Suchergebnisse

The combining of mental contrasting with implementation intention (MCII) as a selfregulation strategy for goal pursuit enhances goal attainment. Our aims in this study were as follows: (a) confirm the effect of MCII in this context, and (b) explore how the features of MCII affect goal-pursuit
behaviors in a book-reading task. We randomly assigned 90 college students to either an MCII intervention condition or a control condition. The results showed that participants in the MCII intervention group did not exert more effort in reading the book than did the participants in the control
condition. However, analysis within the MCII intervention condition group showed that the number of written words in the MCII exercise phase (quantity), the integrity of the participants' implementation intention, and the mental contrasting specificity (quality) of MCII affected the participants'
reading behavior and achievement. Finally, further analysis of mental contrasting content revealed that, compared with participants for whom the obstacles to completing the assigned reading were internal, such as lack of self-control or lack of interest in the subject matter, participants
who identified external obstacles, such as the need to complete other study assignments or to work in part-time employment, spent more time on reading the assigned book. These findings suggest that the features of MCII have a vital influence on behavior and achievement.

Abstract. Previous research found mental contrasting to be an effective self-regulatory strategy. This study explored whether motivational features such as regulatory focus, as promotion focus and prevention focus, could affect people's spontaneous use of a mental contrasting strategy. The present study hypothesized that promotion focus positively predicts spontaneous mental contrasting. Across the correlational (Study 1) and experimental (Study 2) designs, predominantly promotion-focused university students spontaneously employed more mental contrasting strategies. The implications and suggestions for future research have been discussed.