Proximal goal-setting and self-regulatory processes

Goals for Adherence with Low-cost Incentives (GOALS): a protocol for a randomized controlled trial evaluating the impact of small airtime incentives on ART adherence among young people living with HIV in Kampala, Uganda

BACKGROUND

Treatment outcomes of HIV-positive individuals are threatened by low antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence, a problem that is particularly acute among youth. Incentives are a promising tool to support ART adherence, but traditional incentive designs rewarding uniformly high levels of the desired health behavior may demotivate those with low levels of the behavior. In this study, we investigate the effectiveness of alternative approaches to target-setting for incentive eligibility using subgoals (i.e., individual-specific, interim targets leading up to the optimal target).

METHODS / DESIGN

We will enroll 628 HIV-positive youth between ages 15 and 30 into a 3-year randomized controlled trial. Participants will be randomized 1:1:1:1 to a control arm or one of three intervention arms (n = 157 each) that allow them to enter a prize drawing for small incentives if their ART adherence meets the given goal. In the first arm (T1, assigned subgoal), goals will be externally assigned and adapted to their initial adherence level. In the second arm (T2, participatory subgoal), participants can set their own interim goals. In the third arm (T3, fixed goal), all participants must reach the same target goal of 90% adherence. T1 and T2 participants are required to reach 90% adherence by month 12 to participate in a larger prize drawing. The control group receives the usual standard of care. All four groups will receive weekly motivational messages; the three treatment groups will additionally receive reminders of their upcoming prize drawing. Adherence will be measured continuously throughout the intervention period using electronic devices and for 12 months post-intervention. Surveys will be conducted at baseline and every 6 months. Viral loads will be measured annually. The primary outcome is Wisepill-measured adherence and a binary measure for whether the person took at least 90% of their pills. The secondary outcome is the log-transformed viral load as a continuous measure.

DISCUSSION

Our study is one of the first to apply insights about the psychology and behavioral economics of goal-setting to the design of incentives, by testing whether conditioning the eligibility threshold for incentives on subgoals (interim goals leading up to the ultimate, high goal) improves motivation and adherence more than setting a uniformly highly goal, and a comparison group.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05378607. Date of registration: May 18, 2022.

Setting goal difficulty in monetary incentives to physicians: evidence from an online health knowledge-sharing platform

Purpose

Prior studies on the impact of incentives on physicians’ online participation mainly focused on different incentives while ignoring the difficulty of setting monetary incentives efficiently. Based on goal-setting theory, the current research examines the relationship between incentives with goals of varying difficulty and professional health knowledge sharing (PHKS) in online health knowledge-sharing platforms (OHKSPs).

Design/methodology/approach

Four field experiments with different monetary incentives were conducted by one of China’s largest OHKSPs, with whom the researchers cooperated in data collection. Monthly panel data on 10,584 physicians were collected from September 2018 to December 2019. There were 9,376 physicians in the treatment group and 1,208 in the control group. The authors used a difference-in-difference (DID) model to explore the research question based on the same control group and the Chow test with seemingly unrelated estimation (sureg) to compare regression coefficients between four groups. Several robustness checks were performed to validate the main results, including a relative time model, multiple falsification tests and a DID estimation using the propensity score matching method.

Findings

The results show that the monetary incentive significantly positively affected the volume of physicians’ PHKS directly with negative spillover to the duration of physicians’ PHKS. Moreover, the positive effect of incentives with higher difficulty on the volume of physicians’ PHKS was significantly smaller than that of incentives with low difficulty. Finally, professional title had a positive moderating effect on the volume of goal difficulty setting and did not significantly moderate the effect on the duration of physicians’ PHKS.

Research limitations/implications

Some limitations of this study are: firstly, because the field experiments were enterprise benefit oriented, the treatment and control groups were not balanced. Secondly, the experiments for different incentive measures were relatively similar, making it challenging to validate a causal effect. Finally, more consideration should be given to the strategy for setting hierarchical incentives in future research.

