12- Motivation and Goals Flashcards
1- What are goals?
Goals
* The object of a person’s ambition or effort
* Aim or desired result
* Span from momentary to life-long
The Key to Goal Completion is Motivation (?) or is it…
* Assumption that we need motivation to reach goals
* Motivation:
- Reason(s) that you have for behaving in a particular way
- Internal state(s) that drive you to engage in goal-directed behaviour
- E.g., desire, need, urge
2- How do we foster motivation?
Expectancy-Value Theory
Expectancy-Value Theory
* Motivation is determined by:
* Expectancy: whether we expect that we can accomplish the goal if we
attempt it
-Stronger motivation if we believe that a goal is achievable
- Highlights importance of setting realistic goals
* Values: how much we value the goal/ find it worth doing * 4 types of value
* High motivation = high expectancy + high value
Value – Factors that Foster Motivation
1. Importance
* How important is it to do well on the goal?
* Influenced by how central a goal is to sense of self
- E.g. If goal = improve grades, more motivating if being a “good student” is central to identity
2. Intrinsic value
* To what extent do you want to do the goal for its inherent satisfaction?
- E.g. practicing an instrument because it’s fun and challenging (vs. out of obligation)
3. Utility
* How useful do you find the goal for your life? What’s the benefit?
* Often related to how useful a specific task is for the pursuit of other, higher-order goals
- E.g., going to bed earlier, so that you’ll be in a better mood/ more productive tomorrow
Value – Factor that Hinders Motivation
4. Cost
* What does the goal cost you? * Time? Money? Boredom? What other things
could you be doing?
* Procrastination is often due to a goal being costly
Relationship between Expectancy and Value
* In theory, expectancy and value are separate dimensions
- High value, but low expectancy = hopeless goal
- Low value, but high expectancy = easy, but boring goal
* But, in reality, highly positively correlated, and negatively correlated
with cost
* Suggests that they track one another
- Study: Tracked students’
expectancies, perception of value, and costs during university lectures - Results: Expectancies and values tended to co-occur and were negatively related to perceived cost
Expectancy and Value Reinforce Each Other
Expect to do well…value task more…do the task…improve at task…expect to do well……………
3- How do we foster motivation?
Expectancy-Value Theory
Implications and Limitations
Implications
* To foster motivation, set “good” goals:
- Achievable and realistic
- Valuable to you
* Let go of goals that are costly and don’t feel valuable (important, intrinsic, or useful) to you
The Problem with Motivation
* Expectancy-value theory assumes that motivation is the key to achieving our goals
- If a goal is realistic and valuable, we’ll feel motivated and consistently engage in
goal-directed behaviour
* BUT motivation is inconsistent and doesn’t always translate to
progress on goals
4- How does self-control help us achieve our goals?
The Key to Goal Completion is Self-Control
* The self’s capacity to override or change one’s inner responses as well
as to interrupt undesired behavioral tendencies and to refrain from acting on them
* Ability to successfully resolve a self-control dilemma
Self-Control Dilemma
* Conflict between an immediate urge/ desire vs. a higher order goal
* i.e., temptation
Trait Self-Control
* People vary in trait self-control
* Consistently better able to successfully deal with self-control dilemmas
Positive Effects of Trait Self-Control
* Meta-analysis of 93 studies shows that higher trait self-control is associated with:
* Better performance at school and work * Sustaining healthy relationships * Less binge-eating (small effect)
* Better well-being
Why?
* We tend to think that people high on trait self-control are good at
effortfully resisting temptation
- When they encounter a self-control dilemma, exert willpower to inhibit
undesirable urge and choose to act in accordance with goal
* BUT research shows that people high on trait self-control experience fewer self-control dilemmas
- Report fewer experiences of temptation in everyday life
- Suggests that they’re hardly using effortful self-control
Self-Control and Temptation
* Does self-control matter for successful goal attainment?
* Method: Experience-sampling study in 159 students at McGill
* September: Set 3 goals
* One week in October:
- Participants received a text at random during the day and reported on current
feelings of temptation (urge in conflict with goals set) and use of self-control
- At night, reported on how depleted (fatigued) they felt
* May: Reported on extent to which they had attained goals
Results:
* Exerting more self-control was unrelated to successful goal completion
* Experiencing less temptation led to feeling less tired and more successful goal completion
Paradox of Self-Control
* Good self-control is not about effortfully inhibiting an undesirable response
- Evidenced by high trait self-control people experiencing fewer temptations
* Exerting self-control in the moment doesn’t seem to be related to goal attainment
5- How does self-control help us achieve our goals?
Why Do High Trait Self-Control Experience Less
Temptation?
- Better at setting goals that are intrinsically rewarding
- E.g., Actually enjoy activities that many struggle with like eating healthy, exercising, studying - Rely on routines and habits
- E.g., consistent exercise routine, consistent study schedule - Structure their lives in such a way that they don’t experience temptation
- E.g., make a point of not walking by a bakery on the way to school - Identify self-control dilemmas (temptation) earlier
Identifying Self-Control Dilemmas
* How do high trait self-control people react to self-control dilemmas?
