Mental Contrasting and Transfer of Energization
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In: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 40, No. 2, 01.02.2014, p. 139-152.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Mental Contrasting and Transfer of Energization
AU - Sevincer, A. Timur
AU - Busatta, P. Daniel
AU - Oettingen, Gabriele
PY - 2014/2/1
Y1 - 2014/2/1
N2 - Mental contrasting a desired future with present reality is a self-regulation strategy that fosters energization in line with a person's expectations of successfully attaining the desired future. We investigated whether physiological energization (measured by systolic blood pressure) elicited by mental contrasting a desired future of solving a given task transfers to effort in an unrelated task. As predicted, mental contrasting a desired future of excelling in an intelligence test (Study 1) and of writing an excellent essay (Study 2) triggered changes in energization that translated into physical effort in squeezing a handgrip (Study 1) and translated into mental effort in writing a get-well letter (Study 2). Results suggest that mental contrasting of solving one task triggers energization that may fuel effort for performing an unrelated task. Implications for intervention research are discussed.
AB - Mental contrasting a desired future with present reality is a self-regulation strategy that fosters energization in line with a person's expectations of successfully attaining the desired future. We investigated whether physiological energization (measured by systolic blood pressure) elicited by mental contrasting a desired future of solving a given task transfers to effort in an unrelated task. As predicted, mental contrasting a desired future of excelling in an intelligence test (Study 1) and of writing an excellent essay (Study 2) triggered changes in energization that translated into physical effort in squeezing a handgrip (Study 1) and translated into mental effort in writing a get-well letter (Study 2). Results suggest that mental contrasting of solving one task triggers energization that may fuel effort for performing an unrelated task. Implications for intervention research are discussed.
KW - effort
KW - energization
KW - expectations
KW - mental contrasting
KW - performance
KW - Psychology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84892377224&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/4629742a-53af-3934-b671-d2504b1660b7/
U2 - 10.1177/0146167213507088
DO - 10.1177/0146167213507088
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 24145296
AN - SCOPUS:84892377224
VL - 40
SP - 139
EP - 152
JO - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
JF - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
SN - 0146-1672
IS - 2
ER -