Lecture 12: Goals I

Question 1

Goals (definitions)

Answer 1

Goal(s)

• The object of a person’s ambition or effort
• Aim or desired result
• The end toward which an effort is directed; aim

-Internal representations of desired (or undesired - to be avoided)
states

• Span from momentary to life-long
  e. g. get coffee to stay awake
• Win the Nobel prize for medicine

Question 2

Why do we have brains

Answer 2

So we can move and act on goals

Question 3

Predicting motivation

2 Basic things

3 things (including 3 subdivisions of expectancy-value theory)

Answer 3

Need (strength)

• How hungry am I?
• A hungry rat will press the food button more

Incentive value of goal object

• Food (m&m vs. kibble)
• More interesting stuff is stronger motivation

Question 4

Expectancy-value theory

3 things that explain motivation

Answer 4

Expectancy-Value Theories
-Expectancy (performance depends on effort)
The belief that YOUR performance results from YOUR effort

-Instrumentality (outcome depends on performance)
The belief that GENERALLY outcome depends on PEOPLE’S Pperformance

-Value (reward – cost of achieving outcome)
How much we value it and how hard it is to get

If there are many behavioral options, the winner will be the one that gets the best combo if success potential, instrumentality and value

Question 5

Importance-commitment

Answer 5

Centrality to self
-The closer it is to self-definition, the more important a goal is

Number of higher order goals served
-If a behavior achieves many goals at once, likely to be very important

Goal: means (to achieve goal)…
-If you have many ways to achieve a goal (means) you are less likely to prioritize any one goal and hence, less likely to do it.

If there is ONE behavior that is THE ONLY WAY TO ACHIEVE SOMETHING, you will focus on it more

Question 6

What are the problems of acting on intentions (Outline of the issue)

Answer 6

Not lack of motivation (E, V)

Theorized to be the Lack specific knowledge on how to achieve goal (3 parts)

• How should I do this? (cf. channel factors: like vaccinations in vaccine study at uni - strong, clear plans)
• Situations elicit competing responses
• Opportunities escape our attention

Question 7

What are the problems of acting on intentions (Example)

Answer 7

Ex. Ask Diane out on a date
• How?
– In person?
– On the phone?
– Have friend introduce us?
– Use excuse (borrow her notes?)
– Overwhelmed by choices

• Situations can elicit competing responses:
– School environment feels “competitive”; you may find you want to compete and affiliate

• Failure to recognize opportunities
– Forgot to ask her out when we happened to sit next to
each other in class, or when we met in the cafeteria
line!!
– Intention is there, but failure to execute

Question 8

Implementation intentions

Answer 8

• Goal intention
• “I intend to achieve Z”
• Implementation intentions
• “When situation X arises, I will perform response Y”
– “When I meet her in the cafeteria, I will ask her out for a drink on Friday”
• Link anticipated opportunities with
goal-directed responses
• Specificity should increase rate of goal completion (cf. channel factor)

When X, I do Y

Question 9

Implementation intentions

Xmas Break study

Answer 9

-Identify personal projects you intend to achieve
during Christmas break (many concurrent goals
and time restrictions)
-One easy (e.g., finish reading a novel) and one
difficult goal (e.g., write term paper, find new
apartment)
-Assess implementation intentions:

• “In order to achieve their goals, people execute
behaviors that can de described along three
dimensions…the point in time…the place…and the
type of action that is linked to the situational
context specified by time and place. Please
indicate whether you have committed yourself to a
certain situational context for initiating specific
goal-directed actions in the sense of “when I
encounter the situational context X, I will perform
behavior Y.”
• Yes or no?
• After Christmas break: did you complete the
projects?

RESULTS

On easy goals, no difference between II group and non-II group

On hard tasks, II group had a higher completion % of goals

Question 10

Implementation intentions

Writing assigned report (II Experiment)

Answer 10

Manipulate implementation intentions

Assignment: write report about Christmas Eve
G1 Write when, where and how you will write report, or not
G2 no intervention

After holiday, who completed report?

RESULTS

A higher % of the II group did the assignment than the non-II group

Question 11

Implementation intentions

Doing exercise (II Experiment)

Answer 11

Two week study of 248 participants in Great
Britain
-Three groups:
-Control: Track how often you exercise
¡ Motivation: Track how often you exercise + read
about benefits of exercise
-Implementation intentions: above, PLUS “During the next week, I will partake in at least 20- mins of vigorous exercise on [DAY] at [TIME] in [PLACE]
¡ Who exercised at least 1x/week?

RESULTS

More than 2x normal
rate for II group

No measurable benefit from motivation exercise

We don’t lack motivation, we lack clarity!

Question 12

Implementation intentions

meta-analysis

Answer 12

-94 independent tests
-8461 participants
-Positive effect of medium to large magnitude (d
= .65)

HUGE!

Conclusions drawn from meta analyses can bee stronger

Increased generalizability

Question 13

Implementation intentions

meta-analysis (finer details)

Answer 13

4 Big things helped

(1) Initiating goal striving
(2) Shielding goal striving from unwanted influences
(3) Disengaging futile goal striving (i.e. changing strategies if you find one thing is not working)
(4) Conserving Self-Regulatory Capacity (i.e. when I see the marshmallow, I will tell myself it is a cotton ball)

Question 14

Unconsciousness in goals

Answer 14

The consciousness of goals
• Assumed that goal pursuit involves deliberate,
conscious, willful, and intentional act
-This is how lay ppl see them

In reality:
• Goals are “dynamically conscious”:
– Goals move in and out of working memory
– Many goals present in memory but only a few are
activated or cued in working memory (can’t pursue
all our goals all the time)
– Goals become scripted and automatized over time

Question 15

Auto-motive model

Answer 15

Goals can be activated or triggered by
environmental stimuli
– Often times, we pursue a goal out of conscious
awareness and without intent

Question 16

Auto-motive model (Interruption study)

Answer 16

• Prime assertive versus polite words

• When finished with task, go see experimenter
who is being asked questions by “another
participant”

DV what % of ppl interrupted and how long did they wait

• Assertive goal:
– Interrupt 60% of the time
– And within 5.5 minutes
• Polite goal:
– Interrupt 20% of the time
– Within 9 minutes

ut they did not know why they were doing this, nor that they had been primed. This was unconscious.

