Investing in resources: An interaction model of personal resources, commitment, and work achievement

OBJECTIVE

Management practice commonly assumes that the value of a work-goal dictates the nature of motivation processes. We investigate instead how individuals invest resources from the perspective of their own value system. Drawing from Conservation of Resources theory, we explore the valuation process by testing a reciprocal model between work-goal attainment, goal commitment, and personal resources, including self-efficacy, optimism, and subjective well-being.

METHOD

Data were collected in a two-wave longitudinal study among sales professionals (n = 793) from France (F), Pakistan (P), and the United States (U).

RESULTS

Multi-group cross-lagged path analysis confirmed the reciprocal model across all three countries. Time 1 resources and goal commitment predicted work goal attainment (F = 0.24; P = 0.37; U = 0.39) and (F = 0.31; P = 0.40; U = 0.36) respectively. T1 level of goal attainment also fuelled T2 resources and goal commitment (F = 0.30; P = 0.29; U = 0.34) and (F = 0.33; P = 0.32; U = 0.29).

CONCLUSIONS

Our reciprocal findings suggest a revised approach on the nature of targets and goals. They indicate an alternative to linear path modeling, as the role of goal commitment is not necessarily that of an intermediary stage linking antecedent resources to attainment purposes. Furthermore, cultural values play a differentiating role in the goal-attainment process.

Rethinking Norm Psychology

Norms permeate human life. Most of people's activities can be characterized by rules about what is appropriate, allowed, required, or forbidden-rules that are crucial in making people hyper-cooperative animals. In this article, I examine the current cognitive-evolutionary account of "norm psychology" and propose an alternative that is better supported by evidence and better placed to promote interdisciplinary dialogue. The incumbent theory focuses on rules and claims that humans genetically inherit cognitive and motivational mechanisms specialized for processing these rules. The cultural-evolutionary alternative defines normativity in relation to behavior-compliance, enforcement, and commentary-and suggests that it depends on implicit and explicit processes. The implicit processes are genetically inherited and domain-general; rather than being specialized for normativity, they do many jobs in many species. The explicit processes are culturally inherited and domain-specific; they are constructed from mentalizing and reasoning by social interaction in childhood. The cultural-evolutionary, or "cognitive gadget," perspective suggests that people alive today-parents, educators, elders, politicians, lawyers-have more responsibility for sustaining normativity than the nativist view implies. People's actions not only shape and transmit the rules, but they also create in each new generation mental processes that can grasp the rules and put them into action.

A goal-centric outlook on learning

Goals play a central role in human cognition. However, computational theories of learning and decision-making often take goals as given. Here, we review key empirical findings showing that goals shape the representations of inputs, responses, and outcomes, such that setting a goal crucially influences the central aspects of any learning process: states, actions, and rewards. We thus argue that studying goal selection is essential to advance our understanding of learning. By following existing literature in framing goal selection within a hierarchy of decision-making problems, we synthesize important findings on the principles underlying goal value attribution and exploration strategies. Ultimately, we propose that a goal-centric perspective will help develop more complete accounts of learning in both biological and artificial agents.

The Role of Subjective Expectations for Exhaustion and Recovery: The Sample Case of Work and Leisure

We propose a new model of exhaustion and recovery that posits that people evaluate an activity as exhausting or recovering on the basis of the subjective expectation about how exhausting or recovering activities related to a certain life domain are. To exemplify the model, we focus as a first step on the widely shared expectations that work is exhausting and leisure is recovering. We assume that the association of an activity related to a life domain associated with exhaustion (e.g., work) leads people to monitor their experiences and selectively attend to signs of exhaustion; in contrast, while pursuing an activity related to a life domain associated with recovery (e.g., leisure), people preferentially process signs of recovery. We further posit that the preferential processing of signs of exhaustion (vs. recovery) leads to experiencing more exhaustion when pursuing activities expected to be exhausting (e.g., work activities) and more recovery when pursuing activities expected to be recovering (e.g., leisure activities). This motivational process model of exhaustion and recovery provides new testable hypotheses that differ from predictions derived from limited-resource models.

