Successful Goal Attainment: Longitudinal Effects of Goal Commitment and Implicit Motives Among German and Zambian Adolescents

Goal commitment typically relates to successful goal realization. Yet, individuals differ in how much their goals correspond to their implicit motives. We hypothesized that for those adolescents high in a given implicit motive, goal commitment and goal success in the corresponding motive domain (i.e., achievement, affiliation, power) are more closely related than for those low in the implicit motive. Data were assessed in an individualistic (Germany) and a collectivistic cultural context (Zambia) on two measurement occasions (i.e., T1: Picture Story Exercise for implicit motives; T1 and T2: GOALS questionnaire for goal commitment and success, respectively). Goal success at T2 was reliably predicted by goal importance and goal success at T1, respectively. The hypothesized interaction was found only for the implicit power motive but not for the implicit needs of achievement and affiliation, respectively. Results were equivalent across adolescents' cultural backgrounds. Findings are discussed with respect to motive-specific effects on goal dimensions.

Discrepancies Between Explicit Feelings of Power and Implicit Power Motives Are Related to Anxiety in Women With Anorexia Nervosa

Background

Several studies identified low subjective feelings of power in women with anorexia nervosa (AN). However, little is known about implicit power motives and the discrepancy between explicit feelings of power and implicit power motives in AN.

Aim

The study investigated the discrepancy between explicit feelings of power and implicit power motives and its relationship to anxiety in patients with AN.

Method

Fifty-three outpatients and inpatients with AN and 48 participants without AN were compared regarding subjective feelings of power and anxiety. Explicit power [investigated with the Personal Sense of Power Scale (trait focus) and a visual analog scale (state focus)], implicit power motives [investigated with the Multi-Motive Grid (MMG)] and trait anxiety [measured with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)], were assessed.

Results

Explicit feelings of power (state and trait level) were lower in patients with AN compared to non-AN participants. No differences in implicit power motives were found when comparing the groups against each other. However, looking at the groups separately, women with AN had similar levels of implicit fear of losing power and hope for power, whereas woman without AN had significantly lower fear of losing power than hope for power. Focusing on discrepancies between powerful feelings and power motives, results were mixed, depending on the subscale of the MMG. Lastly, discrepancies between implicit power motives and explicit feelings of power were positively correlated with trait anxiety in AN patients.

Conclusion

These findings underline that individuals with AN display significantly lower explicit feelings of power, however, they show similar implicit power motives compared to individuals without AN. The discrepancy between explicit feelings of power and implicit power motives is related to anxiety in AN and may represent a vulnerability factor to illness maintenance.

Explicit and Implicit Basic Human Motives, and Public Service Motivation

This article contributes to the literature on the roots of Public Service Motivation (PSM) by turning to the psychological theory of basic human motives. The study explores the differential associations of explicit and implicit basic human motives with PSM, Attraction to Policy-Making (APM), Commitment to the Public Interest (CPI), Compassion (COM), and Self-Sacrifice (SS). Methodologically, the research contributes to the literature by introducing a measurement instrument new to Public Administration: the Brief Implicit Association Test (BIAT). The BIAT is an easy-to-use and flexible tool to probe into the human unconsciousness, offering ample opportunities for further research in Public Administration and Management.

Implicit Motives, Laterality, Sports Participation and Competition in Gymnasts

The implicit motivational needs for power, achievement, and affiliation are relevant for sports performance. Due to their hypothesized association with functions of the right hemisphere (McClelland, 1986), they may influence lateralized perceptual and motor processes. And due to their interactions with motive-specific incentives, they may influence performance conditional on the presence of suitable incentives. This preregistered study, conducted mostly online, examines motivational needs using a standard picture-story exercise (PSE) and their associations with indicators of perceptual and motor laterality and sports performance in gymnasts (N = 67). Further it explores how implicit motives interact with suitable motivational incentives in the prediction of sports performance. Results partly confirm a link between indicators of cerebral rightward laterality and implicit motives: the implicit affiliation and achievement motives are positively associated with an indicator of emotional-perceptional laterality (chimeric-faces task), but not with an indicator of motor laterality (turning bias). Moreover, the implicit achievement motive was positively correlated with training hours. The implicit affiliation motive was negatively associated with the highest attained competition level. The presence of achievement incentives (perceived control, failure) and affiliation incentives (training together or alone) did not interact with corresponding motives to predict sports performance.

