Adolescents struggle with setting and striving for goals that require sustained self‐discipline. Research on adults indicates that goal commitment is enhanced by mental contrasting (MC), a strategy involving the cognitive elaboration of a desired future with relevant obstacles of present reality. Implementation intentions (II), which identify the action one will take when a goal‐relevant opportunity arises, represent a strategy shown to increase goal attainment when commitment is high. This study tests the effect of mental contrasting combined with implementation intentions (MCII) on successful goal implementation in adolescents. Sixty‐six 2nd‐year high school students preparing to take a high‐stakes exam in the fall of their third year were randomly assigned to complete either a 30‐minute written mental contrasting with implementation intentions intervention or a placebo control writing exercise. Students in the intervention condition completed more than 60% more practice questions than did students in the control condition. These findings point to the utility of directly teaching to adolescents mental contrasting with implementation intentions as a self‐regulatory strategy of successful goal pursuit.

What is a good theory, and what are its characteristics? In this part of the book, we'll discuss several theories in psychology, along with methods for using and evaluating formal theories to understand experimental results. We'll be focusing in large part on the theories rather than on specific methods of data analysis. If you want to understand research methodology, you can't really succeed without first understanding what you're trying to accomplish by using these methods, and this requires an understanding of theories and how they work.

Most American respondents give “irrational,” magical responses in a variety of situations that exemplify the sympathetic magical laws of similarity and contagion. In most of these cases, respondents are aware that their responses (usually rejections, as of fudge crafted to look like dog feces, or a food touched by a sterilized, dead cockroach) are not “scientifically” justified, but they are willing to avow them. We interpret this, in some sense, as “heart over head.” We report in this study that American adults and undergraduates are substantially less likely to acknowledge magical effects when the judgments involve money (amount willing to pay to avoid an “unpleasant” magical contact) than they are when using preference or rating measures. We conclude that in “head-heart” conflicts of this type, money tips the balance towards the former, or, in other words, that money makes the mind less magical.

Goals lie at the heart of motivation, and thus of psychology. From Freud, Jung, and Adler, to the learning theorists like Hull and Tolman, to more and more researchers today, motivation has been recognized as the organizing and energizing force behind all actions. Many chapters in this book deal with the nature and workings of goals, and so, in large part, does this one. But this chapter also deals with the question of what orients people toward certain goals—and then what happens once they are so oriented. More specifically, in this chapter we review research on people’s self-theories and the goals they give rise to. We then show how the self-theories and goals together create a system of meaning that shapes interpretations of selfrelevant stimuli and events, influencing how people understand their own experience, and guiding their affect, cognition, and behavior. In this way, self-theories and their allied goals determine important outcomes in academic, social, business, and sports settings. SELF-THEORIES

Nonconsciously activated goals and consciously set goals produce the same outcomes by engaging similar psychological processes (Bargh, 1990; Gollwitzer & Bargh, 2005). However, nonconscious and conscious goal pursuit may have different effects on subsequent affect if goal pursuit affords an explanation, as nonconscious goal pursuit occurs in an explanatory vacuum (i.e. cannot be readily attributed to the respective goal intention). We compared self-reported affect after nonconscious versus conscious goal pursuit that either violated or conformed to a prevailing social norm. When goal-directed behavior did not require an explanation (was norm-conforming), affective experiences did not differ after nonconscious and conscious goal pursuit. However, when goal-directed behavior required an explanation (was norm-violating), nonconscious goal pursuit induced more negative affect than conscious goal pursuit.

Beginning with the assumption that implicit theories of personality are crucial tools for understanding social behavior, the authors tested the hypothesis that perceivers would process person information that violated their predominant theory in a biased manner. Using an attentional probe paradigm (Experiment 1) and a recognition memory paradigm (Experiment 2), the authors presented entity theorists (who believe that human attributes are fixed) and incremental theorists (who believe that human attributes are malleable) with stereotype-relevant information about a target person that supported or violated their respective theory. Both groups of participants showed evidence of motivated, selective processing only with respect to theory-violating information. In Experiment 3, the authors found that after exposure to theory-violating information, participants felt greater anxiety and worked harder to reestablish their sense of prediction and control mastery. The authors discuss the epistemic functions of implicit theories of personality and the impact of violated assumptions.