Frustration-aggression hypothesis reconsidered: The role of significance quest

One of the oldest scientific theories of human aggression is the frustration-aggression hypothesis, advanced in 1939. Although this theory has received considerable empirical support and is alive and well today, its underlying mechanisms have not been adequately explored. In this article, we examine major findings and concepts from extant psychological research on hostile aggression and offer an integrative conception: aggression is a primordial means for establishing one's sense of significance and mattering, thus addressing a fundamental social-psychological need. Our functional portrayal of aggression as a means to significance yields four testable hypotheses: (1) frustration will elicit hostile aggression proportionately to the extent that the frustrated goal serves the individual's need for significance, (2) the impulse to aggress in response to significance loss will be enhanced in conditions that limit the individual's ability to reflect and engage in extensive information processing (that may bring up alternative, socially condoned means to significance), (3) significance-reducing frustration will elicit hostile aggression unless the impulse to aggress is substituted by a nonaggressive means of significance restoration, (4) apart from significance loss, an opportunity for significance gain can increase the impulse to aggress. These hypotheses are supported by extant data as well as novel research findings in real-world contexts. They have important implications for understanding human aggression and the conditions under which it is likely to be manifested and reduced.

Ramifications of behavioural complexity for habit conceptualisation, promotion, and measurement

Behavioural theories, predictions, and interventions should be relevant to complex, real-world health behaviours and conditions. Habit theory and habit formation interventions show promise for predicting and promoting, respectively, longer-term behaviour change and maintenance than has been attained with theories and interventions focused only on deliberative behavioural factors. However, the concept of habit has largely been treated as uniform across different types of behaviours. In this conceptual review, we contend that the definitional aspects of habit differ at a conceptual level for simple versus more complex behaviours, with ramifications for prediction, promotion, and measurement of habits. Specifically, habits are defined as direct context-response associations learned through repeatedly rewarded responding - but what is meant by 'response' and 'reward' depends upon the complexity of the behaviour. We review literature that suggests (1) responses in complex habits have separable and substitutable components (vs a single and static, unitary component) and (2) rewards for complex habits are necessarily continued and intrinsic (vs temporary and extrinsic, respectively). We discuss some empirical and theoretical questions raised by these issues around behavioural complexity and habit. Lastly, we outline the ramifications of these issues for habit measurement (habit strength and habit formation) via self-report and objective measures.

Beliefs About the Inevitability of Sexual Attraction Predict Stereotypes About Asexuality

Similar to other sexual minorities, asexual individuals often face prejudice and stereotyping. However, the source of these attitudes and beliefs is not well understood. We hypothesized that asexual stereotypes stem from the belief that sexual attraction is an inevitable part of human development. This attraction inevitability assumption can lead to the deduction that people who identify as asexual do so because they are going through a transitory stage or excusing socially avoidant tendencies. To test this stereotype deduction account, we examined whether specific asexual stereotypes (immaturity and non-sociality) were associated with adherence to the attraction inevitability assumption. Heterosexual participants (N = 322; 201 women, 114 men; mean age 34.6 yrs.) from the UK and the US read vignettes describing a target character that was either asexual or heterosexual. People who assumed that attraction is inevitable were more likely to evaluate asexual targets (but not heterosexual targets) as immature and non-social. The impact of the sexual inevitability assumption was present even when social dominance orientation, an attitude closely related to negativity toward all sexual minorities, was accounted for. Participants who adhered to the attraction inevitability assumption also showed a reduced inclination to befriend asexual individuals. These findings suggest that generalized negativity toward sexual minorities does not fully explain stereotypes and prejudice against asexual people. Instead, the current study highlights how perceived deviation from the shared understanding of sexuality uniquely contributes to anti-asexual bias.