Adult Attachment, Implicit Motives, and Mothers' and Fathers' Parenting Behaviors

The current study investigated connections between implicit motives of power and affiliation, adult attachment styles, and parenting behaviors using self-report and observational data from 191 mothers, fathers, and their 12-month-old infants. An interaction between avoidant attachment and nAffiliation indicated that implicit affiliation motives predicted positive maternal behaviors, but only for highly avoidant mothers. For fathers, lower attachment anxiety and nPower were associated with positive parenting behaviors, whereas high levels of attachment anxiety and nPower were associated with negative parenting behaviors. Attachment styles of avoidance and anxiety, as well as implicit motives of power and affiliation, were unique predictors of parenting behaviors. Overall, the findings suggest that parenting behaviors in the first year of infancy are predicted by parents' working models of attachment and implicit motives of affiliation and power.

Do Implicit Motives Influence Perceived Chronic Stress and Vital Exhaustion?

Vital exhaustion (VE) results from the experience of chronic stress. However, research on stress types and their relation to VE is rare. Moreover, the role of implicit motives in these processes has not yet been investigated. Analysis included 101 vitally exhausted men aged 40-65 years. Participants provided self-report data on their experience of chronic stress and social support. Subtypes of work-related and social stress were positively associated with VE. Implicit affiliation and achievement motives were linked to social support and chronic stress, and indirectly to VE. Moreover, they moderated the relationship between stress and exhaustion. In conclusion, implicit motives are key factors in the stress process: They are involved in an individual's experience of stress and stress-related consequences for mental health.

A Narrative Review of Empirical Studies

Although growing research indicates that certain personality traits change over the lifespan, implicit motives are often deemed to be rather stable personality characteristics. Researchers have been interested in implicit motives for several decades, but our understanding of how these dispositions change still lacks clarity. This article gives an overview and a discussion of the current evidence for the stability of and the changes in implicit motives. After elaborating on the theoretical background of the motive construct and its measurement, we present an overview of studies that have investigated the trainability of implicit motives and their dispositional stability and changes using cross-sectional and longitudinal methods. Although the results are inconclusive concerning the direction of change, the reviewed studies suggest that implicit motives adapt to life circumstances much like other personality traits. This review sets out to contribute to a better understanding of the functioning of implicit motives and to present a roadmap for further research.

Implicit Motives as Determinants of Networking Behaviors

In today's world of work, networking behaviors are an important and viable strategy to enhance success in work and career domains. Concerning personality as an antecedent of networking behaviors, prior studies have exclusively relied on trait perspectives that focus on how people feel, think, and act. Adopting a motivational perspective on personality, we enlarge this focus and argue that beyond traits predominantly tapping social content, motives shed further light on instrumental aspects of networking - or why people network. We use McClelland's implicit motives framework of need for power (nPow), need for achievement (nAch), and need for affiliation (nAff) to examine instrumental determinants of networking. Using a facet theoretical approach to networking behaviors, we predict differential relations of these three motives with facets of (1) internal vs. external networking and (2) building, maintaining, and using contacts. We conducted an online study, in which we temporally separate measures (N = 539 employed individuals) to examine our hypotheses. Using multivariate latent regression, we show that nAch is related to networking in general. In line with theoretical differences between networking facets, we find that nAff is positively related to building contacts, whereas nPow is positively related to using internal contacts. In sum, this study shows that networking is not only driven by social factors (i.e., nAff), but instead the achievement motive is the most important driver of networking behaviors.

A Brief Mindfulness Exercise Promotes the Correspondence Between the Implicit Affiliation Motive and Goal Setting

People often choose to pursue goals that are dissociated from their implicit motives, which jeopardizes their motivation and well-being. We hypothesized that mindfulness may attenuate this dissociation to the degree that it increases sensitivity to internal cues that signal one's implicit preferences. We tested this hypothesis with a longitudinal repeated measures experiment. In Session 1, participants' implicit affiliation motive was assessed. In Session 2, half of the participants completed a mindfulness exercise while the other half completed a control task before indicating their motivation toward pursuing affiliation and nonaffiliation goals. In Session 3, this procedure was repeated with reversed assignment to conditions. The results confirmed our hypothesis that, irrespective of the order of the conditions, the implicit affiliation motive predicted a preference to pursue affiliation goals immediately after the mindfulness exercise, but not after the control task. We discuss implications of these findings for satisfaction and well-being.