* Method: Participants presented with pictures of food on a computer and had to click with mouse to decide if positive (healthy) or negative (unhealthy)
* Measured:
- Trait self-control
- Reaction time (RT) to select an answer
- Implicit self-control dilemma : Mouse trajectory from the bottom of the screen to select an answer
Implicit intensity of dilemma = degree of “pull” in direction of answer not selected
Also assessed when the “peak pull” occurred
- Explicit self-control dilemma “How conflicted do you feel about your answer?”
Results:
* Trait self control:
- Predicted weaker feelings of conflict (explicit self-control dilemma)
- BUT not related to average degree of “pull”
- Suggests that high and low trait self-control people experience SAME amount of
temptation on an UNCONSCIOUS level
- Predicted earlier “peak pull” -Suggests that high trait self-control people detected self-control dilemma earlier
- Predicted faster RT for correctly classifying food (healthy = positive, unhealthy =
negative)
- Suggests that resolved self-control dilemma faster
Effortless Self-Control
* Together, suggests that high trait self-control people are so effective at identifying and resolving self-control dilemma UNCONSCIOUSLY that they CONSCIOUSLY experience less temptation!
Implications
* People that have good self-control are exercising this ability effortlessly by relying on automatic processes
* Implies that if you want to improve your chances of completing a goal, make your behaviour as automatic as possible
6- How do we make goal pursuit feel more effortless?
Implementation Intentions
* Very specific plan about how you will achieve a goal in a particular situation
* Link a situation with a specific action
- “When situation X arises, I will perform response Y”
Example:
“I’m going to eat healthier”= “When I eat a meal, I will have at least one vegetable.”
* Solves problem of goals being too vague and increases your commitment by focusing on one method of achieving a goal
Don’t Put Your Eggs in More than One Basket
* Having too many ways to complete a goal reduces commitment to any one particular option making you less likely to complete the goal
* Having many options can also be overwhelming
Do implementation intentions help people achieve goals?
* Method: Participants were instructed to write a report about how they spent Christmas Eve that was due on December 26th
* Experimental manipulation: Implementation intentions: Think about when and where you will write report
* Control: Simply asked to write report
* Who completed report?
Results:
* Implementation intentions group was more likely to complete goal
Implementation Intentions vs. Motivation Boost
* Method: Recruited people who wanted to exercise more
* Participants tracked how often they exercised for 2 weeks
* Three experimental groups: * Control: Track how often you exercise
* Motivation: Track how often you exercise + read about benefits of exercise
* Implementation intention: Track how often you exercise + read about benefits of exercise + set implementation intention
* “During the next week, I will partake in at least 20-mins of vigorous exercise on [DAY]
at [TIME] in [PLACE].” * Implementation intentions set at T2 (after one week)
* Who exercised at least once per week?
Results:
* No benefit of motivation intervention
* Implementation intentions doubled the rate of exercise
* Suggests that when we don’t reach goals, not because of lack of motivation, but because lack of specific plan
Beneficial Effects of Implementation Intentions
* Implementation intentions facilitate goal achievement, such as:
* Exercising more
* Eating a healthy diet
* Reaching personal goals
* Writing a CV
* Managing anger
* Increasing perspective-taking
* Increasing public transportation use
* Increasing voter turn-out
* Increasing flu shot rates
Moderating Role of Goal Difficulty
* Method: Participants identified personal projects they intended to
achieve during Christmas break
* Experimental manipulation: * Easy goal
* Difficult goal
* Assessed implementation intentions
* Results: Implementation intentions were useful for completing difficult
goals, less relevant for completing easy goals
Why Are Implementation Intentions Helpful?
1. Heightened accessibility of situational cues (“when”) * Improves ability to detect the situational cue relevant to our goal
2. Formation of a strong mental link between the situation cue and the action
* Consequently, automates action initiation
Creating A Link Between Situational Cue and Action* Do implementation intentions create a strong link between a cue and
an action?
* Method: Recruited Dutch habitual and non-habitual bicycle users
* Experimental manipulation: * Bike implementation intention (II): make a plan specifying where, when, how to reach different destinations in the city (all destinations reachable by bike)
* Control: make a plan for how to repair a flat tire
* Word association task: * Measured reaction time (RT) to indicated if biking was a realistic transportation mode of reaching a particular location (yes or no)
* Designed to test the strength of the association between a destination (situational cue) and an action (means of getting to location). Ex: university …. bicycle
Results
* Evidence that implementation intentions create a strong link
between a goal and an action
Implications
* Implementation intentions allow goal pursuit to become automatic
* Remove need for a conscious decision
* Relying less on effortful self-control
* Intended action is executed more effortlessly
The Key to Goal Completion is Automaticity
* Not motivation
* Not self-control
* But rather engaging in processes that make success feel more effortless/ automatic
- Setting goals that feel intrinsically valuable
- Habits
- Structuring your life to avoid temptations
- Forming implementations for goals, especially if they’re difficult