Originality/value

The research indicates that monetary incentives have a bilateral effect on PHKS, i.e. a positive direct effect on the volume of physicians’ contributions and a negative spillover effect on the duration of physicians’ PHKS. The professional titles of physicians also moderate such bilateral switches of PHKS. Furthermore, when a physician’s energy is limited, the goal difficulty setting of the incentive mechanism tends to be low. The more difficult the incentives are, the more inefficient the effects on physicians’ PHKS will be.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Performance Measurement Indicators Determining the Uptake of CPS for Facilities Management

With the use of cyber-physical systems (CPS) advanced computational capabilities, the delivery of facilities management (FM) mandates are efficiently and effectively conducted. Since performance measurement is an important yardstick in ascertaining the outcome of FM approaches, this study assesses the performance measurement indicators that influence the uptake of CPS for FM functions. Using a structured questionnaire, data were collected from built environment professionals in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Data collected was analysed using a five-stage process which includes: data reliability and validity, descriptive statistics, establishing a difference in groups’ opinion, principal component analysis, and model testing and fit statistics for confirmatory factor analysis. Results from the study indicate that three significant performance indicators are influential in determining the uptake of CPS for FM, which are operations efficiency, facility adaptation, and client’s satisfaction. The study contributes immensely to the body of knowledge. It unveils the significant performance measurement indicators that would help organisations, facilities managers, and policymakers guide their decisions hinged on the espousal of innovative technologies. Furthermore, the study serves as a solid theoretical base for further studies showcasing a roadmap for digitalisation for FM functions by unravelling the significant performance measurement indicators.

Effort-Optimized Intervention Model: Framework for Building and Analyzing Digital Interventions That Require Minimal Effort for Health-Related Gains

The majority of digital health interventions lean on the promise of bringing health and self-care into people’s homes and hands. However, these interventions are delivered while people are in their triggering environments, which places competing demands on their attention. Individuals struggling to change or learn a new behavior have to work hard to achieve even a minor change because of the automatic forces propelling them back to their habitual behaviors. We posit that effort and burden should be explored at the outset and throughout the digital intervention development process as a core therapeutic mechanism, beyond the context of design or user experience testing. In effort-focused conceptualization, it is assumed that, even though goals are rational and people want to achieve them, they are overtaken by competing cognitive, emotional, and environmental processes. We offer the term effort-optimized intervention to describe interventions that focus on user engagement in the face of competing demands. We describe design components based on a 3-step process for planning an effort-optimized intervention: (1) nurturing effortless cognitive and environmental salience to help people keep effort-related goals prominent despite competition; (2) making it as effortless as possible to complete therapeutic activities to avoid ego depletion and self-efficacy reduction; and (3) turning the necessary effortful activities into sustainable assets. We conclude by presenting an example of designing a digital health intervention based on the effort-optimized intervention model.

Daily change patterns in mindfulness and psychological health: A pilot intervention

OBJECTIVE

This study examined the differences in first-year college students' daily change trajectories in subjective happiness, depression, anxiety, stress, and state mindfulness.

METHOD

A 5-day, online mindfulness-based intervention (MI) condition and stress management (SM) condition were employed in 247 first-year college students.

RESULTS

Students in both the MI and SM conditions displayed similar significant linear declines in anxiety and stress, but there were significant differences between the two conditions, including: (1) the MI condition showing a significant linear increase in subjective happiness compared with no change in the SM condition and (2) the SM condition showed a significant linear decrease in depression compared to no significant change in the MI condition.

CONCLUSION

Brief online interventions-whether MI or SM-can promote better mental health and reduce psychological distress. The results also lend support for MI's differential influence on first-year college students' happiness and SM's differential influence on their depression.

Plastic frontal pole cortex structure related to individual persistence for goal achievement

Persistent goal-directed behaviours result in achievements in many fields. However, the underlying neural mechanisms of persistence and the methods that enhance the neuroplasticity underlying persistence, remain unclear. We here demonstrate that the structural properties of the frontal pole cortex (FPC) before tasks contain information that can classify Achievers and Non-achievers (goal-directed persistence) participating in three tasks that differ in time scale (hours to months) and task domains (cognitive, language, and motor learning). We also found that most Achievers exhibit experience-dependent neuroplastic changes in the FPC after completing language and motor learning tasks. Moreover, we confirmed that a coaching strategy that used subgoals modified goal-directed persistence and increased the likelihood of becoming an Achiever. Notably, we discovered that neuroplastic changes in the FPC were facilitated by the subgoal strategy, suggesting that goal-striving, using effective coaching, optimizes the FPC for goal persistence.

Hosoda et al. study the neurobiological underpinnings of goal pursuit and persistence. They use MRI data and identify areas in the frontal pole cortex that could predict performance on various tasks. They also show that coaching results in neuroplastic remodeling that increases the likelihood of goal persistence.

