The emergence of goal pursuit: Mental contrasting connects future and reality
The emergence of goal pursuit: Mental contrasting connects future and reality
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DOI：
10.1016/j.jesp.2014.03.014
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发表时间：
2014-09-01
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
Oettingen, Gabriele
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kappes, Andreas;Oettingen, Gabriele
理想的未来与当前现实的心理对比加强了期望与目标追求之间的联系：对成功的期望越高，人们就越愿意追求目标；对成功的期望越低，人们就越会放弃或脱离目标追求。在三项研究中，我们测试了心理对比是否通过影响未来与现实之间心理关联的强度来增加期望与目标追求之间的联系。我们使用词汇决策任务来衡量不同目标追求领域（即人际关系、成就）的未来与现实之间的关联强度，并将心理对比条件下的结果与相关控制条件（即反向对比和内容控制）进行比较。在心理对比条件下，但在控制条件下，成功预期与未来与现实之间的关联强度之间出现了紧密的联系（研究 1、2）。未来与现实之间的关联强度反过来调节了心理对比条件下期望与自我报告以及其他评价目标追求之间的联系（研究 1、2）。最后，当目标实现时，在心理对比条件下期望与未来与现实之间的关联强度之间的联系消失了（研究3）。总而言之，这些结果表明，未来与现实关联的强度是一种特定于目标追求的心理对比效应的机制。 (C) 2014 爱思唯尔公司保留所有权利。
Mental contrasting of a desired future with the present reality strengthens the link between expectations and goal pursuit: The higher expectations of success, the more people engage in goal pursuit; the lower expectations of success, the more people let go or disengage from goal pursuit. In three studies, we tested if mental contrasting increases the link between expectations and goal pursuit by affecting the strength of mental associations between future and reality. We used lexical decision tasks to measure the strength of associations between future and reality for different domains of goal pursuit (i.e., interpersonal relations, achievement), and compared results in the mental contrasting condition to relevant control conditions (i.e., reverse contrasting and content control). In the mental contrasting condition but not in the control conditions emerged a strong link between expectations of success and the strength of associations between future and reality (Study 1, 2). The strength of associations between future and reality in turn mediated the link between expectations and self-reported as well as other-rated goal pursuit in the mental contrasting condition (Study 1, 2). Finally, the link between expectations and the strength of associations between future and reality in the mental contrasting condition vanished when the goal was attained (Study 3). Taken together, these results suggest that strength of future-reality associations are a mechanism specific to mental contrasting effects on goal pursuit. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved.