First on the List: Effectiveness at Self-Regulation and Prioritizing Difficult Exercise Goal Pursuit

Delose, Julie E.; vanDellen, Michelle R.; Hoyle, Rick H.

doi:10.1080/15298868.2014.983442

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…This question highlights an important aspect of goal pursuit—deciding when to complete which tasks. For example, people high (vs. low) in trait self-control prefer to do challenging exercises earlier in the day, presumably because that is when they have more regulatory resources (Delose, vanDellen, & Hoyle, 2015; Kouchaki & Smith, 2014). Similarly, Scholer and Miele (2016) show that when given a prevention (vs. promotion) preparatory exercise, people prefer to complete vigilant (vs. eager) tasks.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metamotivational knowledge of the role of high-level and low-level construal in goal-relevant task performance.

Nguyen¹,

Carnevale²,

Scholer³

et al. 2019

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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Metamotivation research suggests that people may be able to modulate their motivational states strategically to secure desired outcomes (Scholer & Miele, 2016). To regulate one’s motivational states effectively, one must at minimum understand (a) which states are more or less beneficial for a given task and (b) how to instantiate these states. In the current article, we examine to what extent people understand the self-regulatory benefits of high-level versus low-level construal (i.e., motivational orientations toward abstract and essential vs. concrete and idiosyncratic features). Seven experiments revealed that participants can distinguish tasks that entail high-level versus low-level construal. Further, participants recognized the usefulness of preparatory exercises with which to instantiate high-level versus low-level construal for task performance, and this knowledge predicted behavioral choices. This research highlights novel insights that the metamotivational approach offers to research on construal level theory and, more broadly, to the study of self-regulation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metamotivational knowledge of the role of high-level and low-level construal in goal-relevant task performance.

Nguyen¹,

Carnevale²,

Scholer³

et al. 2019

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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“…Due to this difference, high-intensity physical activity may be less susceptible to changes in self-control fluctuations across the day, particularly since the timing of these activities may often be externally driven (e.g., scheduled sports games or gym classes), habitual or planned ahead of time. Limited willpower theorists who are poor at self-regulation may, in fact, be more like to plan their exercise for later in the day (Delose et al., 2015), despite holding weaker intentions to be physically active and typically being more sedentary during these later hours. Future research should further explore how the processes motivating organic daily physical activity (e.g., walking) differ from the processes motivating more intensive, perhaps formally scheduled exercises.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morning resolutions, evening disillusions: Theories of willpower affect how health behaviours change across the day

et al. 2020

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People may be more or less vulnerable to changes in self-control across the day, depending on whether they believe willpower is more or less limited. Limited willpower beliefs might be associated with steeper decreases in self-control across the day, which may result in less goal-consistent behaviour by the evening. Community members with health goals (Sample 1; N = 160; 1814 observations) and students (Sample 2; N = 162; 10,581 observations) completed five surveys per day for one to three weeks, reporting on their recent physical activity, snacking, subjective state, and health intentions. In both samples, more limited willpower beliefs were associated with less low- and moderate-intensity physical activity, particularly later in the day. Limited willpower beliefs were also associated with more snacking in the evenings (Sample 1) or overall (Sample 2). These behavioural patterns were mediated by differential changes in self-efficacy and intentions across the course of the day (in Sample 1), and the above patterns of low- and moderate-physical intensity held after controlling for related individual differences, including trait self-control and chronotype (in Sample 2). Overall, more limited willpower theories were associated with decreasing goal-consistent behaviour as the day progressed, alongside decreasing self-efficacy and weakening health-goal intentions.

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“…For example, rather than simply bolstering the overall strength of their motivation, people can also instantiate the particular motivational state that best fits the demands of the current task (e.g., MacGregor et al, 2017;Nguyen, Carnevale et al, 2019;Scholer & Miele, 2016). In addition, rather than attempting to change their motivation in some way (whether it be quantitatively or qualitatively), they can choose a particular task to engage in that they think will benefit from the kind of motivation they are currently experiencing (Scholer & Miele, 2016; see also Delose, vanDellen, & Hoyle, 2015). On the other hand, the fact that people know about the differential benefits of promotion vs. prevention, autonomy vs. control, and high-vs low-level construal also helps to expand our understanding of regulatory focus theory, self-determination theory, and construal level theory.…”

Section: Implications Advancing Motivation Science Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metamotivation: Emerging research on the regulation of motivational states

Miele

Scholer

Fujita

2020

Advances in Motivation Science

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Until recently, research examining the self-regulation of motivation focused primarily on the strategies people use to bolster the amount of motivation they have for pursuing a task goal.In contrast, our metamotivational framework highlights the importance of also examining if people recognize which qualitatively distinct types of motivation (e.g., promotion vs. prevention) are most helpful for achieving their goal, given the demands of the task or situation. At the heart of this framework is the idea that any given motivational state involves performance tradeoffs, such that it may be relatively beneficial for some tasks, but detrimental for others. In this piece, we review research suggesting that, on average, people (a) possess metamotivational knowledge of such tradeoffs (particularly those posited by regulatory focus theory, self-determination theory, and construal level theory), (b) recognize strategies that could be used to induce adaptive motivational states, and (c) implement this knowledge (at times) to increase the likelihood of performance success. We also discuss future directions for metamotivation research, including whether and when individual differences in metamotivational knowledge predict real-world outcomes, how such metamotivational knowledge develops, and whether there is a general metamotivational competency that predicts people's sensitivity to a broad range of motivationally-relevant performance tradeoffs.

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First on the List: Effectiveness at Self-Regulation and Prioritizing Difficult Exercise Goal Pursuit

Cited by 11 publications

References 79 publications

Metamotivational knowledge of the role of high-level and low-level construal in goal-relevant task performance.

Metamotivational knowledge of the role of high-level and low-level construal in goal-relevant task performance.

Morning resolutions, evening disillusions: Theories of willpower affect how health behaviours change across the day

Metamotivation: Emerging research on the regulation of motivational states

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