Psych 314 Exam 3

What is an effective to-do list for achieving goals?

goal -> sub-goals -> specific tasks

How does culture influence the development of the fixed vs. growth mindset?

Individualistic encourages fixed, collectivistic encourages growth

What are positive illusions? What are examples of positive illusions?

unrealistic optimism, unrealistically positive views of the self, illusion of control

How do emotion focus coping, self-handicapping, and low self-control contribute to procrastination?

1. Both emotion focused coping and procrastination help use escape the stress of the task; if you are concerned with your performance you may seek "help" from procrastination when you are actually handicapping yourself in the process; some people have an issue with delaying gratification or easily distracted so challenging projects are difficult for them leading to procrastination

What is the difference between efficacy and outcome expectations?

1. Efficacy is if you have the ability to produce the outcome (can you do it) outcome is if the outcome will produce the desired result (will it work)

Why are difficult, specific, and congruent goals the most effective goals?

1. Expend more effort, increase persistence, provide more emotional pay-off; guide planning, know exactly what to do, better sense of how to change your plan; reflect your values, intrinsic motivation is better than extrinsic

What is an implementation intention, and why does it help people reach goals?

1. Expression of how you intend to implement your goal and make it happen (If...then statements); it will allow for the intentions to come quickly and automatically and allows for responses to be thought out for problems beforehand (how to deal with temptations when dieting)

Pham & Taylor (1997): What did they do? What did they find?

1. Participants were given a task and then asked to do one of the following (nothing, thinking about achieving the goal, and think about how to attain the goal); those who thought about the process had an enhanced performance

What are the promotion and prevention mindsets? What are characteristics of each mindset? How do they each affect motivation?

1. Promotion=you want to acquire success and gains, focused on rewarding experiences, prevention=you want to avoid failures, focus on responsibility and duty

What is temporal motivation theory and how does it explain procrastination?

1. Reward/time=expectancy x value/(1+impulsiveness)xdelay; we like to do things that we think will be enjoyable, what's your chance of success, how far in the future is it

What is discrepancy reduction? What is discrepancy creation? How are the similar? How are they different?

1. Something in your environment makes you aware of the discrepancy (Overcoming a deficiency); you decide that you want to change your life in some way (growing and developing); involves feedback loops

What is explanatory style? What's the difference between optimistic and pessimistic explanatory styles?

1. The idea that people have a characteristic way of making attributions for events; optimistic=bad things are controllable and unstable, pessimistic=bad things are uncontrollable and stable

Diener & Dweck (1978): What they did and what they found. How they created learned helplessness

1. They showed people cards with features and had them guess a specific feature, given either true or false feedback, those given false answers solved fewer problems after

Tice and Baumeister (1997): Why did they do the study? What did they do? What did they find? What were the limitations of the study?

1. To see the costs of procrastination; Measured procrastination, stress symptoms, and grades at the beginning and end of semester; procrastinators turned in later papers and had lower grades

What are mastery beliefs? What is a mastery orientation? What is a helpless orientation?

1. Your beliefs regarding whether you have control over either the good or bad outcomes of your life; you believe you have control over the outcomes of your behavior

What is self-efficacy, and why does it matter?

1. Your perception of how you will deal with a situation given your level of ability and circumstances of the situation; if you have high SE you will focus on dealing with setbacks while low SE will get anxious and fearful

What can cause a person to have or lose self-efficacy?

1. behavior history, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological state

What can you do to stop procrastinating and get? Why do these suggestions work?

1. don't wait to be in the mood, don't say that you'll do it tomorrow, just get started; you will never be in the mood or do it tomorrow so you just need to get started

What is a mindset? What's the difference between a state mindset and a trait mindset?

A cognitive framework that influences your thoughts about yourself and your environment; trait=long lasting state=short-lived

What is a plan of action?

A strategy to reduce the discrepancy between a current state and a hoped-for future state

What else do you sometimes need in addition to a goal in order to achieve a goal?

Ability, training in new skills, mentor/coach, and resources

What is a discrepancy, and what role does emotion play when trying to reduce the discrepancy?

An incongruity that, if large enough, makes us want to change; they provide motivation (work to eliminate negative or acquire positive emotions)

Rosenbaum et al (2014): What they do? What did they find?

Asked students to walk down an alley and pick one of two buckets at two different positions to the end of the alley; people picked up the closer bucket

Why is feedback important when striving for goals?

Boost self-efficacy, lets you know you need to change, and provides emotional rewards and punishment

Why is it important to think about how to achieve your goal in addition to creating a goal?

Because goals are hard so it is very helpful to think of the specific things you are going to do to make this goal come to fruition

What is learned helplessness?

Belief that you have no control over the outcomes of your actions

How do you develop a growth mindset?

Believe that you can change, don't pass up a challenge, focus on learning (not outcomes), persist in the face of setbacks, and don't be afraid of feedback

What are the consequences of procrastinating for your physical and emotional health?

Can lead to stress, lower well-being, and putting off seeing the doctor

What is the classic view of bias in mental health? What is the modern view?