Enhancing Congruence between Implicit Motives and Explicit Goal Commitments: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial

Objective: Theory and research suggest that the pursuit of personal goals that do not fit a person's affect-based implicit motives results in impaired emotional well-being, including increased symptoms of depression. The aim of this study was to evaluate an intervention designed to enhance motive-goal congruence and study its impact on well-being. Method: Seventy-four German students (mean age = 22.91, SD = 3.68; 64.9% female) without current psychopathology, randomly allocated to three groups: motivational feedback (FB; n = 25; participants learned about the fit between their implicit motives and explicit goals), FB + congruence-enhancement training (CET; n = 22; participants also engaged in exercises to increase the fit between their implicit motives and goals), and a no-intervention control group (n = 27), were administered measures of implicit motives, personal goal commitments, happiness, depressive symptoms, and life satisfaction 3 weeks before (T1) and 6 weeks after (T2) treatment. Results: On two types of congruence measures derived from motive and goal assessments, treated participants showed increases in agentic (power and achievement) congruence, with improvements being most consistent in the FB+CET group. Treated participants also showed a trend-level depressive symptom reduction, but no changes on other well-being measures. Although increases in overall and agentic motivational congruence were associated with increases in affective well-being, treatment-based reduction of depressive symptoms was not mediated by treatment-based agentic congruence changes. Conclusion: These findings document that motivational congruence can be effectively enhanced, that changes in motivational congruence are associated with changes in affective well-being, and they suggest that individuals' implicit motives should be considered when personal goals are discussed in the therapeutic process.

Religiosity and the Motivation for Social Affiliation

Although universal, the motivation to affiliate can vary as a function of individual differences and of the characteristics of the target. Three studies explored the extent to which religious beliefs and identity are related to social affiliation motivation. Because most religions advocate affiliation and provide opportunities for frequent experiences of affiliation, we reasoned that religious people might show greater affiliation motivation in everyday attitudes and behaviors. We found that religiosity was positively related to implicit and behavioral measures of general social affiliation (Studies 1 and 2). However, manipulating the identity of the affiliation target revealed that when affiliating might not lead to positive outcomes, the relation between religiosity and social affiliation disappeared (but did not reverse). In Studies 2 and 3, when the target of the affiliation was explicitly identified as a member of a threatening out-group (atheist), religiosity did not predict affiliation behaviors. We discuss the mechanisms by which religiosity motivates and constrains social affiliation and the potential implications for social influence and intergroup processes.

Need for Affiliation as a Motivational Add-On for Leadership Behaviors and Managerial Success

In a sample of 70 leader-follower dyads, this study examines the separate and interactive effects of the leaders' implicit needs for power, achievement, and affiliation on leadership behaviors and outcomes. Results show that whereas the need for achievement was marginally associated with follower-rated passive leadership, the need for affiliation was significantly related to ratings of the leaders' concern for the needs of their followers. Analyzing motive combinations in terms of interactive effects and accounting for the growing evidence on the value of affiliative concerns in leadership, we assumed the need for affiliation would channel the interplay among the needs for power and achievement in such a way that the leaders would become more effective in leading others. As expected, based on high need for achievement, the followers were more satisfied with their jobs and with their leaders and perceived more transformational leadership behavior if power-motivated leaders equally had a high need for affiliation. Moreover, the leaders indicated higher career success when this was the case. However, in indicators of followers' performance, the three-way interaction among the needs for power, achievement, and affiliation did not account for additional variance.

The Motivating Power of Visionary Images: Effects on Motivation, Affect, and Behavior

OBJECTIVE

Visionary images are identity-relevant, picture-like mental representations of a desirable and attainable future appearing regularly in a person's stream of thought. Prior research indicates that both mental and real images provide access to implicit motives. We therefore proposed that visionary images motivate people by arousing their implicit motives and tested this hypothesis in two experimental studies.