Beyond Willpower: Strategies for Reducing Failures of Self-Control

Almost everyone struggles to act in their individual and collective best interests, particularly when doing so requires forgoing a more immediately enjoyable alternative. Other than exhorting decision makers to "do the right thing," what can policymakers do to reduce overeating, undersaving, procrastination, and other self-defeating behaviors that feel good now but generate larger delayed costs? In this review, we synthesize contemporary research on approaches to reducing failures of self-control. We distinguish between self-deployed and other-deployed strategies and, in addition, between situational and cognitive intervention targets. Collectively, the evidence from both psychological science and economics recommends psychologically informed policies for reducing failures of self-control.

The association between the nature of the goal committed to and quitting smoking

Commitments to goals are theorized to affect behavior change outcomes, but competing theories argue for hard to achieve goals and strategic sub-goals as optimum strategies for success. This study aimed to explore whether the nature of the goal affects smoking cessation outcomes. A total of 1043 participants in a randomized controlled trial of variations to an automated computer generated cessation advice program, who had made a quit attempt were asked at 1 month post quit about the initial goal they had set at the time of making the attempt. They were also followed up at 6 months post quit. Compared with those reporting 'seeing how it will go', those who reported the goal of 'taking it a cigarette at a time' were less likely to be quit at 1 month, while those with the most ambitious goal, to 'never smoke again', were more likely to be quit, and were more likely to maintain abstinence for 6 months. Indeed, 'taking it a cigarette at a time' was associated with greater short-term relapse. There is likely to be a benefit in encouraging smokers to set ambitious long-term goals rather than setting intermediate or non-specific goals.

The Effects of Proximal and Distal Goalson Goal Level, Strategy Development, and Group Performance

It was hypothesized that team members working toward short-term and long-term goals would perform better than teams only working toward long-term goals, because the former would invest more time and energy in efforts to develop effective task strategies. Thirty-one teams of nurse surveyors working in a state department of health set goals to improve the accuracy of their reports. One-half the groups set a long-term goal for accuracy (the level of accuracy they would ultimately try to achieve over the next 6 to 9 months). The other groups set a long-term goal and one or two short-term goals to serve as intermediate steps. Results showed that although team members in the short-term-plus-long-term-goal condition performed better than those in the long-term-goal condition, strategy development did not mediate this effect. Instead, group members in the short-term-plus-long-term-goal condition set more difficult long-term goals, and more difficult goals led to better performance.

On the Costs and Benefits of Ignorance: How Performance Satisfaction is Affected by Knowing the Standard Prior to Performance

Subjects in two experiments performed a novel task. They were given a performance standard either before or after performance. Half the subjects were given performance feedback indicating that performance exceeded the standard (i.e., success); the other half were given performance feedback indicating that performance was below the standard (i.e., failure). The findings indicate that the timing of the presentation of the standard influences the affective reaction to performance. Subjects who received the standard after performance were more satisfied (in the success condition) or more dissatisfied (in the failure condition) than those who received the standard prior to performance. Experiment 2 also included variations in the timing of the presentation of the standard and in the feedback following performance. No systematic differences were found between these conditions. Implications of these findings of models of performance evaluation are discussed.

Self-Efficacy, Valence of Self-Evaluation, and Performance

In two experiments, self efficacy theory was used to conceptualize the effect of efficacy expectancies and valence of self-evaluation on performance. In Experiment 1, efficacy expectancies were manipulated by practice item difficulty and feedback, and self-evaluation was manipulated by providing a standard of comparison. In Experiment 2, efficacy expectancies developed spontaneously while participants performed easy or difficult tasks, and the potential for self-evaluation was crossed with the potential for experimenter evaluation. In both experiments, as predicted, in the high-efficacy condition, self-evaluation participants performed better than no-self-evaluation participants, whereas in the low-efficacy condition, self-evaluation participants performed worse than no-self-evaluation participants. In addition, in Experiment 2, the equivalence of self-evaluation and experimenter evaluation was demonstrated. Implications for self-effcacy and self evaluation processes are discussed.

Cognitive Self-efficacy in Relation to Personal Mastery and Goal Setting across the Life Span

This article is an integrative review of empirical studies of cognitive self-efficacy from childhood through old age. Issues of definition and measurement are addressed and the relation of self-efficacy to personal mastery is evaluated. Research on academic achievement in children and adolescents, complex decision-making in young adults, and memory and intellectual functioning in older adults supports a variety of theoretically driven hypotheses regarding the sources and effects of self-efficacy. Percepts of self-efficacy are based on a variety of sources of information, including personal mastery and perceived control beliefs. Self-efficacy has predictable effects on a variety of task engagement variables (e.g. persistence, effort, goal setting, strategy usage, chioce) that mediate the relationship between self-efficacy and performance. Generalisations regarding the applicability of self-efficacy to understanding cognitive development across the life span are discussed in terms of age-relevant domains and it is argued that a life span treatment of self-efficacy development is particularly compelling because both life span theory and self-efficacy theory emphasise domain specificity.