Question 17

Does the Auto-motive model make us automatons?

Answer 17

Automatons???
• No, adaptive:
• Because the individual has frequently and consistently chosen that goal in that situation in the past
• Goals that have been frequently and consistently
activated become automated
• Also, thinking about goal activates the action
representation necessary to achieve goal— linkage strengthened by experience

Question 18

Auto-motive model

Pursuit of interpersonal goals
(Fitzsimons & Bargh, 2003)

(Idea)

Answer 18

Automaticity occurs b/c person has frequently and consistently chosen goal
in past similar situations

Situations can INCLUDE RELATIONSHIPS…interpersonal goals

Does psychological presence of relationship partner trigger interpersonal goals that are subsequently pursued nonconsciously?
¡ Activating relationship representations
activate relationship-specific goals, which
then guide behavior in goal congruent
fashion

Question 19

Examples of relationship types & interpersonal goal regularities

Based on Pursuit of interpersonal goals
(Fitzsimons & Bargh, 2003)

Answer 19

With a Classmate
Motivation: You do Self presentation

-but not with friend, or romantic partner (cf. Tice)

With a Friend
Motivation: “help friend”
“enjoy their company/spend time together”

• but not with mom!

With Mother
Your motivation: “to succeed so I can make my mother proud”

-but not with friend or romantic partner

Question 20

Auto-motive model

Pursuit of interpersonal goals
(Fitzsimons & Bargh, 2003)

(Study)

Answer 20

“Thinking of you”
(Fitzsimons & Bargh, 2003)

Prime: write about mother, friend, or not
G1 mother
G2 friend
G3 (control) not

Told they would take part in an impression forming task

Read about “Mark”, and form impression

“Mark is just entering his second year of college.
In his first year, he did very well in some classes
but not as well in others. Although he missed
some morning classes, overall he had very good
attendance. His parents are both doctors, and he is registered in pre-med, but he hasn’t really decided if that is what he wants to do.”

Asked :How motivated is Mark to succeed?

This is a person perception task - attributed you have been primed for will be attributed to the person

Mother group greatest attributed motivation
Control group medium
Friends lowest (you do not have success goals with friends)

Question 21

Auto-motive model

Pursuit of interpersonal goals
(Fitzsimons & Bargh, 2003)

(Study)

Does goal strength moderate the effect

Answer 21

-Pre-study questionnaire: goal to make mom
proud? (spontaneous: yes, no)

G1: Prime mom (visualize appearance, imagine her
on a Sunday afternoon, etc.)
G2: Control: describe bedroom

Task: “Verbal test”: Generate as many words as you
can from 5 letters

RESULTS

Interactions between relationship prime and goal of succeeding

High goal to make mom proud ppl found more words indicating this in the prime condition than those with low motivation to make mom proud

Low want to make mom proud group = no different to control

Question 22

Cognitive Affective

Mediating Units

Answer 22

• Encodings or construal
• Expectancies and beliefs
• Affects
• Goals and values
-Desirable and UNDESIRABLE  outcomes and affective states; goals, values, life projects (including rejection sensitivity)
• Competencies and self-regulatory
plans

Question 23

RS & the defensive-motivational system (Downey et al., 2004)

Painting study set up

Answer 23

Partners of high RS ps less satisfied
-Why do high RS people behave in ways that elicit their worst fears?
-RS is ‘defensive motivational system’ (DMS) that serves to protect
the self against rejection
-Rejection cues (like a person acting in an ambiguous way)automatically activate DMS (in high RS)

TEST:
-Measured eye-blink startle response (reliable autonomic nervous system indicator of DMS)
o Startle response augmented when loud burst of white noise presented in context of unpleasant (vs. pleasant) stimulus
-Use this to measure primed rejection sensitivity as this should cause increase startle response in high RS ppl
o Startle response measured as ps viewed scenes reflecting rejection, acceptance…

Present high and low RS people 4 pictures

Hopper - scene of a man alone; rejection

Renoir: social scene, not rejection

Rothko: -ve valence, non interpersonal

Miro: =ve valence, non-interpersonal

Question 24

RS & the defensive-motivational system (Downey et al., 2004)

Painting study

H1

Answer 24

High RS people should experience this defense motivation system activation in situations where rejection is a possibility as they will interpret these situations as uncertain, important and threatening.

Question 25

RS & the defensive-motivational system (Downey et al., 2004)

Painting study

Results

Answer 25

The hopper (rejection, interpersonal) caused much more eye blink response in high RS people vs control

Low RS people - no difference

Conclusion - they experienced more defense motivation system activation

Question 26

The wise unconscious

Bargh

Answer 26

• Unconscious in repository of things we have learned
• Frequently and consistently chose that goal in that situation in the past
• Also, certain stimuli associated with certain
behaviors
• Mind is efficient—such parings can be cued even
without intent