lecture 1-12 Flashcards
Timeline of Goal Setting
- First 3 weeks - setting personal goals.
- 3 to 6 weeks - how to develop expertise.
motivation
more drive, energy, focus, and persistence
How do we overcome our self-control limitations to succeed at our personal goals?
- Clear standards.
- Monitoring our behaviour.
- Self-control resources.
Goal
Specific and challenging, presence of social support, made public.
Don Taylor Belief’s
- Having a clear goal.
- Monitoring.
what was later added to taylors beliefs
social support, going public
SMAART Goal
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Approach Oriented vs. Avoid, Realistic, Time-framed.
Koestner’s 3 secrets on how to get through the self-control barrier
- How we select/develop our autonomous goals.
- Support the goal with an implementation plan.
- Borrow self-control resources from friends and family.
Autonomy - Sheldon 2001.
A sense of ownership and personal endorsement, and ask people why are you setting this goal?
Autonomous Reasons
ME because I really believe it is an important goal to have, because of the fun and enjoyment the goal offers. It is intrinsic.
Controlled Reasons
SOMEONE ELSE because someone else (my mom) wants me to, because I would feel guilty if I didn’t. It is extrinsic.
Study: Sheldon 2001
Measured autonomy versus control in terms of reasons for goals.
* List 8 goals that would last you through the end of the semester.
* 240 incoming college students followed for entire freshman year.
Results: Sheldon 2001
Found that people with more autonomous goals were more successful at reaching their goals over time. This progress led to improved adjustment and they made more goals later on. However, with the controls, they had worse adjustment.
Factors in Sheldon 2001 Study
- Greater effort.
- Less conflict with other goals.
- Capacity to shield goals from distraction and temptation.
- Capacity to overcome action crises.
Implementation Plans - Gollwitzer and Sheeran 2006
- “If, then” plans.
- Explain “when, where, and how”.
- Connect good opportunities to accomplishing goals.
- Anticipate obstacles, and plan to overcome this.
Study: Implementation Plans
People who expected to have cognitive deficits work even better with implementation plans. The more difficult the goal, the more helpful the plans are.
The author of Succeed thinks implementation plans are the #1 most important while Koestner believes
the key is to make the plan automatic.
Two Kinds of Support
Directive support and autonomy support.
what are the two types of directive support
Directive Support 1. Providing positive guidance and encouragement.
2. Cheerleading.
Autonomy Support two types
- Support framed as empathetic.
- Take the person’s perspective.
3 ways to extend self-control
- Select autonomous goals.
- Make goal pursuit automatic with implementation plans.
- Find the right kind of support.
Lecture 2 Summary
- Select autonomous goals.
- Augment the goals with implementation plans.
- Find autonomy supportive goal-supporters.
Case Study: Eileen Barton
Claims to be obsessed with weight, gained 60 pounds by winter break in her freshman year, and doctor believed she was predisposed to be heavy. Her obsession is how we should be.
How has the ideal weight changed?
Used to be 124 pounds but now it is 140 pounds. 70% of people admit they are over this ideal.
Order of things from curable to incurable
- Panic = curable. Must get the right professional.
- Specific phobias = almost curable. Need the right professional.
- Depression = moderate relief.
- Anger problems = less treatable.
- Overweight = temporary change.
- PTSD = highly retractable with marginal relief.
Oprah Winfrey Phenomenon
Used nutritional supplements, OPTIFAST, to go from 180 pounds to 128 pounds in six months. She gained all the weight back.
Study: Hovell et al. 1988
Half people drop out and half make remarkable progress, and lose 84% of their excess weight.
They followed people for 18 months. On average, people gain 80% of the 84% they lost. Only 3% considered success at 5 years!
The Biggest Loser
Motivational speaker who won the competition is back to 300lbs.
Most contestants are back to their original weight as it’s very hard to maintain weight loss.
Seligman and Weight
Weight is largely genetically determined and will defend this weight.
Starving and Weight
If we try to go below 10% of our set range, our bodies would react, thinking we are starving. Our bodies hate this, so it triggers certain defences and our resting metabolism slows down and we lose less calories.
leptin
Satiety hormone that measures when one is full or not.