Self-Efficacy and Planning as Predictors of Physical Activity in the Context of Workplace Health Promotion

BACKGROUND

Fostering self-efficacy and planning in individuals can support the uptake and maintenance of regular physical activity. This study examined self-efficacy and planning as mechanisms of an online-delivered workplace health promotion intervention to enhance employees' physical activity. A special focus lay on reciprocal interrelations among self-efficacy and planning over time, as previous work predominantly accounted for only one predictive direction at a time.

METHODS

Data from N = 1,063 employees of a pharmaceutical company who reported an intention to increase their physical activity levels were assessed at three measurement points up to 12 weeks following the intervention. Cross-lagged panel analyses were performed to examine effects of self-efficacy and planning on physical activity as well as reciprocal interrelations between self-efficacy and planning.

RESULTS

Findings indicated an increase in self-efficacy, planning, and physical activity following the intervention. Planning was consistently linked to subsequent physical activity, whereas self-efficacy was not associated. Also, reciprocal interrelations among self-efficacy and planning were found across both measurement lags.

CONCLUSIONS

Planning was confirmed as a predictor of physical activity, whereas self-efficacy was not. However, cross-lagged interrelations indicated reciprocal reactivation among self-efficacy and planning over time, suggesting beneficial effects of including strategies that foster both volitional constructs in interventions.

Ambiguity tolerance and accurate assessment of self-efficacy in a complex decision task

Organizational decision making requires the ability to process ambiguous information while dealing with overload and conflicting requirements. Although researchers agree that ambiguity tolerance is a critical skill for making high-quality complex decisions, few have investigated the effects of ambiguity tolerance on self-efficacy to make complex decisions. In the current experiment, 151 participants were randomly assigned to either a moderate complexity or high complexity decision task. Ambiguity tolerance moderated the relationships between task complexity and self-efficacy, and between task complexity and the accuracy of self-efficacy in predicting future performance. In the highly complex task, individuals with a higher tolerance for ambiguity reported higher self-efficacy and more accurate self-efficacy versus individuals with lower tolerance for ambiguity. In the moderately complex task, tolerance for ambiguity had no effects on self-efficacy or accuracy. Implications for research and practice are presented, along with study limitations.

Ambiguity tolerance and accurate assessment of self-efficacy in a complex decision task

Organizational decision making requires the ability to process ambiguous information while dealing with overload and conflicting requirements. Although researchers agree that ambiguity tolerance is a critical skill for making high-quality complex decisions, few have investigated the effects of ambiguity tolerance on self-efficacy to make complex decisions. In the current experiment, 151 participants were randomly assigned to either a moderate complexity or high complexity decision task. Ambiguity tolerance moderated the relationships between task complexity and self-efficacy, and between task complexity and the accuracy of self-efficacy in predicting future performance. In the highly complex task, individuals with a higher tolerance for ambiguity reported higher self-efficacy and more accurate self-efficacy versus individuals with lower tolerance for ambiguity. In the moderately complex task, tolerance for ambiguity had no effects on self-efficacy or accuracy. Implications for research and practice are presented, along with study limitations.

Teenage goals and self-efficacy beliefs as precursors of adult career and family outcomes

The present study identified and examined patterns of goal importance and self-efficacy beliefs in mid- and late adolescence as predictors of work and family outcomes in adulthood. A pattern approach was applied to appropriately identify relationships among work- and family-related goal importance and self-efficacy beliefs. Using a sample of 995 individuals, five distinct patterns of work-family goal importance and self-efficacy beliefs emerged. Individuals who assigned comparable importance to work and family goals and expressed corresponding self-efficacy beliefs in adolescence were more likely to achieve career and family outcomes in adulthood than individuals who expressed a strong preference for one domain over the other. The results supported the idea that work and family can be coordinated for mutual benefit. Furthermore, findings from the pattern approach provided an integrative view of work-family motivation and goal achievement complementing findings from traditional methods such as regression analysis.

