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The adoption of approach versus avoidance goals: The role of goal-relevant resources

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Abstract

The present research investigated whether the adoption of approach versus avoidance goals is affected by goal-relevant resources. When individuals have few goal-relevant resources, they should prefer avoidance goals, whereas when individuals have many goal-relevant resources, they should adopt approach goals. The individual’s outcome expectancy is assumed to mediate this relationship. This hypothesis is supported by the findings of four multi-method studies with student samples. A cross-sectional field study showed a positive relationship between the extent of goal-relevant resources and approach goal adoption. In a longitudinal field study, a high number of resources predicted the increase in personal approach goal adoption over a period of 4 months, controlling for neuroticism. Two experiments showed that the manipulation of resources affected approach versus avoidance task goal adoption, with outcome expectancy mediating the relationship. These findings complement existing findings on dispositional determinants of approach versus avoidance goal adoption.

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Notes

  1. We worked with the freeware php surveyor (http://psychmserver.unizh.ch/phpsurveyor/admin, Retrieved February 27, 2008).

  2. In order to minimise the complexity of approach versus avoidance goal indices, we will, in our further analyses, refer to the proportion of approach goals. Note that, due to the dichotomous assessment of approach versus avoidance goals, this index could also inversely be interpreted as proportion of avoidance goals.

  3. Unexpectedly the internal consistency of the resource scale was much lower than in Study 1. One might presume that this is due to the different samples of the studies. Whereas only freshman-students from the first-semester course in psychology participated in Study 1, with very similar conditions in their academic life, Study 2 worked with a much more heterogeneous sample of students from different universities and faculties in which the environmental conditions differ strongly from each other. This heterogeneity of the sample and external conditions could be reflected in a lower reliability of the scale.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Binzmühlestrasse 14/6, 8050, Zurich, Switzerland

    Jessica Schnelle, Veronika Brandstätter & Annina Knöpfel

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  1. Jessica Schnelle
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  2. Veronika Brandstätter
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  3. Annina Knöpfel
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Correspondence to Veronika Brandstätter.

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Schnelle, J., Brandstätter, V. & Knöpfel, A. The adoption of approach versus avoidance goals: The role of goal-relevant resources. Motiv Emot 34, 215–229 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-010-9173-x

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