Showing papers by "Peter M. Gollwitzer published in 2005"

The Interplay Between Goal Intentions and Implementation Intentions

Abstract: Two studies tested whether action control by implementation intentions is sensitive to the activation and strength of participants’ underlying goal intentions. In Study 1, participants formed implementation intentions (or did not) and their goal intentions were measured. Findings revealed a significant interaction between implementation intentions and the strength of respective goal intentions. Implementation intentions benefited the rate of goal attainment when participants had strong goal intentions but not when goal intentions were weak. Study 2 activated either a task-relevant or a neutral goal outside of participants’ conscious awareness and found that implementation intentions affected performance only when the relevant goal had been activated. These findings indicate that the rate of goal attainment engendered by implementation intentions takes account of the state (strength, activation) of people’s superordinate goal intentions.

Implementation intentions and health behaviour

Abstract: 1. 1 The intention-behaviour relation Several theories that have been used extensively to predict health behaviours construe the person's intention to act as the most immediate and important predictor of subsequent action, such as, the theory of planned behaviour (TPB; Ajzen 1991; Conner and Sparks, Chapter 5 in this volume) and protection motivation theory (PMT; Rogers 1983; Norman et al., Chapter 3 in this volume). Intentions can be defined as the instructions that people give themselves to perform particular behaviours or to achieve certain goals (Triandis 1980) and are characteristicaIly measured by items of the form 'I intend to do/achieve X.' Intentions are the culmination of the decision-making process; they signal the end of deliberation about a behaviour and capture the standard of performance that one has set oneself, one's commitment to the performance, and the amount of time and effort that will be expended during action (GoIlwitzer 1990; Ajzen 1991; Webb and Sheeran 2005). Given the centrality of the concept of intention to models of health behaviour, it is important to ask how weIl intentions predict behaviour. Sheeran (2002) approached this question by conducting a meta-analysis of meta-analyses of prospective tests of the intention-behaviour relation. Across 422 studies involving a sampie of 82,107 participants, intentions accounted for 28 per cent of the variance in behaviour, on average. R 2 = 0.28 constitutes a 'large' effect size according to Cohen's (1992) power primer, which suggests that intentions are 'good' predictors of behaviour. Moreover, 28 per cent of the variance may underestimate the 'true' relation between intention and behaviour because this value was not corrected for

Mindset effects on information search in self-evaluation

Abstract: Research on mindset theory (GollwitTer & Baye4 1999) observed that people in an implemental mindset show an orientation towards positive illusionary self-evaluations, whereas people in a deliberative mindset opt for accura.te self-evaluations. In the present study, we tested whether these self-evaluative orientations and the associated search for certain types of self-relevant information (feedback) are moderated by low versus high self-views. With high self-view participants we observed the hypothesized mindset effects on information search, but we obtained the reverse pattern for low self-view participants. The latter finding points to self-defensiveness in low self-view individuals. Implications are discussed in terms of the consequences of accurate versus positive illusionary selfevaluations for the successful control of goal pursuits, and individual dffirences in mindset effects. Self-evaluation is guided by different motives or purposes (Pomerantz, Saxon, & Kenney, 2001; Sedikides & Skowronski, 2000; Sedikides & Strube, 1997). First, a concern for self-assessment motivates people to reduce uncertainty about their abilities and personal attributes. This is achieved by performing high diagnostic tasks and searching for diagnostic information (Trope, 1936). Second, people's self-evaiuations also serve self-enhancement concerns. The self is protected from negative information by selectively processing positive information. The valence of feedback and the personal importance of the attribute in question are of primary importance. People guidedby self-enhancement concerns will thus find information diagnostic of success, high ability, or any other positive personal attribute to be more attractive than information diagnostic of failure, low ability, or any other negative personal attribute (Brown & Dutton, 1995; Kunda,1990; Taylor & Brown, 1988). Thfud, people's self-evaluations are also guided by self-verification concerns which aim at endorsing preexisting self-conceptions. Self-verification applies to both positive and negative aspects of the self. People seek verification of their certain self-concepts to a larger degree than $reir uncertain self-concepts. What matters is the consistency between self-concept and feedback rather than selfconcept valence or feedback valence (Swann, 1990,1997). Finally, people are motivated to improve their traits, abilities, skills, health status, or well-being. This motive is conceptually different from the

