Abstracts

Dorena Amann, Steffen Giessner, Hugo M. Kehr, Technische Universität München, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Transformational Leadership Styles x Followers’ Corresponding Implicit Motives = Effective Leadership

Transformational leadership scholars hypothesized that executives are able to arouse their followers’ unconscious affiliation, power, and achievement motives by applying transformational leadership styles. However, this hypothesis has not yet been proven empirically. Thus, the aim of our research was to bridge this gap in transformational leadership research by establishing conceptual links of transformational leadership styles and specific motives. By focusing on distinct styles of transformational leadership rather than transformational leadership as an unidimensional concept, we hypothesized that the power motive is aroused by inspirational motivation and idealized influence; individualized consideration stimulates the affiliation motive; and the achievement motive is aroused by intellectual stimulation. To test these assumptions, we conducted a literature and an online study which supported our assumed relations. Moreover, the results of two experimental studies (N = 117 and N = 160) demonstrate that the strength of followers’ affiliation motive moderates the relation between individualized consideration and performance and that the strength of followers’ power motive moderates the relation between inspirational motivation and performance as well as between idealized influence and performance. Findings were inconsistent for the moderator effect of followers’ achievement motive on the relation between intellectual stimulation and performance. The results are discussed regarding the underlying mechanisms of effective transformational leadership.

Jutta Heckhausen, University of California, Irvine

Motivation and Life-Span Development: Goal Engagement and Disengagement in an Age-Structured Field of Action

My research addresses motivational processes involved in development across the life span. Our Motivational Theory of Life-Span Development (Heckhausen & Schulz, 1995; Heckhausen, Wrosch, & Schulz, 2010; Schulz & Heckhausen, 1996) has influenced an abundance of empirical studies over the past two decades. The theory addresses the role of individual motivation in the context of life-span development and raises specific propositions about adaptive vs. maladaptive developmental regulation. We use quasi-experimental designs to study the motivational adaptation of individuals to developmental transitions when opportunities for major developmental goals arise or vanish. Exemplar life-course transitions addressed in our research are those associated with the "biological clock", the progression from school to work, and with changes associated with illness, disability, and rehabilitation. I am intrigued by the ability of people at all ages to adapt to and make the most of these changes. However, people also differ in their competence to regulate, and thus my research aims at identifying the basic building blocks of individual differences that lead some to loss and despair and others along adaptive paths to successful development. In the near future, I would like to explore the role of individual differences in implicit motives in developmental regulation. Different phases of the life span are more or less challenging to volitional self-regulation. Presumably implicit motives congruent with what is on-time during a given phase of life would greatly promote goal pursuit, whereas implicit motives which are in conflict of or compete with urgent goal pursuits will detract from successfully navigating the life phase or transition. Moreover, juggling implicit and explicit motivation is likely a highly challenging self-regulatory skill, which deserves life-span developmental study in its own right.

Marcel Herrmann, Veronika Brandstätter, University of Zurich

The Action Crisis – A Functional Perspective on the Area of Tension Between Motivation and Volition

Disengagement from a goal relevant to an individual’s identity frequently results from a lengthy and difficult process that ultimately climaxes in a “psychic earthquake that will send shudders and rumbles through the person’s life” (Klinger, 1977, p. 137). The critical phase that precedes goal disengagement, typically follows from a loss in the perceived attainability and/or desirability of the goal, and is characterized by being caught in the decision between further goal pursuit and disengagement from the goal is defined as action crisis.Experiencing an action crisis in a personally relevant goal has been associated with a change in the cognitive orientation (cf. mindset; Gollwitzer, 1990), interferences with the pursuit of the goal, and declines in health and well-being. Initial longitudinal evidence on the prevention and resolution of action crises in personal goals underscores the significance of self-regulatory abilities (i.e., action orientation; Kuhl, 1984). After a general overview of the theoretical and empirical foundation of the concept of an action crisis, the focus of the presentation is shifted towards hitherto unpublished data of a longitudinal study over an 18-month period. Preliminary results not merely corroborate the role of an action crisis as a predictor of goal disengagement (in different areas of life) but point to a possible self-regulatory function of the conflict with respect to the setting of substitutive goals (after a goal has been relinquished).