The Effect of Immediacy of Expected Goal Feedback on Persistence in a Physical Task

Minimizing the temporal gap between behavior and reward enhances persistence, but the effect of other outcomes is unknown. Two concurrently run studies aimed to investigate whether persistence on a physical task would be influenced according to whether participants expected immediate versus delayed goal feedback. Furthermore, whether this effect occurs via intrinsic motivation (Studies 1 and 2) or delaying the desire-goal conflict (Study 2) was examined. Using a counterbalanced within-person design, 34 participants in each study (Study 1: 16 males, 18 females; Study 2: 15 males, 19 females) completed two wall-sit persistence tasks, one with immediate feedback expected (regarding the participant's position on a leader board) and the other with feedback expected to be provided 1 week later. A two-way mixed analysis of variance found no significant differences in persistence between conditions in either study. Furthermore, no indirect effects were found via intrinsic motivation or delayed desire-goal conflict. Study findings did not support the hypothesis that the timing of expected feedback enhances persistence.

Health and wellness for disadvantaged older adults: The AFRESH pilot study

Introduction

Older adults are unaware of the biological mechanisms that contribute to the development of disabilities, chronic conditions, and frailty, yet, when made aware, desire to employ lifestyle changes to mitigate these conditions. We developed the AFRESH health and wellness program and report on pilot testing undertaken in a local older adults apartment community.

Materials and methods

After program development, pilot testing was conducted. Participants: Older adults (N = 20; age 62+) residing in an apartment community. Procedures: Collection of baseline objective and self-report measures with a focus on physical activity; administration of the 10-week AFRESH program via weekly sessions; collection of follow-up data 12 and 36 weeks after baseline data collection. Data analysis: Descriptive statistics, growth curve analyses.

Results

Significant increases were observed for grip strength (lbs) (T1:56.2; T2:65.0 [d = 0.77]; T3:69.4 [d = 0.62], p = .001), the 6-min walk test (meters) (T1:327m: T2:388.7 m [d = 0.99]; T3:363.3 m [d = 0.60], p = .001), the Rapid Assessment of Physical Activity (RAPA) strength and flexibility score, and the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) global score. These effects showed some attenuation by the final time point.

Conclusion

By combining novel educational content (bioenergetics), facilitation of physical activity, and habit formation, AFRESH is a multicomponent intervention that shows promise for future research.

An energizing role for motivation in information-seeking during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of understanding and managing information seeking behavior. Information-seeking in humans is often viewed as irrational rather than utility maximizing. Here, we hypothesized that this apparent disconnect between utility and information-seeking is due to a latent third variable, motivation. We quantified information-seeking, learning, and COVID-19-related concern (which we used as a proxy for motivation regarding COVID-19 and the changes in circumstance it caused) in a US-based sample (n = 5376) during spring 2020. We found that self-reported levels of COVID-19 concern were associated with directed seeking of COVID-19-related content and better memory for such information. Interestingly, this specific motivational state was also associated with a general enhancement of information-seeking for content unrelated to COVID-19. These effects were associated with commensurate changes to utility expectations and were dissociable from the influence of non-specific anxiety. Thus, motivation both directs and energizes epistemic behavior, linking together utility and curiosity.

Information-seeking behavior in humans is often viewed as irrational rather than utility maximizing. Here the authors describe data obtained in Spring 2020 showing that participants’ concern about COVID-19 was related not only to their drive to seek information about the virus, but also to their curiosity about other more general topics.

A computational theory of the subjective experience of flow

Flow is a subjective state characterized by immersion and engagement in one's current activity. The benefits of flow for productivity and health are well-documented, but a rigorous description of the flow-generating process remains elusive. Here we develop and empirically test a theory of flow's computational substrates: the informational theory of flow. Our theory draws on the concept of mutual information, a fundamental quantity in information theory that quantifies the strength of association between two variables. We propose that the mutual information between desired end states and means of attaining them - [Formula: see text] - gives rise to flow. We support our theory across five experiments (four preregistered) by showing, across multiple activities, that increasing [Formula: see text] increases flow and has important downstream benefits, including enhanced attention and enjoyment. We rule out alternative constructs including alternative metrics of associative strength, psychological constructs previously shown to predict flow, and various forms of instrumental value.