METHOD

We used guided visualizations to administer motive-domain-specific visionary images (Study 1: achievement and neutral, M_age  = 24.4, 51 participants, 34 women; Study 2: affiliation and power, M_age  = 24.01, 51 participants, 28 women) to arouse the respective implicit motive. Motivation was measured via residual changes in affective (i.e., changes in affective arousal), behavioral (i.e., performance on a concentration task, behavioral choices in a prisoner's dilemma), and mental (i.e., motive imagery in the Picture Story Exercise) indicators of motivation.

RESULTS

The results largely confirmed our hypothesis. Visionary images increased motivation in the targeted domain. Some effects were moderated by participants' implicit motives.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings underscore the role of implicit motives in understanding the motivational effectiveness of visionary images.

Meta-analytic evidence of low convergence between implicit and explicit measures of the needs for achievement, affiliation, and power

The correlation between implicit and explicit motive measures and potential moderators of this relationship were examined meta-analytically, using Hunter and Schmidt's (2004) approach. Studies from a comprehensive search in PsycINFO, data sets of our research group, a literature list compiled by an expert, and the results of a request for gray literature were examined for relevance and coded. Analyses were based on 49 papers, 56 independent samples, 6151 subjects, and 167 correlations. The correlations (ρ) between implicit and explicit measures were 0.130 (CI: 0.077–0.183) for the overall relationship, 0.116 (CI: 0.050–0.182) for affiliation, 0.139 (CI: 0.080–0.198) for achievement, and 0.038 (CI: −0.055–0.131) for power. Participant age did not moderate the size of these relationships. However, a greater proportion of males in the samples and an earlier publication year were associated with larger effect sizes.

Childhood context explains cultural variance in implicit parenting motivation: results from two studies with six samples from Cameroon, Costa Rica, Germany, and PR China

We investigated the effect of the childhood context variables number of siblings (study 1 and 2) and parental SES (study 2) on implicit parenting motivation across six cultural samples, including Africa (2xCameroon), Asia (PR China), Europe (2xGermany), and Latin America (Costa Rica). Implicit parenting motivation was assessed using an instrument measuring implicit motives (OMT, Operant Multimotive Test; Kuhl and Scheffer, 2001). Replicating and extending results from previous studies, regression analyses and structural equation models show that the number of siblings and parental SES explain a large amount of cultural variance, ranging from 64% to 82% of the cultural variance observed in implicit parenting motivation. Results are discussed within the framework of evolutionary developmental psychology.

Implicit motives predict affective responses to emotional expressions

We explored the influence of implicit motives and activity inhibition (AI) on subjectively experienced affect in response to the presentation of six different facial expressions of emotion (FEEs; anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise) and neutral faces from the NimStim set of facial expressions (Tottenham et al., 2009). Implicit motives and AI were assessed using a Picture Story Exercise (PSE) (Schultheiss et al., 2009b). Ratings of subjectively experienced affect (arousal and valence) were assessed using Self-Assessment Manikins (SAM) (Bradley and Lang, 1994) in a sample of 84 participants. We found that people with either a strong implicit power or achievement motive experienced stronger arousal, while people with a strong affiliation motive experienced less arousal and less pleasurable affect across emotions. Additionally, we obtained significant power motive × AI interactions for arousal ratings in response to FEEs and neutral faces. Participants with a strong power motive and weak AI experienced stronger arousal after the presentation of neutral faces but no additional increase in arousal after the presentation of FEEs. Participants with a strong power motive and strong AI (inhibited power motive) did not feel aroused by neutral faces. However, their arousal increased in response to all FEEs with the exception of happy faces, for which their subjective arousal decreased. These differentiated reaction patterns of individuals with an inhibited power motive suggest that they engage in a more socially adaptive manner of responding to different FEEs. Our findings extend established links between implicit motives and affective processes found at the procedural level to declarative reactions to FEEs. Implications are discussed with respect to dual-process models of motivation and research in motive congruence.

Relationships between implicit motives, self-attributed motives, and personal goal commitments

This research examined the relationships between measures of the implicit and the explicit motivational systems. We analyzed the relationships between picture-story measures of implicit motives, questionnaire measures of self-attributed motives, and ideographically assessed personal goal commitments within the domains achievement, affiliation, and power through a reanalysis of three data sets from the USA and Germany (total N = 309). No significant positive within-domain correlations of implicit motives with self-attributed motives or personal goal commitments were found, and self-attributed motives correlated substantially and positively with personal goals. Results did not systematically differ between data sets.

