COGNITIVEMOTIVATIONAL THEORIES DEFINITIONAL ISSUES Cognitivemotivational units and selfregulation

COGNITIVE-MOTIVATIONAL THEORIES DEFINITIONAL ISSUES • Cognitive-motivational units and self-regulation COGNITIVE-MOTIVATIONAL THEORIES ABOUT THE SELF • Higgins: real/ideal/ought selves • Dweck: incremental vs. entity self-theories MIDDLE-LEVEL UNITS • Types • Personal strivings and mental and physical wellbeing 1

Do you remember this from intro lecture on motives? CHARACTERISTICS OF MOTIVATED BEHAVIOR: • raises and fades over time • coherent (organized) • persistent and efficient • associated to a network of cognitions (images, beliefs, plans) • has emotional correlates and consequences (e. g. , frustration) 2

Integrating motives and cognitions …. COGNITIVE-MOTIVATIONAL THEORIES: Modern social-personality theories that emphasize the link between cognitions (beliefs, schemas, etc. ) and motivation (goals, needs) in predicting behavior (e. g. , persistence of action, emotions) 3

Self-regulation: how cognitions, motivations, and emotions interact RED: emotions GREEN: motivations PURPLE: cognitions 4

COGNITIVE-MOTIVATIONAL THEORIES ABOUT THE SELF 5

HIGGINS (1987): Real, Ideal, and Ought selves • Self-discrepancy theory: We are highly motivated to reduce discrepancies between how we actually see ourselves and how we actually would like to be and how we think we ought to be. • Real/Ideal discrepancies lead to feelings of depression and real/ought discrepancies to feelings of anxiety. OUGHT REAL IDEAL 6

Higgins’ empirical demonstration of how real/ideal discrepancies lead to feelings of depression and real/ought discrepancies to feelings of anxiety: IDEAL PRIMING: Asking subjects to write an essay about the qualities they would love to have (but don’t have) OUGHT PRIMING: Asking subjects to write an essay about the qualities they think it’s their duty to have (but don’t have) 7

DWECK (1990): Incremental vs. Entity self-theories PERFORMANCE GOALS LEARNING GOALS 8

MIDDLE-LEVEL UNITS 9

BROAD, DECONTEXTUALIZED MIDDLE-LEVEL UNITS SPECIFIC, SITUATIONAL 10

advantages disadvantages LEVEL 1 highly personal highly decontextualized low B predictive value LEVEL 4 highly contextualized high B predictive value highly impersonal LEVELS 2&3 personal contextualized medium B predictive value 11

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Research on Personal Strivings (Emmons, 1992) 13

HAVING HIGH VS. LOW LEVEL OF STRIVINGS HAS DIFFERENT HEALTH CORRELATES !! (Emmons, 1992) Mostly High worse mental health (e. g. , more anxiety, depression) (e. g. , improving this world) Mostly Low worse physical health (e. g. more colds, headaches) (e. g. , be funny) 14