Classical=Unbiased is healthy, modern=positive bias is healthy

Sirois (2015): What did she do? What did she find?

Compared healthy adults with adults with heart disease; the group with the heart disease measured higher in procrastination

What qualities does a good implementation intention possess?

Consider possible problems and remembers the situation you're in

What are the deliberative and implemental mindsets? What are characteristics of each mindset? How do they each affect motivation?

Deliberative=considering all options implemental=take action towards chosen goal; deliberative=thinking carefully, open minded, judging, and assessing implemental=no longer thinking carefully, close-minded, not thinking of alternatives, goal is viewed optimistically;

What is cognitive dissonance? What is it and what are its basic tenets? How do we typically reduce it?

Discomfort that people feel when 2 cognitions conflict or when they behave in ways that are inconsistent with their conception of themselves

How will your mastery orientation affect dealing with failure, dealing with challenges, dealing with negative feedback, and the meaning of failure?

Doesn't give up, don't give up, work harder, gives useful info

What is precrastination and why do people precrastinate?

Doing things quickly to get them done

How can positive illusions benefit well-being? When can they be harmful?

Enhance close relationships and facilitate productive work

What are attributions? What are the dimensions of attribution?

Explanation for why something has happened; locus, stability, controllability

How does the fixed-growth mindset influence your approach to goals?

Fixed =focus on performance; growth=focus on mastery

What is the fixed mindset? What is the growth mindset? How do they influence effort, motivation, response to feedback, and explanations for behavior?

Fixed=think personal qualities are set and unchanging; growth=think personal qualities are changed thru effort

What is a goal, and what does a goal help you do?

Future-focused cognitive representation of a desired end state; provides motivation, focus attention, and guide behavior

What's the difference between goals and achievement goals? What are the two types of achievement goals, and how are they related to the fixed-growth mindset? How can you encourage people to have mastery goals?

Goal=what you want, achievement goal=why you are trying to do it; mastery and performance

What is hope?

How is it defined in terms of personal control beliefs? Being motivated to achieve a goal and that the goal will achieve the desired result

How do attributions influence motivation?

How you define something determines how you approach it in the future

Why are sub-goals important when striving for goals?

Increase motivation because they are temporally closer than a person's final goal is

Gollwitzer & Kinney (1990): What did they do? What did they find?

Mindsets were manipulated then asked to complete a story; the mindsets they were conditioned in was how the participants completed the story

Alloy & Abramsom (1979): What did they do? What did they find? Who was biased in the experiment?

Participants had buttons to control light and then asked to estimate how much control they had over the light;

Under what conditions is it best to have the deliberative mindset? The implemental mindset?

People in the deliberative mindset are more attentive while implemental mindset strive more to complete the goal

Procrastination: What is it? How many people do it?

Voluntary delay of an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay; 20-25% of gen pop and 50% of college

Why is self-efficacy different than the need for competence?

SE is very specific and competence is broad

Seligman & Maier (1967): What they did and what they found. How they created learned helplessness

Studied helplessness behavior in dogs by shocking them

What are TOTE and Correction Motivation models?

TOTE=Older rigid model of how a plan of action can work (test-operate-test-exit) Correction Motivation=modern view in which people are active decision makers who can change their plans

What are mental simulations?

The process of achieving a goal produces more successful progress than just thinking about the outcome of the goal

What is cognitive psychology, and why is it relevant to motivation?

The study of how people think, focusing on the mind and mental events; how you perceive yourself and your environment will strongly influence motivation

Festinger & Carlsmith (1957): What did they do? What did they find?

They did a boring task then asked them to ask tell the next person it was fun with then rated how enjoyable it was; those with little money enjoyed it more

Gilbert et al (1998): What did they do? What did they find?

They examined the actual and expected impact of breaking up with a romantic partner; participants who broke up were just as happy as those who hadn't

How is perception of control related to depression?

Those moderately depressed have accurate view of control

What causes someone to have a fixed vs. growth mindset?

What causes someone to have a fixed vs. growth mindset?

Why is it sometimes important to give up on goals?

What could happen if you don't? some goals can't be achieved; risk of distress

What happens if you have low self-efficacy in an area and never make any efforts in that area?

Your SE will remain low

How does self-efficacy influence you?

choice of activities, effort and persistence, thinking and decision making, and emotionality

What are characteristics of people with learned helplessness?

lack of contingency, biased cognitions, passive behavior

What are the consequences of learned helplessness?

motivational deficits, learning deficits, emotional deficits

What causes someone to have a trait promotion or prevention mindset?

parental experiences

What can you do to keep yourself moving and not stop? Why do these suggestions work?

plan for problems, minimize distractions; boost self-control, don't push yourself too hard;

What are the different types of cognitive dissonance? Explain how they cause dissonance and what can be done to reduce it.

post-decisional regret, effort justification, insufficient justification, Ben Franklin effect

What are the three qualities that make a goal desirable?

rewards, likelihood, costs