Imposing personalities
ATP: PAID, Lecture 8: Imposing personalities
Tom Farsides (SOC)
Lecture contents
• Subjective Expected Utility
• Goal theory
• Self-discrepancy theory
• The origin and development of goals
• Personal strivings
ATP: PAID, Lecture 8: Imposing personalities
Tom Farsides (SOC)
Subjective Expected Utility (SEU)
• Edward Tolman
 Impressed with “persistence until” nature of action.
 Suggestive of expectancies that persistence will lead to
valued outcomes.
• Julian Rotter
 Behaviour potential (likelihood of performance) is a
function of (subjective) expectancy (expected
consequences) and (subjective) reinforcement value (of
those consequences).
 Consequence probability and value to be calculated for
each possible behaviour.
 Most research looks at choice among a limited number
of action options.
ATP: PAID, Lecture 8: Imposing personalities
Tom Farsides (SOC)
Goal theory
1. Goals and plans
 Goals: persistent, valued, possible, necessary
 Plans: instrumental, contingent
2. The A(?)BC of goal-motivated behaviour
 Cognitive representation of plans and goals, plus
 Expectation that goal attainment will be valuable
 Expectation is a cognition.
– (Rewarding/valuable) Goal necessarily affective?
– Affect necessary as a cause of ertia?
 Behaviour potential.
3. Goals occur in systems
ATP: PAID, Lecture 8: Imposing personalities
Tom Farsides (SOC)
Means and Ends
• Pham & Taylor (1999)
 Mental simulation of ‘good process,’ ‘good outcome,’ both, or
neither.
 Including ‘process’ improved hours studying and studying
intention-behaviour deficit.
 Sole outcome focus worsened exam score.
• Important jargon
 Multidetermination
 Goals interact to produce single outcomes.
 Equipotentiality
 The same goal may be satisfied in various ways.
 Equifinality
 Different goals can be satisfied by the same outcome.
ATP: PAID, Lecture 8: Imposing personalities
Tom Farsides (SOC)
Motivation from goals and progress evaluation
Bandura & Cervone (1983)
60
50
40
30
Effort
increase (%)
20
10
0
Goals and
feedback
Goals
Feedback Control
ATP: PAID, Lecture 8: Imposing personalities
Tom Farsides (SOC)
Motivation from dissatisfaction and efficacy
Bandura & Cervone (1983)
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Effort
increase (%)
Diss & Eff Diss &
~Eff
ATP: PAID, Lecture 8: Imposing personalities
~Diss &
~Eff
~Diss &
Eff
Tom Farsides (SOC)
Where do goals come from?
• Hedonism
• Classical and operant conditioning
• Functional autonomy
• Choice
ATP: PAID, Lecture 8: Imposing personalities
Tom Farsides (SOC)
Emmon’s personal strivings
• Form coherent patterns of goals.
• Goals may be domain-specific, e.g., pleasant in social
interactions.
• Striving (clusters) and their expression is idiographic.
• Some striving content is nomothetic.
 E.g., Achievement, autonomy, affiliation.
ATP: PAID, Lecture 8: Imposing personalities
Tom Farsides (SOC)
Assessment of personal strivings
• Open-ended self-report of goals and execution attempts.
• Rate top 15 strivings on various dimensions, e.g., valence.
• Factor analysis of dimension scores:
 Degree of striving (e.g., value, importance, commitment)
 Ease (e.g., opportunity, difficulty)
 Success (e.g., past attainment, probability of success)
• Pairwise comparison of strivings’ compatibility.
ATP: PAID, Lecture 8: Imposing personalities
Tom Farsides (SOC)
Personal striving and SWB (Emmons, 1986)
Positive affect from…
 Actual achievement of valued goals.
 Continued progress towards valued goals.
Negative affect from…
 Conflict (co-present but oppositely valenced goals).
 Ambivalence (success is a mixed belssing).
 Anticipated failure.
Life satisfaction from…
 Anticipated success.
 Having important goals.
 Having goals that facilitate affiliation.
ATP: PAID, Lecture 8: Imposing personalities
Tom Farsides (SOC)
What will satisfy you?
McGregor & Little (1998)
Happiness (affect) - From efficacy





‘usually exuberant and enthusiastic’
‘life to me seems always exciting’
‘every day is constantly new and different’
‘life is full of exciting good things’
‘am achieving life goals’
Meaning (Life satisfaction) - From integrity
 ‘have very clear goals and aims in life’
 ‘clear goals and a satisfying life purpose’
 ‘find meaning, purpose, and mission in life’
ATP: PAID, Lecture 8: Imposing personalities
Tom Farsides (SOC)
ATP: PAID, Lecture 8: Imposing personalities
Tom Farsides (SOC)