In the present article, we explore whether people's mental representation of progress level can function as a self-regulation mechanism that helps motivate continued effort in the pursuit. We propose that when individuals have just started pursuing a goal and have accumulated only limited progress, they exaggerate the achieved progress level in their mental representation to signal a higher cha...

What drives motivation in multiphase competitions? Adopting a dynamic approach, this research examines how temporary standing-being ahead of (vs. behind) one's opponent-in a multiphase competition shapes subsequent motivation. Six competitions conducted in the lab and in the field demonstrate that the impact of being ahead on contestants' motivation depends on when (i.e., in which phase of the ...

The authors examine the effects of poverty-related adversity on child development, drawing upon psychobiological principles of experiential canalization and the biological embedding of experience. They integrate findings from research on stress physiology, neurocognitive function, and self-regulation to consider adaptive processes in response to adversity as an aspect of children's development....

The present study identifies a broad taxonomy of motives underlying the desire to regulate prejudice and assess the impact of motivation to regulate prejudice on levels of explicit and implicit prejudice. Using self-determination theory as the foundation, six forms of motivation to regulate prejudice are proposed. In Study 1 (N = 257), an exploratory factor analysis reveals evidence for the six...

In 2007, the Council of Better Business Bureaus created the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative to improve the nutritional profile of products marketed to children in the United States. We provide quantitative baseline data describing (a) the amount of child-directed breakfast cereal advertising in 2007; (b) an assessment of the nutritional value for all cereals advertised on te...

The authors propose that volitional action is supported by intuitive affect regulation, defined as flexible, efficient, and nonrepressive control of own affective states. Intuitive affect regulation should be most apparent among action-oriented individuals under demanding conditions. Consistent with this, a demanding context led action-oriented individuals to down-regulate negative affect in se...

Evidence from three studies reveals a critical difference in self-control as a function of political ideology. Specifically, greater endorsement of political conservatism (versus liberalism) was associated with greater attention regulation and task persistence. Moreover, this relationship is shown to stem from varying beliefs in freewill; specifically, the association between political ideology...

The present study examined the use of a progressive delay procedure to teach self-control to two groups of dually diagnosed adults. When given a choice between an immediate smaller reinforcer and a larger delayed reinforcer, both groups chose the smaller reinforcer during baseline. During treatment, progressive increases in work requirements for gaining access to a larger reinforcer resulted in...

Self-control is a necessary component of subjective effort, but it depends only on farsighted motivation, with no additional, depletable resource. The aversiveness of boring tasks probably comes from their interference with endogenous reward, a new and potentially controversial concept. The self-control needed to stick with any kind of aversive experience increases as the values of the competin...

The purpose of this study is to assess the prevalence of sexting among high school students as well as examine the theoretical foundation toward explaining this type of behavior. Specifically, we examined data from a sample of high school students in rural North Carolina to determine if low self-control and deviant peer association are constructs for explaining sexting among youth. Results indi...