Melissa Ferguson - US grants

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Over the last 2 decades, researchers have demonstrated that people's attitudes toward objects are automatically activated upon perception of those objects (e.g., Bargh, 1989; Bargh, Chaiken, Governder, & Pratto , 1992; Fazio. Sanbonmatsu, Powell, & Kardes, 1986). The automatic nature of such attitudes means that they are activated without people's awareness. control, intention, or effort, and. like other automatic responses, are largely assumed to be rigid, impervious to change, slow to develop, and yet impactful on behavior (e.g., Bargh, 1989, 1999; McConnell & Leibold, 2001; Wilson, Lindsey & Schooler, 2000). In contrast to the prevailing notion of automatic attitudes as rigid responses, the current proposal tests the potential sensitivity of automatic attitudes from a motivational perspective. In particular, it is possible to conceptualize automatic attitudes as denotations of initial emotional experiences (see LeDoux, 1996). Given how emotions have been characterized as indicative of and sensitive to the perceiver's motivational state, automatic attitudes might similarly represent the meaningfulness of the respective objects according to the perceiver's current goals. That is, an automatic attitude toward an object might represent the degree to which that object facilitates or impedes the perceiver's currently active goals, according to both chronic and temporary goal knowledge. In this way, a motivational perspective on automatic attitudes predicts greater sensitivity and fluctuation than the existing predominant view of such attitudes. The proposed experiments will test the dependence of automatic attitudes on the goal-relevance of the respective objects as a function of the nature of the goal knowledge concerning the objects, The proposed experiments will test whether chronic as well as recently acquired knowledge about the goal-relevance of objects determines the automatic attitudes toward those objects. Not only does this view generate numerous hypotheses concerning the dynamic sensitivity of automatic attitudes, it reconnects the construct of such attitudes with earlier work on valences (Lewin, 1935) and motivationally-bound perception (e.g., Erdelyi, 1974).

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Research suggests that a perceiver's motivational state implicitly influences the accessibility of goal-relevant knowledge in memory. Further work has recently expanded on these findings by showing that the implicit effects of motivation on the accessibility of knowledge depend on the evaluative characteristics of that knowledge. These findings suggest that active goal pursuit automatically renders goal-facilitating objects approach-friendly by implicitly maximizing positive object-information and minimizing negative object-information. Given that implicit evaluations have been shown to influence behavior and judgment, such approach-friendly evaluations should make the perceiver more likely to approach the goal-facilitating objects and thereby attain the goal. The current proposal seeks to examine the role of implicit evaluations in effective versus dysfunctional self-regulation. To do so, the proposal first examines whether goal-harmful objects are implicitly evaluated in a more repelling fashion (positive object-information inhibited, or negative object-information accessible, or both) during goal pursuit. Second, the proposal tests whether and how approach-friendly and repelling automatic evaluations enable successful self-regulation. Third, the proposal examines different bases of implicit evaluations (whether they emerge from facilitory versus inhibitory processes), and their implications for effective regulation. By examining the role of automatic evaluative processes in self-regulation, the proposal aims to identify some of the low-level, cognitive mechanisms that allow people to more successfully attain their goals and regulate their behavior. [unreadable] [unreadable]