Implicit need for achievement predicts attenuated cortisol responses to difficult tasks

The present research tested the hypothesis that the implicit need for achievement (n Achievement) predicts attenuated cortisol (C) responses to difficult tasks, because it represents a propensity to view difficulty as a cue to mastery reward. In two studies, n Achievement was assessed through content-coding of imaginative stories and salivary C was assessed both at baseline and post-task. In Study 1 (N = 108 US students), n Achievement predicted an attenuated C response to a one-on-one competition in the laboratory, regardless of whether participants won or lost. In Study 2 (N = 62 German students), n Achievement predicted an attenuated C response to the Trier Social Stress Test (Kirschbaum, Pirke, & Hellhammer, 1993), but not to a non-stressful control task. In Study 2 only, the attenuating effect of n Achievement was moderated by gender, with only men showing the effect. Across both studies, the average effect size of the association between n Achievement and C responses to difficult tasks was r = -.28. These findings point to a role of n Achievement in emotion regulation.

Are implicit motives revealed in mere words? Testing the marker-word hypothesis with computer-based text analysis

Traditionally, implicit motives (i.e., non-conscious preferences for specific classes of incentives) are assessed through semantic coding of imaginative stories. The present research tested the marker-word hypothesis, which states that implicit motives are reflected in the frequencies of specific words. Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC; Pennebaker et al., 2001), Study 1 identified word categories that converged with a content-coding measure of the implicit motives for power, achievement, and affiliation in picture stories collected in German and US student samples, showed discriminant validity with self-reported motives, and predicted well-validated criteria of implicit motives (gender difference for the affiliation motive; in interaction with personal-goal progress: emotional well-being). Study 2 demonstrated LIWC-based motive scores' causal validity by documenting their sensitivity to motive arousal.

The role of the dorsoanterior striatum in implicit motivation: the case of the need for power

Implicit motives like the need for power (nPower) scale affective responses to need-specific rewards or punishments and thereby influence activity in motivational-brain structures. In this paper, we review evidence specifically supporting a role of the striatum in nPower. Individual differences in nPower predict (1) enhanced implicit learning accuracy, but not speed, on serial-response tasks that are reinforced by power-related incentives (e.g., winning or losing a contest; dominant or submissive emotional expressions) in behavioral studies and (2) activation of the anterior caudate in response to dominant emotional expressions in brain imaging research. We interpret these findings on the basis of Hikosaka et al.'s (2002a) model of central mechanisms of motor skill learning. The model assigns a critical role to the dorsoanterior striatum in dopamine-driven learning of spatial stimulus sequences. Based on this model, we suggest that the dorsoanterior striatum is the locus of nPower-dependent reinforcement. However, given the centrality of this structure in a wide range of motivational pursuits, we also propose that activity in the dorsoanterior striatum may not only reflect individual differences in nPower, but also in other implicit motives, like the need for achievement or the need for affiliation, provided that the proper incentives for these motives are present during reinforcement learning. We discuss evidence in support of such a general role of the dorsoanterior striatum in implicit motivation.

(In)Congruence of implicit and explicit communal motives predicts the quality and stability of couple relationships

OBJECTIVE

Previous research has shown that motive congruence, as observed in convergingly high or low scores on implicit and explicit motive measures, promotes well-being and health. Extending this individual perspective to the realm of couple relationships, the present investigation examined intra- and interpersonal effects of communal motive (in)congruence on relationship satisfaction and stability.

METHOD

The implicit partner-related need for communion, the explicit desire for closeness, and relationship satisfaction were assessed in a sample of 547 heterosexual couples aged 18 to 73 years. In a one-year follow-up study, information on relationship stability was obtained, and relationship satisfaction was reassessed. The researchers tested cross-sectional and longitudinal effects of motive (in)congruence by dyadic moderation analyses.

RESULTS

Individuals scoring congruently high on both motives reported the highest relationship satisfaction in concurrence with motive assessment and 1 year later. In addition, motive incongruence predicted an increased risk of relationship breakup over 1 year.

CONCLUSIONS

The results highlight the significance of both implicit and explicit motives for couple relationships. Motive incongruence was confirmed as a dispositional risk factor that so far has not been considered in couple research. Future research directions addressing potential mediators of the observed effects and potential moderators of motive (in)congruence are discussed.