Lexical Derivation of the PINT Taxonomy of Goals: Prominence, Inclusiveness, Negativity Prevention, and Tradition

What do people want? Few questions are more fundamental to psychological science than this. Yet, existing taxonomies disagree on both the number and content of goals. We thus adopted a lexical approach and investigated the structure of goal-relevant words from the natural English lexicon. Through an intensive rating process, 1,060 goal-relevant English words were first located. In Studies 1-2, two relatively large and diverse samples (total n = 1,026) rated their commitment to approaching or avoiding these goals. Principal component analyses yielded 4 replicable components: Prominence, Inclusiveness, Negativity prevention, and Tradition (the PINT Taxonomy). Study 3-7 (total n = 1,396) supported the 4-factor structure of an abbreviated scale and found systematic differences in their relationships with past goal-content measures, the Big 5 traits, affect, and need satisfaction. This investigation thus provides a data-driven taxonomy of higher-order goal-content and opens up a wide variety of fascinating lines for future research

What is the “Opposite” of a Value? A Lexical Investigation into the Structure of Generally Undesirable Goal Content

Objectives Past taxonomies of goal-content have focused (either exclusively or predominantly) on generally-desirable values, and they suggest that some values oppose other values. However, many goals are generally-undesirable (i.e., the average person is committed to avoiding them), and these “vices” have been under-studied. This is an important gap because other models suggest that the “opposite” of a value is actually a vice. Methods To fill this gap, we conducted a lexical investigation. Two large samples (involving 504 undergraduates & 257 online participants) first rated their commitment to approaching or avoiding a large number of goals from the English lexicon. Results Analyses indicated that vices can be summarized in terms of Elitism, Rebellion, and Disrepute, which appear opposite from Inclusiveness, Tradition, and Prominence values (respectively) in MDS models. In Study 3 (involving 280 undergraduates) and Study 4 (involving 261 online participants), we found that Schwartz values of Universalism, Tradition, and Self-Enhancement actually appeared opposite from Elitism, Rebellion, and Disrepute (respectively) in MDS models, rather than from other values. Conclusions This investigation develops an instrument which can distinguish between different vices at a holistic level, and it suggests that they are actually the opposite of select values

Supplementary Material, wilkowski_online_appendix – (How) Does Initial Self-Control Undermine Later Self-Control in Daily Life?

<p>Supplementary Material, wilkowski_online_appendix for (How) Does Initial Self-Control Undermine Later Self-Control in Daily Life? by Benjamin M. Wilkowski1, Elizabeth Louise Ferguson, Laverl Z. Williamson and Shaun K. Lappi in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin</p