The Structure of Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation (IM) is key for persistence at work. When they are intrinsically motivated, people experience work activities as an end in itself, such that the activity and its goal collide. The result is increased interest and enjoyment of work activities. In this article, we review the current state of knowledge on IM, including studies within organizational, cognitive, and social psychology. We distinguish our structural perspective, which defines IM as the overlap between means and ends (e.g., the means-ends fusion model), from content-based approaches to study IM. We specifically discuss three questions: ( a) What is IM and why does it matter, ( b) how can individuals and organizations increase IM, and ( c) what biases and misconceptions do employees and managers hold about IM?

The disturbance of desire-goal motivational dynamics during different exercise intensity domains

PURPOSE

The desire-goal motivational conflict helps explain endurance performance, however, the physiological concomitants are unknown. The present study examined disturbances in desire to reduce effort and performance goal value across moderate, heavy, and severe exercise intensity domains, demarcated by the first (LT1) and second (LT2) lactate thresholds. In addition, the within-person relationships between blood lactate concentration, heart rate and desire-goal conflict were examined.

METHODS

Thirty participants (53% female, M_age = 21.03 years; SD = 2.06 years) completed an incremental cycling exercise test, in which work-rate was increased by 25 watts every four minutes, until voluntary exhaustion or sufficient data from the severe intensity domain had been collected. Desire to reduce effort, performance goal value, blood lactate concentration (for determination of LT1 and LT2) and heart rate were measured at the end of each stage and analyzed using multilevel models.

RESULTS

The desire to reduce effort increased over the exercise test with additional shifts and accelerations after each lactate threshold. The performance goal did not show general declines, nor did it shift at LT1. However, the performance goal value shifted at LT2, and the rate of change increased at both thresholds. Within-person variation in blood lactate concentration positively correlated with the desire to reduce effort and negatively correlated with the performance goal. Within-person variation in heart rate correlated with desire to reduce effort but not the performance goal.

CONCLUSION

Transitioning through both lactate thresholds are important phases for motivation during progressive exercise, particularly for the desire to reduce effort. Within-person variation in blood lactate concentration is more influential for motivation, compared to heart rate.

Intrinsic motivation in exercise: A concept analysis

AIM

To explore the concept of intrinsic motivation in exercise as it pertains to nursing.

BACKGROUND

Exercise is an integral part of treating and preventing chronic diseases, and yet the vast majority of adults do not adequately meet endorsed exercise recommendations. Evaluating motivation for exercise assists in the effort to promote sustained exercise participation. Intrinsic motivation speaks to the innate drive for an action or behavior. Intrinsic motivation has previously been evaluated in various disciplines including nursing, education, exercise science, medicine, and psychology. The combination of intrinsic motivation and exercise can be applied in the nursing discipline to evaluate, predict, and impact behavior change.

DESIGN

Concept analysis using Walker and Avant (2019) methodology.

DATA SOURCE

PubMed, CINAHL, and PsychINFO. Articles from the years 2011 to 2020 were included.

REVIEW METHODS

Literature from multiple disciplines was synthesized to explore the concept of intrinsic motivation in the context of exercise.

RESULTS

Characteristics of intrinsic motivation, their attributes, antecedents, and consequences were identified. The concept analysis represents a consensus of the identified literature providing a concise description of intrinsic motivation with exercise. Four vital attributes were identified in the literature and became the basis of the concept analysis; self-efficacy, competence, self-determination, and satisfaction.

CONCLUSION

This concept analysis provides a foundation from which to create nursing interventions aimed at fostering intrinsic motivation for exercise. Expansion of our knowledge of intrinsic motivation, in the context of exercise, has the potential to enhance approaches used by nurses and nurse providers to affect healthy behavior changes.