The role of action planning and plan enactment for smoking cessation

Background

Several studies have reemphasized the role of action planning. Yet, little attention has been paid to the role of plan enactment. This study assesses the determinants and the effects of action planning and plan enactment on smoking cessation.

Methods

One thousand and five participants completed questionnaires at baseline and at follow-ups after one and six months. Factors queried were part of the I-Change model. Descriptive analyses were used to assess which plans were enacted the most. Multivariate linear regression analyses were used to assess whether the intention to quit smoking predicted action planning and plan enactment, and to assess which factors would predict quitting behavior. Subsequently, both multivariate and univariate regression analyses were used to assess which particular action plans would be most effective in predicting quitting behavior. Similar analyses were performed among a subsample of smokers prepared to quit within one month.

Results

Smokers who intended to quit smoking within the next month had higher levels of action planning than those intending to quit within a year. Additional predictors of action planning were being older, being female, having relatively low levels of cigarette dependence, perceiving more positive and negative consequences of quitting, and having high self-efficacy toward quitting. Plan enactment was predicted by baseline intention to quit and levels of action planning. Regression analysis revealed that smoking cessation after six months was predicted by low levels of depression, having a non-smoking partner, the intention to quit within the next month, and plan enactment. Only 29% of the smokers who executed relatively few plans had quit smoking versus 59% of the smokers who executed many plans. The most effective preparatory plans for smoking cessation were removing all tobacco products from the house and choosing a specific date to quit.

Conclusion

Making preparatory plans to quit smoking is important because it also predicts plan enactment, which is predictive of smoking cessation. Not all action plans were found to be predictive of smoking cessation. The effects of planning were not very much different between the total sample and smokers prepared to quit within one month.

Savings, subgoals, and reference points

Decision makers often save money for a specific goal by forgoing discretionary consumption and instead putting the money toward the savings goal. We hypothesized that reference points can be exploited to enhance this type of saving. In two hypothetical scenario studies, subjects made judgments of their likelihood to forgo a small expenditure in order to put the money toward the savings goal. In Experiment 1, judgments were higher if the savings goal was presented as composed of weekly subgoals (e.g., save $60 per week to buy a $180 iPod). Experiment 2 replicated this finding and demonstrated that the subgoal manipulation increased judgments of likelihood to save money only when the money saved from the foregone consumption would allow the decision maker to meet the weekly subgoal exactly (not under or overshoot it). These results suggest a reference point mechanism and point to ways that behavioral decision research can be harnessed to improve economic behaviors.

Moving beyond job search quantity

Job seeking is an important aspect throughout people’s careers. Extant theory and research has focused on one particular dimension of job search, that is, intensity/effort (i.e., job search quantity), posing that intensity/effort importantly affects employment success. The present conceptual paper extends job search theory by arguing for the importance of job search quality in explaining job search and employment success. We conceptualize job search quality as consisting of process quality and product/behavior quality, and propose that high-quality job search products/behaviors are more likely with a high-quality job search process. A four-phased cyclical self-regulatory model is presented, specifying the components of job search process quality. We build theory regarding the interrelations between quality components, the antecedents and outcomes of job search quality, and the moderators of these relations. This theory offers new and more detailed explanations for previous findings, directions for future research, and practical guidelines regarding (re)employment success and services.

Self-efficacy as a moderator of the planning-behaviour relationship in interventions designed to promote physical activity

Individuals who lack perceived self-efficacy may benefit less from planning interventions because they fail to apply their plans when encountering situations that appear challenging. Thus, self-efficacy may operate as a moderator in relation to the effects of planning interventions on behaviour. This article reports from two experimental studies using cluster randomisation. Study 1 included 58 patients with diabetes who received a face-to-face action planning intervention to improve their physical activity levels. Study 2 targeted the roles of planning and self-efficacy for the maintenance of regular running and for relapse prevention in 187 active individuals over a 2-year period. The email-delivered intervention prompted specific goal setting and facilitated planning to mobilise social support to secure relapse prevention. Results of the two studies were consistent with a moderating effect of self-efficacy in relation to the planning-behaviour relationship. Individuals with high self-efficacy benefited from planning interventions. If a person lacks self-efficacy, planning may not effectively promote physical activity.

What are the most effective intervention techniques for changing physical activity self-efficacy and physical activity behaviour--and are they the same?

