From infancy to old age people are motivated to form and maintain social bonds, and the quality of their social bonds has important consequences for health and well-being. Research on motivation and goals has shown that the distinction between appetition (i.e., approach) and aversion (i.e., avoidance) is import for understanding motivational processes. The present application examines two types of social motives and goals, those focused on obtaining positive social outcomes, approach motives and goals; and those focused on preventing negative social outcomes, avoidance motives and goals. The distinction between approach and avoidance social motivation provides a framework for understanding the relationship between the basic motivation to form and maintain social bonds and mental and physical health. The overall aim of the research is to present and test three implications of an approach-avoidance model of social motivation. Broadly, the model implies that approach and avoidance social motivational systems i) are sensitive to different social stimuli and cues, ii) are associated with different dimensions of well-being and health, and iii) regulate behavior through different processes.
The specific aims of the proposed program of research are to test the three predictions of the approach and avoidance model of social motivation 1) regarding change over time in social well-being (e.g., loneliness) and mental health, 2) in the context of everyday social interactions and daily fluctuations in well-being, and 3) in a controlled laboratory study of a single social interaction. Three studies were designed to systematically address the specific aims of the current application. Study 1 will be a 12-month longitudinal study of 120 new college students. Study 2 will enroll 100 participants in a fourteen-day, web-based interval-contingent daily experience study. Study 3 will be a laboratory study of 100 dyads in which participants' goals for a social interaction with another participant will be manipulated (approach/avoidance).
| Algoe, Sara B; Fredrickson, Barbara L; Gable, Shelly L (2013) The social functions of the emotion of gratitude via expression. Emotion 13:605-9 |