Attitudes, Habits, and Behavior Change

Efforts to guide peoples' behavior toward environmental sustainability, good health, or new products have emphasized informational and attitude change strategies. There is evidence that changing attitudes leads to changes in behavior, yet this approach takes insufficient account of the nature and operation of habits, which form boundary conditions for attitude-directed interventions. Integration of research on attitudes and habits might enable investigators to identify when and how behavior change strategies will be most effective. How might attitudinally driven behavior change be consolidated into lasting habits? How do habits protect the individual against the vicissitudes of attitudes and temptations and promote goal achievement? How might attitudinal approaches aiming to change habits be improved by capitalizing on habit discontinuities and strategic planning? When and how might changing or creating habit architecture shape habits directly? A systematic approach to these questions might help move behavior change efforts from attitude change strategies to habit change strategies. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 73 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Goal Changes and Healthy Aging

This article discusses ways in which aging individuals respond to physical, social, and environmental changes and constraints by modifying their goals. We review aging-related trends, which we derive from several theoretical approaches, including goal systems theory, the motivational theory of life-span development and its action-phase model, and the Selection, Optimization, and Compensation model. These theories explain how biological and social role changes in later adulthood prompt individuals to make changes to the content, orientation, and composition of their goals, including disengaging from and adjusting previously central goals. They also help identify individual differences in the capacity to do so effectively. We review several motivation-related interventions that address the challenges in goal adjustment and call for more research on identifying processes of goal changes conducive to healthy aging, more interventions, and modifications of societal and institutional (e.g., workplace, nursing home) operations that support adaptive goal change in older adults.

Motivation and Healthy Aging: A Heuristic Model

Building on the seminal definition of "healthy aging" by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2015; 2020), we present a model of motivation and healthy aging that is aimed at identifying the central psychological constructs and processes for understanding what older persons value, and how they can attain and maintain these valued aspects of their lives. This model places goals at its center, and then proceeds from motivational processes of goal setting, pursuit, and disengagement, to contextual factors (cultural, social, technological, physical, organizational, and life-history related aspects) that provide opportunities and constraints to the healthy aging of individuals. We briefly introduce each of these constructs and processes, thereby setting the scene for the articles included in this supplement that each address one or more of the facets of the heuristic model of motivation and healthy aging.

Belief in Altruistic Motives Predicts Prosocial Actions and Inferences

Are humans ever truly altruistic? Or are all actions, however noble, ultimately motivated by self-interest? Psychologists and philosophers have long grappled with this question, but few have considered laypeople's beliefs about the nature of prosocial motives. Here we examine these beliefs and their social correlates across two experiments (N = 445). We find that people tend to believe humans can be, and frequently are, altruistically motivated-echoing prior work. Moreover, people who more strongly believe in altruistic motives act more prosocially themselves-for instance, sacrificing greater amounts of money and time to help others-a relationship that holds even when controlling for trait empathy. People who believe in altruistic motives also judge other prosocial agents to be more genuinely kind, especially when agents' motives are ambiguous. Lastly, people independently show a self-serving bias-believing their own motives for prosociality are more often altruistic than others'. Overall, this work suggests that believing in altruistic motives predicts the extent to which people both see altruism and act prosocially, possibly reflecting the self-fulfilling nature of such lay theories.

The pleasure principle Why (some) people develop a taste for politics: Evidence from a preregistered experiment

Existing theories struggle when political engagement is an end in itself. To explain intrinsically motivated engagement in politics, this study synthesizes psychological theories to deduce a need-based theory of political motivation. It posits that intrinsic political motivation has roots in seemingly apolitical processes of need satisfaction that are universal and deeply ingrained in the human psyche. However, in a high-powered survey experiment, 14 of 15 preregistered analytical tests did not yield the expected evidence for the basic tenet that previous need-related experiences with politics affect the quality and quantity of future activities in the political domain. Showcasing a stepwise approach to engage with null results in hypothesis-driven research, post hoc analyses solidify the null findings, which call into question the validity of the presented theory and the previous evidence on which it was built. This study thus enhances our understanding of what does and does not underlie intrinsic motivation for political engagement.

