Emotional responses to goal attainment: strength of regulatory focus as moderator.
Journal Article (Journal Article)
Goals with a promotion focus versus a prevention focus are distinguished. Chronic ideal goals (hopes and aspirations) have a promotion focus, whereas ought goals (duties and responsibilities) have a prevention focus. The hypothesis that emotional responses to goal attainment vary as a function of promotion versus prevention goal strength (conceptualized as goal accessibility) was tested in correlational studies relating chronic goal attainment (self-congruencies or self-discrepancies) to emotional frequency and intensity (Studies 1-3) and in an experimental study relating immediate goal attainment (i.e., success or failure) to emotional intensity (Study 4). All studies found that goal attainment yielded greater cheerfulness-dejection responses when promotion focus was stronger and greater quiescence-agitation responses when prevention focus was stronger.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Higgins, ET; Shah, J; Friedman, R
Published Date
- March 1997
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 72 / 3
Start / End Page
- 515 - 525
PubMed ID
- 9120782
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1939-1315
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 0022-3514
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1037//0022-3514.72.3.515
Language
- eng