Hugo M. Kehr, Peter Gröpel, Ina Melny, Maika Rawolle, Anja Schiepe-Tiska, Susanne Steiner, Technische Universität München

Motivation = Implicit Motives x Explicit Motives x Abilities: The compensatory model of motivation and volition as a frame of reference for research and practical application

I introduce the compensatory model of work motivation and volition (Kehr, AMR, 2004). The structural components of the model are implicit motives, explicit motives, and perceived abilities; the functional processes are volitional regulation (compensating for inadequate motivation) and problem solving (compensating for inadequate perceived abilities). Predictions derived from the compensatory model challenge and extend existing conceptions of diverse motivational phenomena: flow experience, implicit/explicit motive discrepancies, the depletion of will-power, the undermining of intrinsic motivation, and the motivating power of visions. Regarding flow, implicit motives, and affective and cognitive preferences are conceptualized as important ingredients of flow, which goes beyond the well-known ability/demand fit. Regarding the consequences of dysfunctional motive constellations such as implicit/explicit motive discrepancies or high implicit fear motives, we expect psychological conflict, impaired well-being, and the depletion of will-power. Regarding the undermining effect, we expect extrinsic rewards which thematically match the intrinsically motivated task at hand lead to enhanced instead of corrupted intrinsic motivation. Regarding visions (i.e., mental images of one's future), to be motivationally effective by arousing a person's implicit motives, detectable in characteristic physiological and implicit motivational reactions. We conducted a series of experiments as well as field studies in the management domain to test these propositions. In sum, the results of these studies support the basic tenets of the compensatory model. In terms of application, the compensatory model is being used as a reference point for motivation management on different levels of the organizations. We developed self-management training for the individual level; "leadership by motivation", a management training program, for the team level; and "motivation for change", a change program based on the compensatory model, for the organizational level. We report actual initiatives in using and evaluating these programs.

Arie Kruglanski, University of Maryland

Food for Thought: The Energizing of Motivated Cognition

I will describe our Cognitive Energetics Theory (CET) and review some recent evidence for its postulates. The CET pertains to a broad variety of phenomena in social judgment and self-regulation. It is based on a Force-Field analysis of motivated cognition, comprising of a driving force that needs to at least match in magnitude a restraining force that resists the activity’s completion. The CET is consistent with a large corpus of empirical evidence across different domains of social cognition. I will describe briefly two research streams that apply it to the topic of motivated reasoning and retrieval induced forgetting.

Jonas Lang, Sophie den Hartog, Ute Hülsheger, Filip Lievens, Ghent University, Maastricht University

Implicit Leader Motives and Transformational-Transactional Leadership: Toward an Integrative Theory

Organizational researchers have long been interested in the implicit motivational foundations of successful leadership. This presenation integrates two traditions in leadership research by suggesting that transformational and transactional leadership channel the expression of implicit leader motives (as measured by coding imaginative verbal behavior of leaders) such that both interact in the prediction of leadership outcomes. A study using a diverse sample (N = 307; 111 leaders, 197 followers) from various organizations tested (a) the idea that low levels of implicit affiliation needs enable transformational leaders to be effective, and (b) the notion that implicit power motivation leads to successful leadership when it is aligned with follower interests through high levels of transactional leadership. Results revealed that each of these two interaction effects predicted two of three outcome criteria in followers (organizational citizenship behavior, counterproductive work behavior, and procedural justice perceptions). These findings provide novel insights into how leader behaviors and motivational processes work together in effective leadership.

Edwin Locke, University of Maryland

Understanding the Relationship between the Conscious and the Subconscious

Much confusion has been generated by determinists, especially neuroscientists and psychologists who study priming. They argue that our lives are controlled almost entirely by the subconscious. I will show that this is wrong and that action is characteristically regulated by the conscious and subconscious working together. I will also discuss the process of theory building, contrasting goal setting and self efficacy theories with priming which is in great need of proper theory-building.