There is convincing evidence that targeting self-efficacy is an effective means of increasing physical activity. However, evidence concerning which are the most effective techniques for changing self-efficacy and thereby physical activity is lacking. The present review aims to estimate the association between specific intervention techniques used in physical activity interventions and change obtained in both self-efficacy and physical activity behaviour. A systematic search yielded 27 physical activity intervention studies for 'healthy' adults that reported self-efficacy and physical activity data. A small, yet significant (P < 0.01) effect of the interventions was found on change in self-efficacy and physical activity (d = 0.16 and 0.21, respectively). When a technique was associated with a change in effect sizes for self-efficacy, it also tended to be associated with a change (r(s) = 0.690, P < 0.001) in effect size for physical activity. Moderator analyses found that 'action planning', 'provide instruction' and 'reinforcing effort towards behaviour' were associated with significantly higher levels of both self-efficacy and physical activity. 'Relapse prevention' and 'setting graded tasks' were associated with significantly lower self-efficacy and physical activity levels. This meta-analysis provides evidence for which psychological techniques are most effective for changing self-efficacy and physical activity.

Dysregulation in level of goal and action identification across psychological disorders

Goals, events, and actions can be mentally represented within a hierarchical framework that ranges from more abstract to more concrete levels of identification. A more abstract level of identification involves general, superordinate, and decontextualized mental representations that convey the meaning of goals, events, and actions, "why" an action is performed, and its purpose, ends, and consequences. A more concrete level of identification involves specific and subordinate mental representations that include contextual details of goals, events, and actions, and the specific "how" details of an action. This review considers three lines of evidence for considering that dysregulation of level of goal/action identification may be a transdiagnostic process. First, there is evidence that different levels of identification have distinct functional consequences and that in non-clinical samples level of goal/action identification appears to be regulated in a flexible and adaptive way to match the level of goal/action identification to circumstances. Second, there is evidence that level of goal/action identification causally influences symptoms and processes involved in psychological disorders, including emotional response, repetitive thought, impulsivity, problem solving and procrastination. Third, there is evidence that the level of goal/action identification is biased and/or dysregulated in certain psychological disorders, with a bias towards more abstract identification for negative events in depression, GAD, PTSD, and social anxiety.

Randomized controlled trial of a brief research-based intervention promoting fruit and vegetable consumption

OBJECTIVE

The present study sought to test the efficacy of a brief research-based, leaflet-like intervention to promote eating the recommended daily intake of fruit and vegetables (RDIFV).

DESIGN

A controlled, pre- post-test experimental study with random allocation and a 1 week self-report behavioural follow-up was conducted.

METHOD

The intervention employed persuasive communication targeting self-efficacy and intention, and invited participants to form implementation intentions in relation to acquiring and preparing fruit and vegetables for consumption.

RESULTS

Intervention participants had stronger post-intervention intentions to consume the RDIFV, and higher anticipated regret in relation to failing to do so, compared with controls, controlling for pre-intervention scores. At follow-up, the intervention group was found to have eaten more fruit and vegetables and to have consumed the RDIFV more frequently.

DISCUSSION

It is concluded that this study supports the previously reported power of implementation intentions to prompt enactment of intentions, and that a brief research-based leaflet-like intervention could result in immediate enhancement of intentions and anticipated regret, and promote greater fruit and vegetable consumption.

Academic procrastination in college students: the role of self-reported executive function

Procrastination, or the intentional delay of due tasks, is a widespread phenomenon in college settings. Because procrastination can negatively impact learning, achievement, academic self-efficacy, and quality of life, research has sought to understand the factors that produce and maintain this troublesome behavior. Procrastination is increasingly viewed as involving failures in self-regulation and volition, processes commonly regarded as executive functions. The present study was the first to investigate subcomponents of self-reported executive functioning associated with academic procrastination in a demographically diverse sample of college students aged 30 years and below (n = 212). We included each of nine aspects of executive functioning in multiple regression models that also included various demographic and medical/psychiatric characteristics, estimated IQ, depression, anxiety, neuroticism, and conscientiousness. The executive function domains of initiation, plan/organize, inhibit, self-monitor, working memory, task monitor, and organization of materials were significant predictors of academic procrastination in addition to increased age and lower conscientiousness. Results enhance understanding of the neuropsychological correlates of procrastination and may lead to practical suggestions or interventions to reduce its harmful effects on students' academic performance and well-being.

