The general, long-term objective of the research program is to investigate the principles underlying approach/avoidance motivations that produce adaptive and maladaptive self-regulation. The proposed research investigates the principles of regulatory focus. Regulatory focus distinguishes between a promotion focus concerned with accomplishments and gains and a preference for eager approach strategies of goal pursuit versus a prevention focus concerned with security and non-losses and a preference for vigilant avoidance strategies. The proposed research addresses the question, """"""""When are people willing to change their current state for a new state?"""""""" This question has major significance for understanding clinical disorders and how to treat them.
The specific aims are: I. A critical component of contemplating change involves making comparisons among given and new alternatives. The proposed research considers the following aspects of comparison and how these vary as a function of the regulatory focus difference in strategic emphasis"""""""" (A) A promotion focus increases the importance of additions (+1) to the current state, and decreases the importance of subtractions from the current state (-1). The opposite is true of a prevention focus. (B) A promotion focus state increases the importance of the unique, non-overlapping attributes of different choice alternatives. A prevention focus state increases the importance of the alignable, overlapping attributes of different choice alternatives. (C) After freely choosing between two alternatives, a promotion focus state increases dissonance from the benefits of the forsaken alternative. A prevention focus state increases dissonance from the costs of the accepted alternative. II. Setting goals for the future is another central component of contemplating change. The application examines the implications of promotion and prevention, respectively, having a differential goal emphasis on maximal goals (a goal one hopes to reach) versus minimal goals (a goal one must reach). It is hypothesized that' (A) As promotion increases the actual performance goal will be set closer to the maximal than the minimal goal, whereas the reverse will be true as prevention increases; and (B) As promotion increases there will be stronger preference for using a disjunctive than a conjunctive decision rule, whereas the reverse will be true as prevention increases.
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