Is it adaptive to disengage from demands of social change? Adjustment to developmental barriers in opportunity-deprived regions

This paper investigates how individuals deal with demands of social and economic change in the domains of work and family when opportunities for their mastery are unfavorable. Theoretical considerations and empirical research suggest that with unattainable goals and unmanageable demands motivational disengagement and self-protective cognitions bring about superior outcomes than continued goal striving. Building on research on developmental deadlines, this paper introduces the concept of developmental barriers to address socioeconomic conditions of severely constrained opportunities in certain geographical regions. Mixed-effects methods were used to model cross-level interactions between individual-level compensatory secondary control and regional-level opportunity structures in terms of social indicators for the economic prosperity and family friendliness. Results showed that disengagement was positively associated with general life satisfaction in regions that were economically devastated and has less than average services for families. In regions that were economically well off and family-friendly, the association was negative. Similar results were found for self-protection concerning domain-specific satisfaction with life. These findings suggest that compensatory secondary control can be an adaptive way of mastering a demand when primary control is not possible

Persönliche Anliegen in Alltagssituationen

Brunstein JC, Ganserer J, Maier GW, Heckhausen H. Persönliche Anliegen in Alltagssituationen. Memorandum. Vol 82. Erlangen: Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg; Draft.In einer Feldstudie, an der 42 Hausfrauen teilnahmen, wurden charakteristische Merkmale von persönlichen Anliegen untersucht, und es wurde überprüft, welchen Einfluß persönliche Anliegen auf die Erfahrung und Beurteilung von Alltagssituationen ausüben. In einem Interview beschrieben die Teilnehmerinnen zunächst ihre Anliegen und schätzten sie anschießend nach einer Reihe von Anliegenparametern ein (z.B. nach der Höhe ihrer Bereitschaft, sich für die Verwirklichung eines Anliegens einzusetzen; oder nach der Verfügbarkeit von günstigen Gelegenheiten, bei denen ein Anliegen verfolgt werden kann). Außerdem zeichneten sie eine Woche lang ihre täglichen Aktivitäten, Stimmungen und Bedürfnisse auf. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, (a) daß persönliche Anliegen nach dem Ausmaß an Entschlossenheit, ein anliegenrelevantes Ziel zu realisieren, sowie nach der Qualität vorteilhafter versus nachteiliger Realisierungsbedingungen beurteilt wurden; (b) daß die Intensität, mit der sich die Teilnehmerinnen mit ihre persönlichen Anliegen beschäftigten, eng mit dem Ausmaß ihrer Entschlossenheit zusammenhing, während ihre diesbezügliche Erfolgserwartung von der Beurteilung der vorliegenden Realisierungsbedingungen bestimmt wurde; (c) daß sich Fortschritte bei der Realisierung von Anliegen ebenso wie positive und negative Stimmungslagen im Alltag in bedeutsamem Umfang auf Unterschiede in der persönlichen Einsatzbereitschaft und in der Verfügbarkeit von günstigen Gelegenheiten zurückführen ließen; sowie (d) daß die Teilnehmerinnen anliegenrelevante Situationen im Alltag als Herausforderung erlebten, bei der sie ihre Fähigkeiten demonstrieren und ihr Selbstwertgefühl stärken konnten.42 housewives participated in a field study in which characteristic dimensions of current concerns were explored, and influences current concerns exerted upon subjects' experience of and judgements about everyday situations were examined. A preceding interview required participants to describe their current concerns and to assess them through a series of concern attributes (e.g., subjects' readiness to invest effort in order to attain a concern-related goal; or availability of favorable opportunities to pursue current concerns). Subjects also recorded their daily activities, moods, and needs over a one-week period. Results demonstrated (a) that current concerns were construed along two dimensions indicating subjects' commitment to attain a concern-related goal and reflecting their judgement of facilitating versus debilitating environmental conditions; (b) that intensity of concern-related preoccupations was closely linked to commitment-related variables, whereas judgements about environmental conditions determined the subjective pro- bability of success; (c) that readiness to invest effort and availability of favorable opportunities accounted both for significant variations in progress toward goal attainment and for individual differences in positive versus negative mood in daily life situations; and (d) that participants perceived concern-related everyday situations as challenges, allowing them to demonstrate their abilities and to increase their sense of self-esteem

The significance of motivation in student-centred learning : a reflective case study

The theoretical underpinnings of student-centred learning suggest motivation to be an integral component. However, lack of clarification of what is involved in motivation in education often results in unchallenged assumptions that fail to recognise that what motivates some students may alienate others. This case study, using socio-cognitive motivational theory to analyse previously collected data, derives three fuzzy propositions which, collectively, suggest that motivation interacts with the whole cycle of episodes in the teachinglearning process. It argues that the development of the higherlevel cognitive competencies that are implied by the term, student-centred learning, must integrate motivational constructs such as goal orientation, volition, interest and attributions into pedagogical practices

Showing engagement or not:The influence of social identification and group deadlines on individual control strategies

