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Causality orientations and spontaneous mental contrasting
Muhaned Tamim1, Guoxia Wang1, Xiaosong Gai1
1Northeast Normal University.
The Journal of General Psychology
|February 19, 2024
Summary
Causality orientations influence mental contrasting in Chinese university students. Control and amotivated orientations negatively predict mental contrasting, while autonomy orientation shows potential for enhancing this goal-commitment strategy.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Behavioral Science
- Motivation
Background:
- Mental contrasting is a key strategy for goal commitment and behavior change.
- Causality orientations describe individual differences in motivation and goal pursuit.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the predictive relationship between causality orientations and spontaneous mental contrasting in Chinese university students.
- To examine the effects of priming different causality orientations on mental contrasting.
Main Methods:
- Study 1: Correlational analysis of academic autonomy, control, and amotivated orientations with spontaneous mental contrasting.
- Study 2: Experimental manipulation of priming autonomy and control orientations to assess their impact on mental contrasting.
Main Results:
- Control and amotivated orientations were negatively correlated with mental contrasting.
- Priming autonomy orientation significantly increased spontaneous mental contrasting compared to neutral and control conditions.
- Autonomy orientation did not correlate with mental contrasting in Study 1, but showed a significant effect when primed in Study 2.
Conclusions:
- Controlled and amotivated causality orientations are associated with less mental contrasting, potentially hindering goal achievement.
- Autonomy orientation, particularly when primed, can foster spontaneous mental contrasting, suggesting its utility for enhancing goal commitment.
- Interventions aimed at improving goal commitment in students with controlled or amotivated orientations should consider incorporating mental contrasting strategies.
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