Lecture 4 Mindset Theory Of Action Phases And If Planning Flashcards
what is MAP? (Heckhausen and Gollwitzer 1987)
4 phases of mindset theory of action phases
1. Decide (motivation) on desirable goals to pursue (why?): invest physical and mental effort and time.
-pre- decisional phase
2. initiate and Maintain (violation) goal pursuit (how):
Shield goal (distraction, temptations, frustration from obstacles, etc.)
-Pre-actional phase
3. Evaluate: reached goal (to what extent); if not (why?)
-actional phase
4. Different phases in goal pursuit with different challenges; overcoming damn facilitated by phase-typical cognition procedures (mindset)
- post-actional phase
What is motivation and volition in MAP?
Motivation: the process of goalsetting and evaluation. The focus lies on desirability and the feasibility of potential goals, influenced by the needs and motives of the goal striving individual.
Why people act in which direction and with which intensity?
volition: the will based process of goal striving. The focus lies on the actual goal directed behavior, but also on planning steps that are necessary to be able to show goal directed responses in the first place.
How people act to reach their goals even the opportunities in the obstacles they are facing.
What is pre-decisional phase? MAP
-deliberate is worthwhile to pursue a given goal: desirability (value) x feasibility (likelihood to succeed) of various options
-Need to be open minded, realistic (chances of success) and to judge the potential goals in relation to each other
Example
Pre-decisional participants report positive and negative consequences of potential goals equally strong
Post decisional participants five times more positive consequences of chosen goals
What is pre-actional phase? MAP
Task: plan the implementation of chosen goal and show increased focus on feasibility - information
Closed minded processing of potentially relevant information
Challenging Goals: layout and plan real or potential obstacles that might need to be overcomed; aided by positive-based judgments of control and expectations success
Example
Preactional VS control, participants overestimate control over light onset of
What is actional phase? MAP
Goal directed behavior; focus on means and persistence, as well as goal shielding.
If it’s all well, then goal progress; but potential for action crisis
-Experience of struggle is futile
Re-reflection of goals desirability and feasibility
-Less focus on implementation related information, greater concern with the costs of continuing VS disengaging and benefits of disengaging
Examples:
Greater persistence in the goal directed behavior
Mediators: increasing self efficacy, optimistic, outcome expectations, perceptions of ease, and attitude strengths
What is post-actional phase? MAP
Evaluate if desired end state/goal has been reached
If not, would further goal striving be futile or not?
-switch back to open minded, desirability and value evaluation
Example
Longitudinal study on exercising behavior
-Positive but not negative post actional evaluations predict setting higher goals
-higher goals predicted larger exercise behavior
What are mindsets in MAP?
-A set of cognitive procedures (mindsets) is activated in each phase
-Mindsets can carry over to subsequence tasks, unrelated to the goal that evoked them (they are generalized)
deliberative mindset (pre-decisional, post-actional phases) - open minded, impartial weighing desirability and feasibility of different goal options
-broader span of visual attention
-More likely processing of incidentally presented information
-Persuasive messages stressing abstract future outcomes are more effective
-More tuned to assessing expected utilities in decision making
-Less likely affected by optimistic bias
Implemental mindset (preactional, actional phases) -closed minded, partial resistance to any weighing desirability and desirability of different goal options
-Optimistically biased judgments of chance of success
-Stronger illusions of control
-A larger focus on details
-More persistence when facing difficulty
-Quicker task completion and more correct completion prediction
What are examples of mindsets applications?
- Social psychology: shielding people with low SES from performance decreases due to stereotype threat in the speeded mental arithmetic task
Incremental mindset condition : generate multiple problem-solving steps to achieve a (unrelated) conflict goal
Step 1: ask another colleague, for advice on the best way to talk to the senior colleague
Step 2: ask the senior colleague, if we can speak privately
-Work psychology: overoptimism in project teams goes along with implementation mindset
- Judgment and decision making: deliberative mindsets reduce risk taking behavior and overconfident judgments of having answered correctly in the general knowledge test
- Health psychology: heightened expectations of participants in medical research, likely linked to implementation mindset
What are implementation intentions and goal intentions?
implementation intentions -
If then plans- link critical situation to a goal directed response
implementation intentions are if then plans specifying: when, where and how to act toward a goal. They are subordinate to goal intentions and are assumed to facilitate their attainment by automating 2 processes:
1. The detection of critical situations
2. The initiation of goal directed responses
Goal intentions: specify a desired outcome or behavior. Their most important features are their desirability (how important it is to attain them) and their feasibility (how likely it is to attain them), which jointly determine the degree of goal commitment.
What are phases of implementation intentions?
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Getting started:
help remembering to act
Help prospective memory
Help overcoming initial reluctance - Staying on track: diminish interference from internal and external stimuli
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Disengagement: important wanted goals and means no longer feasible, and/or desirable; thus can also be used to end striving effectively - diminish escalation of commitment (specify negative feedback as cue and alternative goals or means)
Can down regulate self defensiveness 4. Prevent reduction of resources
Enable rather automatic goal- striving and thus can override ego depletion
How do implementation intentions work? (park-stamm et al 2007, Webb and Sheeran 2007)
-
Accessibility of critical situation (IF)
Critical situation, and if part activates, it’s mental representation -then it’s more accessible-then it’s easier to remember, detect and recognize
Also difficulty** not** to attend planned cues
Example
II vs control condition: longer response times in visual task, when faced with critical VS neutral distractors -
Automatic response initiation/strategic automaticity (THEN)
Link to goal directed response creates strong mental association -than specified response can be activated automatically when critical situation is encountered
example
Speaking up more quickly when opportunity presents itself
Getting things done over the Christmas break
What are areas of application for implementation intentions?
Meta-analytic evidence
-Healthy eating
-physical activity
-Reducing alcohol consumption
-Reducing psychological problems (depression, light dementia)
Other
Increase recycling behavior
Dealing with endurance (pain, fatigue)
Attendance in medical screening
Fruit and vegetable intake
What is mental contrasting with implementation intentions? (MCII) - Oettingen et Al., 2014; Oettigen, 2014
Mental contrasting: juxtaposing fantasies about desired future outcomes with obstacles in present reality
-It creates a strong goal commitment and vigorous goal striving (when high expectations of success)
-Allows identifying personally relevant obstacles
-Obstacles can be specified, is the critical situation (IF) in IIs
-Personalization of IF component (idiosyncratic concern)
Examples
Exercising and healthy eating
Academic domain : better study time management and performance
Relationship : decreased insecurity and more openness to talk
What is WOOP?
Wish, outcome, obstacle (MC) and plan (IIs)
Effective self help tool deployed in every day life
Allows identifying personally relevant obstacleswhich I
Obstacles can be specified, is the critical situation (IF) in IIs
Personalization of IF component (idiosyncratic concern)