People often work together in groups that have to reach goals in a given time frame. Nonetheless, the impact of deadlines on group members’ self-control has not been studied so far. Here this topic is addressed by integrating the action-phase model (Heckhausen, 1999), which postulates the use of different self-control strategies during individual-level goal pursuit, with the social identity approach. It was predicted and found in two studies that highly identified group members, in contrast to those who were only weakly identified, responded to a group’s deadline phase (pre vs. post) by showing phase-appropriate patterns of engagement and disengagement. Study 1 measured identification and assessed intentions and behavioral indicators of self-control. Study 2 manipulated identification and assessed self-reports of intended self-control strategies. Overall, the findings corroborate the notion that the social self can serve as a basis for self-regulation

The intention-behaviour gap: An empirical examination of an integrative perspective to explain exercise behaviour

This study tested the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in conjunction with two sets of variables from the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) and the Subjective Exercise Experience Scale (SEE) to predict exercise behavior. This study included 454 participants who exercised in a fitness center. We collected measures of the TPB (attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and intention), HAPA (planning), and SEE (positive well-being, psychological distress, and fatigue) and assessed exercise behavior at a three-month follow-up. Structural equation modeling found partial support for the TPB model (explaining 10% of the variance in exercise behavior) and adequate fit indices for an adjusted model of the TPB that includes a positive well-being dimension (explaining 11% of the variance in exercise behavior). In sum, the original TPB partially predicts exercise behavior; when considered together with other predictors, limited evidence was found for its utility in explaining exercise behavior.This study was conducted at Psychology Research Centre (UID/PSI/01662/2013), University of Minho, and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through national funds and co-financed by FEDER through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653).info:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersio

A theory-based intervention to promote medication adherence in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a randomized controlled trial

Introduction/objectives: Adherence to prescribed medication regimens is fundamental to the improvement and maintenance of the health of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. It is therefore important that interventions are developed to address this important health behavior issue. The aim of the present study was to design and evaluate a theory-based intervention to improve the medication adherence (primary outcome) among rheumatoid arthritis patients. Methods: The study adopted a pre-registered randomized controlled trial design. Rheumatoid arthritis patients were recruited from two University teaching hospitals in Qazvin, Iran from June 2018 to May 2019 and randomly assigned to either an intervention group (n = 100) or a treatment-as-usual group (n = 100). The intervention group received a theory-based intervention designed based on the theoretical underpinnings of the health action process approach (HAPA). More specifically, action planning (making detailed plans to follow medication regimen), coping planning (constructing plans to overcome potential obstacles that may arise in medication adherence), and self-monitoring (using a calendar to record medication adherence) of the HAPA has been used for the treatment. The treatment-as-usual group received standard care. Results: Data analysis was conducted based on the principle of intention to treat. Using a linear mixed-effects model (adjusted for age, sex, medication prescribed, and body mass index), the results showed improved medication adherence scores in the intervention group (loss to follow-up = 16) compared to the treatment-as-usual group (loss to follow-up = 12) at the 3-month (coefficient = 3.9; SE = 0.8) and 6-month (coefficient = 4.5; SE = 0.8) follow-up. Intervention effects on medication adherence scores were found to be mediated by some of the theory-based HAPA variables that guided the study. Conclusion: The results of the present study support the use of a theory-based intervention for improving medication adherence among rheumatoid arthritis patients, a group at-risk of not adhering to medication regimens

Willing and able: action-state orientation and the relation between procedural justice and employee cooperation

Existing justice theory explains why fair procedures motivate employees to adopt cooperative goals, but it fails to explain how employees strive towards these goals. We study self-regulatory abilities that underlie goal striving; abilities that should thus affect employees’ display of cooperative behavior in response to procedural justice. Building on action control theory, we argue that employees who display effective self-regulatory strategies (action oriented employees) display relatively strong cooperative behavioral responses to fair procedures. A multisource field study and a laboratory experiment support this prediction. A subsequent experiment addresses the process underlying this effect by explicitly showing that action orientation facilitates attainment of the cooperative goals that people adopt in response to fair procedures, thus facilitating the display of actual cooperative behavior. This goal striving approach better integrates research on the relationship between procedural justice and employee cooperation in the self-regulation and the work motivation literature. It also offers organizations a new perspective on making procedural justice effective in stimulating employee cooperation by suggesting factors that help employees reach their adopted goals

The science of choice: an introduction

Introduction In October 2015, around 30 scholars convened at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock to discuss: (a) how individuals and families make decisions about marriage, child-birth, migration, retirement, and other transitions in the life course; and (b) how these decision processes can be operationalized in demographic models. The workshop was organized by the Scientific Panel on Microsimulation and Agent-Based Modelling con- vened by the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) and by MPIDR. The report of this ‘Science of choice’ workshop and the papers presented are available from the workshop’s website (see IUSSP 2015). The five papers included in this Supplement are revised versions of papers presented at the workshop in Rostock