Task Enjoyment as an Individual Difference Construct

Are there individual differences in the tendency to enjoy tasks regardless of the tasks' contents or situational determinants? To answer this question, we constructed and validated the six-item Trait Task Enjoyment Scale (TTES). In Study 1, it had an internally consistent one-factor structure (pooled N = 997); good test-retest reliabilities over 1 and 4 months; measurement invariance regarding gender (strong) and time (partial strong); and was not redundant with respect to a large number of theoretically related constructs. In Studies 2 and 3, the TTES predicted self-reported momentary task enjoyment, one of its opposites, boredom, and voluntary persistence in a free-choice paradigm. It did so for various tasks, including thirty diverse tasks presented in vignettes and a memory task in the lab. Results suggest that the TTES may predict momentary task enjoyment regardless of objective task aversiveness or, in this case, equally well for tasks with boring or enjoyable contents. The TTES addresses an important gap in current research on task enjoyment and is an adequately valid and reliable research tool.

Habitual Behavior Is Goal-Driven

We address the relation between goal-driven and habitual behaviors. Whereas in recent years the two have been juxtaposed, we suggest that habitual behavior is in fact goal-driven. To support this view, we show that habitual behavior is sensitive to changes in goal properties (reward contingencies), namely goal value and its expectancy of attainment. Whereas adjustment to these properties may be slower for habitual (or overlearned) than for nonhabitual behavior, this is likely due to the routinized (or automatic) nature of such behavior, characterized as it is by reduced attention to its consequences. Furthermore, we show that habitual behavior’s prolonged persistence despite its manifest detachment from the original goal likely stems from its attachment to a different goal. Thus, there is no need to postulate purposeless behavior. The view that habitual behavior is goal-driven offers an integrative account of a considerable body of evidence and is consistent with a functional account of psychological processes.

The white-eared opossum failed to understand the parallel strings task: studying a primitive mammal under natural conditions

The present study aimed to investigate if the white-eared opossum under natural conditions is capable of spontaneously solving the parallel string task. The experimental study with this primitive mammal was carried out on fifteen naïve animals of both sexes in northeastern Brazil. The parallel strings task was arranged in apparatuses with a vertical and a horizontal arrangement. A food reward (a slice of banana) was connected at the extremity of one string. A total of 505 videos were recorded using trap cameras. Despite the observed interest in obtaining the bait, the number of attempts to reach it and the use of the strings as support (trying to directly reach the bait in the vertical apparatus), the individuals were unable to pull any of the strings, suggesting that they could not understand the problem. The present study points to the relevance of using the species Didelphis albiventris and other species from this family (e.g., D. virginiana) to broaden our knowledge about the cognitive capacity of mammalian species. In addition, the opossums might represent an advisable path to better understand the evolution of cognition in this group.

Spiritual Leadership on Proactive Workplace Behavior: The Role of Organizational Identification and Psychological Safety

This study investigates whether and why spiritual leadership may contribute to enhanced proactive employee workplace behavior. Based on self-determination theory (SDT), we examine the effects of two sequential mediators (i.e., organizational identification and psychological safety) on the relationship between spiritual leadership and proactive workplace behavior. Data collected from 188 subordinate-leader dyads in Chinese firms suggested that spiritual leadership has a significant positive effect on proactive workplace behavior. In addition, both organizational identification and psychological safety mediate the relationship between spiritual leadership and proactive workplace behavior. Furthermore, spiritual leadership positively influences organizational identification, and such identification nurtures psychological safety, which, in turn, fosters the proactive behavior of employees. It extends the existing impact of spiritual leadership to proactive workplace behavior and shed lights on the mediating mechanisms through which spiritual leadership exerts influences on proactive workplace behavior. Finally, it considers the important roles played by leaders in modern organizations.