Mental contrasting of counterfactual fantasies attenuates disappointment, regret, and resentment

Causality orientations and spontaneous mental contrasting

Mental contrasting is a motivational behavior change strategy necessary for strong goal commitment. Meanwhile, general causality orientations are motivational patterns that represent individuals' motivation for behavior change and the reason for their goal commitment. The current study explored whether causality orientations predict spontaneous mental contrasting in Chinese university students. Study 1 investigated whether academic autonomy, control, and amotivated orientations correlate with spontaneous mental contrasting about an important academic goal. The findings of Study 1 reveal that autonomy orientation did not correlate with mental contrasting, whereas control and amotivated orientations were negatively correlated with mental contrasting. Study 2 investigated whether priming autonomy and control orientations, in addition to the neutral condition, would induce spontaneous mental contrasting about an academic goal related to the students' research topic. The results of Study 2 revealed that the autonomy condition orientation did not differ significantly from the controlled orientation condition. However, when compared to the neutral condition, the autonomy condition significantly predicted mental contrasting, whereas the controlled orientation condition did not show any significant difference. In Study 2, the autonomy-oriented participants generated more spontaneous mental contrast than the control orientation and neutral conditions. The findings show that controlled and amotivated orientations predicted negative mental contrasting. As a result, controlled and amotivated students must learn how to use mental contrasting to achieve high levels of goal commitment and achievement. Lastly, the study discussed its implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research.

Mental contrasting and energization transfer to low-expectancy tasks

Mentally contrasting future with reality is a self-regulation strategy that triggers expectancy-dependent energization for tasks instrumental to attaining the desired future. Energization by mental contrasting even transfers to tasks unrelated to the desired future at hand. Would such energization transfer by mental contrasting even energize people to perform unrelated tasks for which they have low success expectations? In Laboratory Experiment 1, mentally contrasting (vs. indulging) about performing well in a creativity task triggered physiological energization and better performance in an unrelated low-expectancy cognitive task that participants received in place of the creativity task. In Field Experiment 2, mentally contrasting an interpersonal wish helped schoolchildren invest more effort and perform better in a low-expectancy academic task—finding typos. Online Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 2 with adults. Mental contrasting participants’ effort and performance in the low-expectancy academic task did not differ from their effort and performance in a high-expectancy task. We discuss implications for designing interventions to foster energization for low-expectancy tasks.