Study: Polivy and Herman 2002 on the false hopes of self-change
The diet industry thrives for two reasons - big promises and repeat customers. We should instead think about lifestyle change.
diet
Special course of food to which a person restricts themselves, either to lose weight or for medical reasons
The False Hope Syndrome
- Initial expectations. (They aren’t realistic)
- Commitment to change. (Reinforcement from others)
- Initial efforts.
After the first three steps, and around week 4, we hit a plateau.
- Resistance to change.
- Failure/Abandonment. (Around 2/3 months)
- Attributions.
- Emotional, behavioral and physiological consequences.
attribution error
Blame is related to internal versus external or stable versus unstable. Unstable determines whether or not you will try something again. If something is blamed as stable, you will not try it again.
Study: Stanley Schacter 1982
- 75 people in psych department and adults who have a summer house.
- Interviewed people to see if they were ever overweight.
- 1/3 said at one point in their life they had been obese. However, 2/3 of this 1/3 did lose the weight and kept it off.
Why is there a discrepancy within weight studies?
Because people who enrol in weight loss studies are probably the worst at keeping weight off. They have the most difficulty with eating.
Evaluation of Different Support
The more people were guiding you, the worse you did. Directive support was bad while autonomy support & motivation was good.
Polivy and Herman’s Recommendation
Cannot lose weight quickly during a crash diet. Better to aim for a couple pounds a month while making exercise regular and improving eating habits.
What 2 programs are said to be effective?
- Jenny Craig.
- Weight watchers.
Recent Research on Weight loss
- Lose weight = diet by reduce calories.
- Keep it off = exercise.
lecture 3 summary
- Start with realistic goals
- 5%-10% of current body weight
- Be sure to focus on maintenance
Baumeister’s 2 different kinds of failure
- Under regulation.
- Misregulation.
Why does Baumeister believe you should be built like a missile?
You’ll fly through the air better. Not too tall or curvy and better for younger girls before they’re developed.
Pro’s of Young Training
Many of the girls end up socially immature, suffer from eating disorders, physically interrupted and depression
kerri strugg
She was a member of the Magnificent 7, was the 5th best, and had a introverted personality. She broke her leg during the olympics but continued to perform gymnastics.
Self-Control
When we can override our typical response because of something bigger.
Transcendence
Helps you do what you wouldn’t usually be able to do. Can think about religion as it seems to train people in self-control.
May Lou Retton on Kerri Strugg
Believed that females gymnasts are tougher than football players and Kerri would be praised if she were a man.
Steps of Successful Self-Regulation
- Standards.
- Monitoring of feedback.
- Self-regulatory feedback. - Koestner thinks this is astonishing as there is a delay of gratification.
Under-regulation
Failure is due to failure to monitor or lack of self-control.
Misregulation
Exerting self control in a way that fails to bring about the desired results because the efforts are misguided or wasted.
- Misunderstood Contingencies.
- Trying to Control the Uncontrollable.
Misunderstood Contingencies
Common amongst young people due to naiveness.
Example: Unrequited love.
Trying to Control the Uncontrollable
Example: Choking in a performance setting.
People perform worse in competition relative to training.
We choke because we think think about accuracy more than normal. Example in Kerri’s first jump.
Baumeister’s opinion on Strugg’s regulation
Strugg did not under-regulate or misregulate.
Humanistic perspective of healthy self-control
Think about basic psychological needs such as relatedness, competence and autonomy.
Relatedness
There are some people who care about you and you care about them.
competence
You can master activities, you can do some things well, and you can learn to do things better
autonomy
You need to feel like YOU are in charge or that what you are doing is your choice.
Koestner on Strugg’s Autonomy
Koestner says Strugg’s autonomy probably wasn’t real. It was internally controlled.
Study: Sheldon 2010
Recruited 160 people from a community, and assigned them to 4 conditions.
- Set a goal that will make your life better/improve your circumstances.
- Set 3-4 goals to satisfy relatedness.
- Set 3-4 goals to satisfy competence.
- Set 3-4 goals to satisfy autonomy.
Results: Sheldon 2010
Control: didn’t affect with your well-being/affect.