Automaticity in Goal Pursuit

Abstract: -fh. incersection of competence and motiI vation involves the ability to attain one's goals, to accomplish what one sets out to do. Both modern and classic theory and research on goal pursuit have focused mainly on the conscious and deliberate ways that people strive toward desired end states. In this chapter, we focus on the role played by automatic or unconscious motivations in the competent pursuit of one's important goals. How can such unconscious goal pursuit add to a person's competencies in a given domain? \u/e show that unconsciously pursued goals are especially effective in keeping a person "on task" and moving in thought and action toward the desired goal, even when the conscious mind is distracted or focused elsewhere. Automatic or unconscious motivations respond immediately and effortlessly to environmental conditions (triggers) that promote or support the goal in question, such as in recognizing and acting upon opportunities that otherwise might have been missed. And the efficient nature of unconscious motivation makes it an especially effective means of goal pursuit in complex and busy social environments in which conscious attention is divided and in short supplv. Two main forms of unconscious goal pursuit have been featured in our research: one (automatic motivations) a long-term, chronic form that develops out of extended experience; the other (implementation intentions) a temporary and strategic form by which one sets up intended actions in advance, so that they later unfold in an automatic fashion. Before describing these two lines of research, we begin with some historical background on the concept of uRconscious motivation as it has come and gone within psychology over the past century.

Gesundheit beginnt im Kopf: Von der Phantasie zum Ziel zum gesunden Lebensstil. [Health emerges from the mind: From fantasy to goal setting to healthy living]

Abstract: 7 Rang Art der Erkrankung Anzahl % 1.rungen erhöhen die Chancen beträchtlich, Gesundheit und Lebensqualität bis ins hohe Alter zuund Herz-Kreislauf-Erkrankungen bot (Appel et al. & Minkin, 2003). Wenn gesättigte Fettsäuren durch gesündere Fettarten ersetzt werden, verbes-sern sich die Blutfettwerte und es kommt zu günstigen Effekten auf die Insulin-Sensitivität, 10 Abbildung 3 Durchschnittliche tägliche Aufnahme an Fettsäuren nach Alter und Geschlecht dann führen sie dies auch häufiger aus Patienten, die eine positive Zukunft erwarteten, sich besser von einem Herzinfarkt erholten. Bandura und Locke (2003) listeten neun Metaanalysen auf, die belegen, dass Erfolgserwartungen Motivation und Leistung in verschiedenen Bereichen vorhersagen (Fantasierealisierungstheorie) und die zweite eine Theorie der selbstgesteuerten Umsetzung gesetzter Ziele in Verhalten. Die Fantasierealisierungstheorie beschreibt eine effektive Selbstregulationsstrategie des die Qualität der Krankenpflege zu verbessern und den Arbeitsalltag zu Situation tatsächlich vorliegt. Damit Durchführungsvorsätze ihre Wirkung voll entfalten, müssen sie auf starken Zielen aufbau-Motivationsinterventionen hinausgeht, die lediglich auf die Stärkung von Wünschbarkeit und

Social Value Orientation and Perspective Taking in Integrative and Distributive Negotiations

Abstract: Two experiments explored the role of social motivation and perspective taking in integrative and distributive negotiations. It was tested whether perspective taking moderates the effect of social motivation on negotiation outcomes in integrative and distributive negotiations. In line with previous findings it was found that in an integrative negotiation setting (Experiment 1) pairs of negotiators with an egoistic motivation achieved weaker negotiation outcomes than pairs of negotiators with a prosocial motivation. However, when pairs of negotiators with an egoistic motivation where asked to take their counterpart's perspective during the negotiation, they did not differ in the quality of their achieved negotiation outcomes from pairs of negotiators with a prosocial motivation. In experiment 2, it was tested whether perspective taking moderates the effect of social motivation on negotiation outcomes within both integrative and distributive negotiation settings. Again, in an integrative negotiation setting pairs of negotiators with an egoistic motivation asked to take their counterpart's perspective achieved the same quality of negotiation outcomes as pairs of negotiators with a prosocial motivation. However, this was only true within an integrative negotiation setting. Within a distributive negotiation setting, pairs of negotiators with an egoistic motivation achieved weaker negotiation outcomes than pairs of negotiators with a prosocial motivation, irrespectively of whether they were asked to take their counterpart's perspective or not.