Demand to Act and Use of Mental Contrasting

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Demand to Act and Use of Mental Contrasting. / Sevincer, A. Timur; Tessmann, Patrik; Oettingen, Gabriele.
In: Social Psychology, Vol. 49, No. 6, 01.11.2018, p. 344-359.

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Sevincer AT, Tessmann P, Oettingen G. Demand to Act and Use of Mental Contrasting. Social Psychology. 2018 Nov 1;49(6):344-359. doi: 10.1027/1864-9335/a000353

Bibtex

@article{f24bad3a7b1f43aa8827055bd96a59c7,
title = "Demand to Act and Use of Mental Contrasting",
abstract = "Mentally contrasting a desired future with present reality fosters selective goal pursuit: People pursue feasible desired futures and let go from unfeasible ones. We investigated whether people spontaneously use mental contrasting when the demand to act toward their desired future is high. Study 1 provided correlational evidence: The participants who planned to act most immediately were also those who used mental contrasting. Studies 2 and 3 added experimental evidence: Imagining an immediate (vs. no immediate) action and being confronted with the opportunity to perform an instrumental (vs. noninstrumental) action, respectively, led participants to mentally contrast. The findings have theoretical implications by suggesting that people initiate mental contrasting as a problem-solving strategy; they have applied implications for interventions teaching mental contrasting.",
keywords = "action, content analyses, future thinking, goal pursuit, mental contrasting, self-regulation, Psychology",
author = "Sevincer, {A. Timur} and Patrik Tessmann and Gabriele Oettingen",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 Hogrefe Publishing.",
year = "2018",
month = nov,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1027/1864-9335/a000353",
language = "English",
volume = "49",
pages = "344--359",
journal = "Social Psychology",
issn = "1864-9335",
publisher = "Hogrefe Verlag GmbH & Co. KG",
number = "6",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Demand to Act and Use of Mental Contrasting

AU - Sevincer, A. Timur

AU - Tessmann, Patrik

AU - Oettingen, Gabriele

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2018 Hogrefe Publishing.

PY - 2018/11/1

Y1 - 2018/11/1

N2 - Mentally contrasting a desired future with present reality fosters selective goal pursuit: People pursue feasible desired futures and let go from unfeasible ones. We investigated whether people spontaneously use mental contrasting when the demand to act toward their desired future is high. Study 1 provided correlational evidence: The participants who planned to act most immediately were also those who used mental contrasting. Studies 2 and 3 added experimental evidence: Imagining an immediate (vs. no immediate) action and being confronted with the opportunity to perform an instrumental (vs. noninstrumental) action, respectively, led participants to mentally contrast. The findings have theoretical implications by suggesting that people initiate mental contrasting as a problem-solving strategy; they have applied implications for interventions teaching mental contrasting.

AB - Mentally contrasting a desired future with present reality fosters selective goal pursuit: People pursue feasible desired futures and let go from unfeasible ones. We investigated whether people spontaneously use mental contrasting when the demand to act toward their desired future is high. Study 1 provided correlational evidence: The participants who planned to act most immediately were also those who used mental contrasting. Studies 2 and 3 added experimental evidence: Imagining an immediate (vs. no immediate) action and being confronted with the opportunity to perform an instrumental (vs. noninstrumental) action, respectively, led participants to mentally contrast. The findings have theoretical implications by suggesting that people initiate mental contrasting as a problem-solving strategy; they have applied implications for interventions teaching mental contrasting.

KW - action

KW - content analyses

KW - future thinking

KW - goal pursuit

KW - mental contrasting

KW - self-regulation

KW - Psychology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85054797788&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1027/1864-9335/a000353

DO - 10.1027/1864-9335/a000353

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85054797788

VL - 49

SP - 344

EP - 359

JO - Social Psychology

JF - Social Psychology

SN - 1864-9335

IS - 6

ER -