All other 3 conditions: IMPROVED well-being and positive affect.
Summary: If your goals satisfy these basic needs, then you will actually feel better about yourself.
Retirement within women gymnastics
Gymnasts retired early and didn’t know what to do after gymnastics. They feel like they missed out on life.
Study: Shun Fujimoto
Shun performed on a broken right knee. Perform on the rings so they could beat the Russians and scored 9.7 to win the gold medal.
Koestner thinks the Simpsons video is much more accurate as he
jumps off and yells like a psycho.
Jack Block on Self-Discipline
You have to put it on a continuum = ego-control. It is the extent to which impulses and feelings are expressed or suppressed.
Important to have the capacity to CHOOSE whether and WHEN to persevere.
Lecture 4 Summary
- Must consider whether goals are adaptive in some broader way.
- Should question whether self-control is always adaptive.
- Humanistic view is outlined by Sheldon in 2010.
Unrequited Love
Romantic, passionate love that is felt by one person toward another person who feels substantially less attraction toward the lover.
The Bachelor Paris
Girl was the unrequited lover who wasn’t chosen because she told the bachelor her eggs are expiring and she wants to reproduce. Lol.
Study: 1990
College students asked to provide detailed narrative accounts of a powerful experience of unrequited love.
95% of students were able to provide a narrative, while majority had experience in both roles. These students were analyzed to take personality and gender out.
Study: 1990, inclusion criteria
- You weren’t dating before
- It wasn’t stalking
- There had to be some kind of INDICATION of your interest like you had to GO for it at some point.
falling upward
Falling for someone more attractive than you. Can be physical but also attitude or confidence.
Someone who is “out of your league”.
Intrusion of romantic feelings into a platonic friendship
These feelings can blossom from one side as all of a sudden this frienf wants to be your partner
Transition from casual dating to serious, possibly exclusive romance.
Dating is not a commitment to a relationship. The less attractive person escalates faster.
Why do we tend to marry someone who’s about the same level of attraction as us?
Done systematically. Cut out pictures of men and women to guess who married who based on ranking people based on attractiveness. Achieve a correlation of about 0.6 to 0.7.
average joe hawaii
chose hot model ober average joes. not representative of sample
why do we fall upward
we overestimate our desirability
debbie
koestners dream girl who was more attractive than him
Baumeister’s beliefs on these experiences
Pursuers don’t remember it so badly while the pursued feel awkward and harassed. However, the pursued is very empathic toward the other person.
Why does unrequited love persist and become a problem?
Because it’s not REINFORCED.
1. Vicarious learning. Learnt by watching tv shows, listening to songs and watching others.
2. Difficulty delivering rejection.
We have a hard time to do this.
Example of Vicarious Learning
- Big Bang Theory.
- The Office.
- Friends.
- The Hunger Games.
- My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
Baumeiter versus Koestner on rejection
Baumeister says you have to be crystal clear while Koestner thinks Baumeister is wrong because it’s not the norm.
Koestner’s perspective on how to reduce problems of unrequited love
- Be wiser about how relationships and attraction work.
- You can’t make someone be attracted to you
- From a logical point of view, do not persist.
- Think about goals and how to disengage.
How do we disengage from valued goals and find new goals?
Unrequited love is too specific so it’s a bad goal. From research at Concordia, people see it as a long term process.
The Goal Action Sequence
Selection to engagement to disengagement. Have to actively disengage.
Disengagement
Have to make a judgment about your opportunities for success if they’re good, then you should continue.
Disengagement prevents accumulated failure experiences while reengaging creates purpose in life.
Goal Adjustment Scale
Measures the style of disengaging.
Goal Disengagement:
1. Reduction of effort.
2. Withdrawal of commitment.
Goal reengagement:
1. Identification of goals.
2. Commitment to goals.
3. Pursuit of goals.
Freud and Unrequited Love
A psychodynamic framework: the unconscious forces shape our behavior as fantasy relationships are enjoyable. It’s harder to find real relationships that actually might work. Unrequited love may mirror the Oedipal conflict.
Lecture 5 Summary
- You shouldn’t have a highly specific goal for someone.
- You can have general friend-making goals.
- Make sure you disengage from goals.