to competence-relevant situations, including the workplace, the classroom, and the ball field.
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Performance Under Pressure in the NBA
Zheng Cao, Joseph Price & Daniel Stone
Journal of Sports Economics, June 2011, Pages 231-252
Abstract:
The authors analyze the effects of psychological pressure on performance using National Basketball Association (NBA) free throw data from the 2002-2003 through 2009-2010 seasons. The authors find evidence that players choke under pressure - they shoot on average 5-10 percentage points worse than normal in the final seconds of very close games. Choking is more likely for players who are worse overall free throw shooters, and on the second shot of a pair after the first shot is missed. In general, performance declines as pressure increases (as game time remaining decreases, and as the score margin decreases, whether the shooter's team is winning or losing). However, the authors find no evidence of choking when games are tied in the final 15 seconds. The authors also fail to find evidence of performance under pressure being affected by home status, attendance, and whether or not the game is in the playoffs.
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Choice as an End Versus a Means
Jinhee Choi & Ayelet Fishbach
Journal of Marketing Research, June 2011, Pages 544-554
Abstract:
This article investigates the consequence of the choice process for mental resources and the desire to obtain the selected products. The authors draw a distinction between instrumental choice, which serves preexisting consumption goals, and experiential choice, which serves as its own end. Across four studies, they find that instrumental choice undermines mental resources and experiential choice increases these resources. As a result, although experiential choice is made with no consumption goal in mind, compared with instrumental choice, it increases the desire to obtain the selected product. The authors demonstrate these effects on choice among a variety of consumer products (e.g., vacation packages, novels, flower bouquets).
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Kathleen McCulloch et al.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, May 2011, Pages 685-688
Abstract:
A signature feature of self-regulation is that once a goal is satiated, it becomes deactivated, thereby allowing people to engage in new pursuits. The present experiments provide evidence for vicarious goal satiation, a novel phenomenon in which individuals experience "post-completion goal satiation" as a result of unwittingly taking on another person's goal pursuit and witnessing its completion. In Experiments 1 and 2, the observation of a goal being completed (vs. not completed) led to less striving by the observer on the same task. Given that an actor's strength of commitment affects goal contagion, we hypothesized that such commitment would be an important boundary condition for vicarious goal satiation. The results of Experiment 2 showed that observing stronger (vs. weaker) goal commitment lowered accessibility of goal-related words, but only when the goal being observed was completed. Implications of vicarious goal satiation for goal pursuit in everyday environments are discussed.
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Travis Lybbert et al.
Journal of Sports Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Sprint finishes in professional cycling are fast, furious, and dangerous. A "red flag rule" (RFR) seeks to moderate the chaos of these finishes, but may induce moral hazard by removing the time penalty associated with crashing. To test for moral hazard, the authors use a 2005 rule change that moved the red flag from 1 km to 3 km from the finish. Data from Europe's Grand Tours indicate that, after the rule change, both the incidence and the size of crashes nearly doubled in the 1-3 km from the finish zone. There was no such increase in crashing rates in the 3-5 km zone.
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Goal-Striving Stress and Racial Differences in Mental Health
Harold Neighbors et al.
Race and Social Problems, March 2011, Pages 51-62
Abstract:
This study investigated the associations among goal-striving stress, racial related stressors, and mental health. Goal-striving stress was defined as the discrepancy between aspiration for and achievement of a better way of life, weighted by the subjective probability of success, and the level of disappointment experienced if those life goals were not realized. Data are from the National Survey of American Life's African American (N = 3,570) and non-Hispanic white (N = 891) adult samples. Regression analysis was used to assess the relationship between goal-striving stress and five mental health outcomes: happiness, life satisfaction, self-esteem, psychological distress, and depressive symptoms. After controlling for socio-demographic factors, a personal problems checklist, and racial discrimination, goal-striving stress was significantly related to all mental health measures such that as goal-striving stress increased, mental health worsened. Additionally, the relationship of goal-striving stress to mental health was found to be conditional upon race. Specifically, goal-striving stress had a stronger effect among white Americans than African Americans. Goal-striving stress was associated differentially with lower levels of mental health for black and white Americans. Racial differences in the impact of goal-striving stress suggest a need for analyses exploring resilience and coping in relation to the impact of goal-striving stress on black-white differences in mental health.
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The Psychology of Decisions to Abandon Waits for Service
Narayan Janakiraman, Robert Meyer & Stephen Hoch
Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
This research investigates the process that underlies consumer decisions whether to abandon waits for service. The work centers on a hypothesis that stay-or-renege decisions are made through a process that blends two opposing psychic forces: an escalating displeasure of waiting versus an escalating commitment to a wait that has been initiated. The consequence is a predicted tendency for abandonments to be most likely near the mid-point of waits, which is suboptimal for many waiting time distributions. This hypothesis is tested using data from three laboratory experiments in which participants play a time-management game that involves waiting for downloads from different computer servers, as well as field data on hang- ups from an emergency call center in India. The data lend support to the proposed competing hazards model, and show that the trade-off between desires to abandon and persist is moderated by such contextual factors as the initial number of alternative queues and the amount of distracting activity engaged in during a wait.
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What Remains on Your Mind After You Are Done?: Flexible Regulation of Knowledge Accessibility
Per Hedberg & Tory Higgins
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, September 2011, Pages 882-890
Abstract:
The accessibility of stored knowledge has been found to decline over time after activation without further stimulation. A special case is goal pursuit; goal-related knowledge remains accessible until goal completion, and then its accessibility declines rapidly. We hypothesized that after goal completion the decline in accessibility of goal-related knowledge would be especially rapid for strong promotion-focused individuals because their motivation to eagerly advance beyond the status quo would make accessibility of this knowledge an irrelevant detriment. We hypothesized an opposite effect for strongly prevention-predominant individuals because their motivation to vigilantly maintain a satisfactory state would make accessibility of this knowledge continually relevant. The results of two studies supported both these predicted moderators of accessibility change. Indeed, we found that for strongly prevention-predominant participants, knowledge accessibility actually increased over time after goal completion. We discuss how even basic cognitive mechanisms, like changes in accessibility, can be affected by general motivational concerns.