Anna Oostendorp, Johan Karremans, John Lydon, Technische Universität München, Radboud University Nijmegen, McGill University, Montreal

Exploring the Underlying Mechanisms of Relationship-Guarding Effects

Several cognitive and behavioral effects protect individuals involved in a committed romantic relationship from the temptation of an attractive opposite-sex alternative. For instance, it was repeatedly shown that romantically involved individuals perceive this alternative as less attractive (derogation effect).
Prior research implicitly assumed that the derogation effect occurs as a response to the subjective threat the attractive alternative poses to the relationship. However, the existence of this subjective threat has not been empirically shown. We hypothesized that the threat of the attractive alternative leads to a preventive regulatory focus, which is related to loss avoidance and vigilance for threat. The present research had two goals: first, to replicate the derogation effect, and second, to test whether the threat of an attractive alternative elicits a prevention focus in romantically committed individuals.
We showed a short video of an attractive opposite-sex other versus an unattractive or same-sex control person and measured situational regulatory focus and perceived attractiveness of the person in the video.
First, we replicated the derogation effect: romantically involved participants rated the attractive alternatives as less attractive than the persons in the control videos, and as less attractive than singles rated them. However, our hypothesis with regard to prevention focus could not be confirmed. This might imply that the the derogation effect occurs at a very basic stage of processing, before the emergence of a situational prevention focus or conscious perceptions of threats. Further alternative explanations are discussed.

Joyce Pang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

An Examination of McClelland's Emotion-Specificity Hypothesis for Implicit Approach and Avoidant Achievement Motivation

Theories of implicit motivation generally assume that motivationally-relevant situations contain affectively-rewarding incentives or affectively-aversive disincentives, and that motivated action elicits anticipatory as well as consummatory affect. Additionally, McClelland (1975) hypothesized that each of the Big Three motives is linked to a specific emotion (e.g., interest) which acts as a natural incentive for that motive (e.g., nachievement). Previous research on McClelland's emotion-specificity hypothesis (e.g., Zurbriggen & Sturman, 2002) used self-report measures of specific emotions and found some support of emotion-specificity for npower and naffiliation, but not for nachievement. Previous work also did not examine emotion-specificity for approach versus avoidant motives. We seek to improve on previous research by a) using non self-report measures for dimensions of affect rather than self-reports of discrete emotions, b) examining affective-specificity for approach as well as avoidant motives, and c) focussing on nachievement, which is an obvious knowledge gap in the already sparsely-populated literature on the emotion-specificity hypothesis (c.f., Woike et al., 1999; Zurbriggen & Sturman, 2002). Finally, our research also examines the link between motive activation and anticipatory versus consummatory affect. We arouse approach (Hope of Success, HS) and avoidant (Fear of Failure, FF) nachievement using visualization, then assess affect using the IPANAT (Quirin et al., 2009) and SAM (Bradley & Lang, 1994) after the anticipatory and the consummatory phases of visualization. We hypothesized that HS would be linked to positive affect and FF linked to negative affect and that they would show different levels of arousal, pleasure, and dominance at the anticipatory versus the consummatory stages.

Markus Quirin, Jessica Schomberg, Katharina Schinke, Julius Kuhl, Universität Osnabrück

A Blow for Motives in Social Neuroscience: The Case of Sex, Love, & Power

According to a prevalent model left cortex activity is associated with approach motivation but the empirical findings are inconsistent. We assume that this is at least partly due to the fact that this research did not differentiate between different classes of approach motivation. We will review empirical evidence predominantly from our lab suggesting that the left cortex is associated with power & sexual motivation whereas the right cortex is associated with affiliation motivation. In addition, we provide evidence that power & sexual motivation reduces the breadth of cognitive processing (e.g., tunnel vision), whereas affiliation increases the breadth of cognitive processing (e.g., remote associates). The findings demonstrate the importance of considering social motives in affective and motivation neuroscience.