Increasing Level of Aspiration by Matching Construal Level and Temporal Distance

The current research demonstrates that construal level has opposing effects on level of aspiration depending on the goal’s temporal distance: A concrete goal leads to a higher level of aspiration in the proximate future, but an abstract goal leads to a higher level of aspiration in the distant future. Two reasons are proposed for this interactive effect. First, these combinations of abstraction and distance afford functional advantages in goal pursuit. Second, given prior demonstrations of the relationship between concreteness and proximity on one hand and abstraction and distance on the other hand, these combinations provide value from fit in that goal pursuit subjectively seems appropriate and important. Taken together, this line of research points to one reason why prior research on the motivating effects of construal level has led to equivocal results by implicating the moderating role of temporal distance.

Efficacy of a single computer-tailored e-mail for smoking cessation: results after 6 months

To date, few Internet-delivered smoking cessation interventions have been tested. This study tested the efficacy, understandability, credibility and personal relevance of an e-mail-delivered computer-tailored smoking cessation intervention. It included tailored action plan feedback, as recent studies have demonstrated the importance of planning in facilitating quitting smoking. Participants (Dutch adults) were randomly assigned to the intervention (computer-tailored e-mail; N = 224) or the control group (generic, non-tailored e-mail; N = 234). The results 6 months after baseline (N = 195) showed that significantly more participants in the intervention group reported not having smoked in the last 24 hours (21.5%) and 7 days (20.4%) in contrast with participants in the control group (9.8 and 7.8%, respectively). Intention-to-treat analyses revealed similar results, though overall lower quitting percentages. Furthermore, participants in the intervention group appreciated the computer-tailored e-mail significantly more in terms of understandability, credibility and personal relevance. Hence, the computer-tailored intervention is effective for the Dutch smoking population motivated to quit smoking. Further research is needed into the efficacy of the intervention for smokers who are not motivated to quit smoking and into the benefits of (multiple) e-mail-delivered tailored letters with tailored action plan feedback over and above tailoring without action plan feedback.

What is the best way to change self-efficacy to promote lifestyle and recreational physical activity? A systematic review with meta-analysis

PURPOSE

Increasing self-efficacy is an effective method to increase physical activity. Despite this, the evidence concerning the most effective techniques to increase self-efficacy in physical activity interventions has not been systematically reviewed. The aim of the present research is to systematically gather, and meta-analyse, intervention studies which aimed to increase self-efficacy for physical activity; to estimate the association between intervention techniques used, and change in self-efficacy achieved.

METHODS

A systematic database search was conducted for papers reporting lifestyle or recreational physical activity interventions. Published intervention studies explicitly targeting self-efficacy in order to change physical activity behaviour in 'healthy' adults were eligible for inclusion.

RESULTS

The search strategy identified 27 unique physical activity intervention studies, with a total of 5,501 participants. A significant, yet small, relationship between the interventions and changes in self-efficacy was found (mean d=0.16, p<.001). Owing to significant heterogeneity, moderator analyses were conducted, examining the association of changes in self-efficacy with whether or not specific intervention techniques were used. Interventions that included feedback on past or others' performance produced the highest levels of self-efficacy found in this review. Vicarious experience was also associated with higher levels of self-efficacy. Persuasion, graded mastery, and barrier identification were associated with lower levels of self-efficacy.

CONCLUSIONS

This meta-analysis forms an evidence base for which psychological techniques are most effective in increasing self-efficacy for physical activity. The results are presented in terms of recommendations for those developing interventions and directions for future research.

Reliability and validity of the Exercise Self-Regulatory Efficacy Scale for individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

BACKGROUND

Exercise has important benefits for individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, to sustain long-term benefits of exercise, adherence is needed. Adherence requires self-regulation. No scale is available to measure exercise self-regulation in individuals with COPD.

OBJECTIVES

We developed and tested the reliability and validity of an "Exercise Self-Regulatory Efficacy Scale (Ex-SRES)" for individuals with COPD.

METHODS

A convenience sample of 109 subjects with COPD was recruited. Cronbach's alpha was used to assess the internal consistency reliability of the Ex-SRES. Subjects' exercise behaviors and health status were used to assess the validity of the Ex-SRES.

RESULTS

The Ex-SRES demonstrated evidence of reliability (Cronbach's alpha .917) and validity (correlation with minutes of exercise per week [r = .41; P < .0001] and health status [r = .37; P < .0001]).

CONCLUSION

The Ex-SRES is a short (16-items) and easy to use questionnaire that may be valuable for assessing patients in clinical settings, as well as for future research studies in behaviors related to exercise.