The authors propose that when a message recipient "feels right" from regulatory fit (E. T. Higgins, 2000), this subjective experience transfers to the persuasion context and serves as information for relevant evaluations, including perceived message persuasiveness and opinions of the topic. Fit was induced either by strategic framing of message arguments in a way that fit/did not fit with the recipient's regulatory state or by a source unrelated to the message itself. Across 4 studies, regulatory fit enhanced perceived persuasiveness and opinion ratings. These effects were eliminated when the correct source of feeling right was made salient before message exposure, supporting the misattribution account. These effects reversed when message-related thoughts were negative, supporting the claim that fit provides information about the "rightness" of one's (positive or negative) evaluations.

The study of achievement goals has illuminated basic motivational processes, though controversy surrounds their nature and impact. In 5 studies, including a longitudinal study in a difficult premed course, the authors show that the impact of learning and performance goals depends on how they are operationalized. Active learning goals predicted active coping, sustained motivation, and higher achievement in the face of challenge. Among performance goals, ability-linked goals predicted withdrawal and poorer performance in the face of challenge (but provided a "boost" to performance when students met with success); normative goals did not predict decrements in motivation or performance; and outcome goals (wanting a good grade) were in fact equally related to learning goals and ability goals. Ways in which the findings address discrepancies in the literature are discussed.

The relationship between optimism and two potential sources of optimistic beliefs—promotion pride (based on a history of success in promotion regulation) and prevention pride (based on a history of success in prevention regulation)—was explored. Optimism was more strongly related to promotion pride than prevention pride (controlling for neuroticism), consistent with past work showing that anticipating success increases eagerness motivation but decreases vigilance motivation. This suggests that the psychology of prevention regulators is not captured well by the existing literature on optimism. Although prevention pride does not predict self-reports of well-being, it does predict adaptive functioning independent of optimism, neuroticism, and promotion pride. Promotion pride uniquely predicted a sense of purpose in life or goal directedness. Both promotion and prevention pride predicted active coping. It is argued that promotion and prevention pride tell us something unique and important about the role of successful self-regulation in determining quality of life.

The study of the attributions has given researchers of achievement motivation a powerful key to understanding thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in achievement situations (Brown & Weiner, 1984; Diener & Dweck, 1978, 1980; Dweck & Elliott, 1983; Mueller & Dweck, 1998; Weiner, 1985; Weiner, Graham, & Chandler, 1982; CitationRef Weiner & Kukla, 1971). Decades of research has demonstrated that different attributions lead to unique patterns of coping. Indeed, Weiner has mapped the attribution-affect-behavior linkages for the major classes of attributions (see Weiner, 1985, for a review).

Abstract Applying regulatory focus theory ( 17 ), we hypothesized that success-related approach motivation and increased expectancies are more likely to occur when performers are in a promotion than a prevention focus and that failure-related avoidance motivation and decreased expectancies are more likely to occur when performers are in a prevention than a promotion focus. Study 1 used arm flexion pressure as an on-line measure of approach strength and arm extension pressure as an on-line measure of avoidance strength. Study 2 used a persistence measure of motivational strength. The “goal looms larger” effect of increased motivational strength as one moves closer to a goal was greatest for approach when there was success feedback and promotion focus framing and was greatest for avoidance when there was failure feedback and prevention focus framing. Performance expectancies were increased more by promotion than prevention success and were decreased more by prevention than promotion failure. These effects support the hypotheses and were independent of one another.

Three studies tested the hypothesis that regulatory focus, both as a chronic person variable and as a manipulated situational variable, differentially affects the strength of participants' approach and avoidance strategic motivations as they get closer to the goal. In 2 studies, flexion and extension arm pressure were used as on-line measures of approach and avoidance intensity, respectively. As predicted, the approach gradient was steeper for participants with a promotion focus on aspirations and gains than for participants with a prevention focus on responsibilities and nonlosses, whereas the reverse was true for the avoidance gradient. In a third study, the same pattern of results was found on a persistence measure of motivational strength. Participants with a promotion focus worked longer on anagrams closer to the goal when they were approach means for goal attainment than when they were avoidance means, whereas the reverse was true for participants with a prevention focus.