Oliver Schultheiss, Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen

One Person’s Poison, Another One’s Pleasure: The Fundamental Variability of Motivational Incentives Between and Within Individuals

Many researchers employ incentive stimuli in their studies based on the implicit or explicit assumption that such stimuli have a fixed motivational value for research participants and that this value is an inherent property of the stimulus itself. Drawing on studies from behavioral endocrinology, implicit motive research, and basic physiology, I will argue that this is a naïve and incorrect assumption. From an individual-difference perspective, one and the same stimulus can be rewarding for some, punishing for others, and neutral for the rest. To make matters worse, the motivational value of a stimulus can even change dynamically within an individual, as illustrated by alliesthesia, sensory satiation, and the Coolidge effect. Such between- and within-individual variations in incentive value reflect a process through which chronic and current need states assign hedonic value to a stimulus to tag its usefulness. These need states are shaped by genes, learning, other concurrent needs, and previous need satisfaction and embrained in hypothalamic-orbitofrontal networks.

Matthias Strasser, Steffen Giessner, Hugo M. Kehr, Technische Universität München, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Achieving Powerful Affiliations: The Reciprocal Influence of Social Motives and Relational Models

Social motivation is elicited by and constantly updated within distinctively structured social relationships. Conversely, individual preferences and choices for certain relationships are informed by dispositional and actual motives. We built upon relational models theory and dual motive theories to investigate this reciprocal influence of social motives and relational structures. In a series of laboratory and field studies, we assessed specific links between implicit and explicit motives for achievement (Ach), affiliation (Aff), and power (Pow), and the relational models communal sharing (CS), authority ranking (AR), equality matching (EM), and market pricing (MP). In two experiments, we tested relational framing effects on the emergence of social motivation. Across various conditions and measures, CS was consistently and specifically associated with Aff, both on the level of theoretical concepts and on the level of individual preferences. AR was consistently associated with Pow. MP was related to Pow and Ach. EM was not consistently associated with Ach, Aff, or Pow. Framing relationships as CS-structured triggered affiliation motivation, whereas AR framings resulted in power motivation. In both the cross-sectional studies and the experiments, MP was related to the need for agency, as opposed to the need for affiliation/intimacy. Our studies provide the first empirical evidence for specific interrelations of social motives and relational models. Direct implications for applied areas of psychological research are discussed.

Julia Trapp, Hugo M. Kehr, Technische Universität München

The Power Motive in Negotiations

Although research has established the effects of situational power on negotiations, the influence of the power motive on negotiation outcomes has not yet been examined. The power motive is the desire to influence other people and is aroused by situational cues signaling influence opportunities. Hence, our assumption is that the opportunity to influence the negotiation partner represents an incentive for people with a high power motive. Consequently, we hypothesized that people high in power motive make higher requests in the negotiation than people low in power motive. We further hypothesized that the latter make high requests only in response to situational external demands such as the requirement to negotiate a friend’s salary. Our assumptions were tested in an experimental study. Participants (N = 125) negotiated either their own or a friend’s salary in a computerized negotiation. The power motive was assessed beforehand via content-coding of a letter written by the participants. The results confirmed our assumptions: There was a significant interaction effect between negotiation condition and power motive on requests in the negotiation. Results are discussed by focusing on flow as a possible mediator of this effect.

Rex Wright, University of North Texas

Motives to Help and Harm: Their Overlapping Character and Conversion Into Active Goal Pursuit

I will (1) describe an emerging analysis of motives to help and harm, and (2) offer thoughts on how these motives convert into action. The emerging analysis suggests that there is considerable overlap in the character of helping and harming motives, intimating that pro- and anti-social behaviors might be largely understood in common terms. Regarding conversion, growing evidence suggests that pro- and anti-social striving should not be determined proximally by the strength (importance) of helping and harming motives - as is commonly assumed. Rather, it should be determined by the difficulty of relevant instrumental behavior with motive strength setting the upper bound of what performers will be willing to do. Further, ability factors such as fatigue should play a role, having different influences at different levels of difficulty and strength. Thus, in short, the intensity of pro- and anti social striving should be an interactive function of what must, will and can be done to achieve helpful and harmful ends.