Exercise Adherence in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: An Exploration of Motivation and Goals

Adherence to an exercise regimen is challenging. Motivation is an important factor that can enhance exercise adherence. A key component of motivation is the setting and accomplishment of specified goals. Therefore, it is important to understand the relationship between patients' motivation and goals. Motivation and goal orientation in 14 participants with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were assessed. Participants were also interviewed to explore their exercise and activity goals. Motivation was significantly associated with goal orientation. In addition, participants reported many explicit activity goals, but few participants had set specific exercise goals. The inconsistency between activity and exercise goals has not been reported previously. Findings from this preliminary study provide novel and relevant information that may help care providers understand factors that may influence exercise adherence in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Self-efficacy and work-related performance: The integral role of individual differences

The present study estimated the unique contribution of self-efficacy to work-related performance controlling for personality (the Big 5 traits), intelligence or general mental ability, and job or task experience. Results, based on a meta-analysis of the relevant literatures, revealed that overall, across all studies and moderator conditions, the contribution of self-efficacy relative to purportedly more distal variables is relatively small. Within moderator categories, there were several cases in which self-efficacy made unique contributions to work-related performance. For example, self-efficacy predicted performance in jobs or tasks of low complexity but not those of medium or high complexity, and self-efficacy predicted performance for task but not job performance. Overall, results suggest that the predictive validity of self-efficacy is attenuated in the presence of individual differences, though this attenuation does depend on the context.

Memory performance and beliefs as a function of goal setting and aging

This research examined the impact of goals on memory and memory beliefs. Older and younger adults completed memory beliefs questionnaires and list recall at baseline. After additional recall trials, the questionnaires were repeated. In Experiment 1, participants were assigned to low challenge or high challenge goals. In Experiment 2, moderate challenge goals were compared to control. In both studies, participants were given a specific goal based on their own performance and received positive feedback for memory gains. Both older and younger adults responded to the goals, showing improved performance across trials, with little change in the control condition. Memory beliefs changed in the moderate and low challenge goal conditions, showing more striking changes for the older groups. These results confirmed that self-regulatory processes related to goal setting can have considerable impact on memory across the adult life span.

Perceived self-efficacy and everyday problem solving among young and older adults

This research tested the hypothesis that age differences in both self-efficacy perceptions and problem-solving performance would vary as a function of the ecological relevance of problems to young and older adults. The authors developed novel everyday problem-solving stimuli that were ecologically representative of problems commonly confronted by young adults (young-adult problems), older adults (older adult problems), or both (common problems). Performance on an abstract problem solving task lacking in ecological representativeness (the Tower of Hanoi problem) also was examined. Although young persons had higher self-efficacy beliefs and performance levels on the Tower of Hanoi task problem and the young-adult problems, this pattern reversed in the domain of older adult problems, where the self-efficacy beliefs and performance of older persons exceeded those of the young.

Effects of Training Goals and Goal Orientation Traits on Multidimensional Training Outcomes and Performance Adaptability

This research examined the effects of mastery vs. performance training goals and learning and performance goal orientation traits on multidimensional outcomes of training. Training outcomes included declarative knowledge, knowledge structure coherence, training performance, and self-efficacy. We also examined the unique impact of the training outcomes on performance adaptability by predicting generalization to a more difficult and complex version of the task. The experiment involved 60 trainees learning a complex computer simulation over 2 days. The research model posited independent effects for training goals relative to goal orientation traits and independent contributions of training outcomes to the performance adaptability of trainees. The findings were consistent with the proposed model. In particular, self-efficacy and knowledge structure coherence made unique contributions to the prediction of performance adaptability after controlling for prior training performance and declarative knowledge. Implications and extensions are discussed. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Goal-setting, self-efficacy, and memory performance in older and younger adults

Research in field and laboratory settings has shown that goals lead to improved self-efficacy and performance, especially when individuals also receive positive feedback. The present study extended goal-setting theory to examine self-set goals and feedback in relation to younger and older adults' memory performance and self-efficacy. Following a baseline recall trial, participants completed three shopping list recall trials. Half of the participants were instructed to set goals for the three experimental trials, and half in each goal condition received performance feedback after each trial. Young adults' self-efficacy, clustering, and recall exceeded that of older adults. Goal setting increased self-efficacy for younger but not older adults, and it did not affect performance. Younger adults and participants in the feedback condition increased their goals across trials, as did participants for whom feedback indicated success. These data provide a first look at the motivational impact of feedback and self-set recall goals in memory aging. Additional study is needed to understand the interactive effects of type of feedback, memory task difficulty, and type of goal setting at different ages.