One of the oldest mysteries of human behavior concerns when and why people are able to stick successfully to their most important goals. For example, what distinguishes the person who is able to give up smoking, or refrain from overeating, or stay in school from someone is unable to do so? This research project, which includes 3 experiments, focuses specifically on the role of non-conscious mental processes in successful self-control behavior. The first experiment examines when a goal (e.g., staying healthy and thin) might increase people's negative evaluations of activities or behaviors that would compromise the goal (e.g., fatty and unhealthy foods). The second experiment focuses on how a goal leads to such changes in people's evaluations of stimuli that might influence the pursuit of the goal. The third experiment examines whether it is possible to experimentally alter people's non-conscious mental processes in order to improve their ability to stick to the goals they identify as most important to them. A fundamental strength of this proposal is that it examines the role of non-conscious mental processes in successful self-control. By addressing key questions about how and when goals change people's evaluations of the stimuli around them, this work has the potential to significantly transform the field's understanding of effective self-control. In addition, findings from this research are likely to inform the development of new interventions and therapies for improving people's self-control.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Psychological research on goal pursuit and self-regulation has traditionally examined how people's explicit evaluations of their goals influence their ability to successfully meet those goals. The more a person reports wanting and desiring a particular goal, the more likely he or she will pursue and meet that goal (e.g., Carver &Sheier, 1981;Locke &Latham, 1990). More recently, there has been a new wave of research that addresses the role of implicit evaluations in goal pursuit and self-regulation. Preliminary research has suggested that people's motivation and ability to successfully attain a given goal depends to some extent on the evaluative information that becomes unintentionally and spontaneously activated in memory whenever the goal is activated (Custers &Aarts, 2005;Ferguson &Bargh, 2004;Ferguson, 2007, in press). Specifically, the more positivity is implicitly associated with an abstract goal word (e.g., "equality") in memory, the more the person makes choices and behaves in line with the respective goal. The current proposal seeks to answer fundamental questions in this new line of research. First and foremost, the proposed research will examine whether the positivity associated with an abstract goal in memory has a causal influence on goal success (Question 1). The methodological strategy to address this question will be to experimentally increase the implicit positivity associated with goals in memory (or not) and then measure the successful pursuit of those goals. Second, this work will identify whether and why implicit evaluations of different types of goal-related information - abstract versus concrete - differentially facilitate the successful pursuit of that goal (Question 2). The approach for answering this second question will be to compare the effect of increasing implicit positivity associated with abstract versus concrete goal information in memory on successful goal-pursuit. Third, this research will compare the predictive validity of implicit versus explicit evaluations of goals under various circumstances (Question 3). Specifically, the strategy to address this third question will be to examine the influence of self-presentational norms, as well as the variable of spontaneous versus overt goal pursuit, on the predictive validity of implicit and explicit evaluations of abstract goal words for motivated behavior. Overall, the current proposed work addresses significant theoretical as well as practical questions related to implicit evaluative processing in self-regulation, and holds considerable translational value in terms of applications to both diagnosis and treatment within the mental health field. Moreover, this proposed work is uniquely well suited to a life span perspective. Recent research has shown that the influence of positive affective information increases as people move into late adulthood (e.g., Carstensen &Mikels, 2005). It follows that the current proposed work on implicit evaluative processing in motivation may be directly applicable to this population. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: An increased understanding of the psychological processes underlying effective self-regulation has tremendous implications for the field of mental health (e.g., Baumeister &Heatherton, 1996;Heatherton &Ambady, 1993;Higgins, 1997;Metcalfe &Mischel, 1999). The current proposed work addresses significant theoretical as well as practical questions related to implicit evaluative processing in self-regulation, and holds considerable translational value in terms of applications to both diagnosis and treatment within the mental health field. This work also has the potential to inform the further development of an extensive research agenda on this topic from a lifespan perspective.

How do the ideals and values associated with a nation influence its citizens? On a daily basis, the ethos of a nation is invoked in public discourse concerning current events, policies, scandals, and crises. People commonly express allegiance to national values and ideas, even citing them as reasons to die for their country. And yet, despite considerable speculation in the social sciences on how national cues might influence the citizenry in both subtle and obvious ways, there is surprisingly scarce empirical work revealing exactly how and when that happens.

The proposed research breaks new ground in understanding the implicit and explicit influence of symbols of nationalism on people's everyday attitudes, decisions, and behaviors. The researchers plan to identify situations in which the implicit processing of cues to nationalism increases, versus decreases, prejudice and bias toward people of racial and ethnic outgroups. The studies focus on helping behavior as an ecologically valid and important consequence of prejudice. The proposed studies use cutting-edge as well as classical methods, in the lab and field, to test the implications this research for helping people from similar versus different racial and ethnic groups.

The proposed work will produce a significant amount of research activity that will involve undergraduates, graduate students, and other faculty in a broadly collaborative effort. The researcher is also developing a research lab website that will make available for download the data, tasks, and measures used in the research, in order to increase collaborative efforts and extensions. The website will also have a significant public outreach component aimed at increasing the general public's knowledge of cutting edge research on nationalism, prejudice, and helping behavior.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A voluminous amount of empirical evidence in the social and medical sciences attests to people's everyday difficulties in regulating their behavior according to long-term goals rather than short-term temptations. Such difficulty in meeting one's long-term goals has serious consequences for mental and physical health, at both the societal and individual level. High prevalence rates of obesity, smoking, binge drinking, and drug addictions are just some of the overt manifestations of people's difficulty with self-regulation. Social psychologists have focused recently on how self-regulation operates according to implicit (unintentional, non-conscious) processes, and argue that an important determinant of successful goal pursuit is having in place certain automatic reactions to the environment, which guide the person toward functional behaviors without requiring a lot of effort or thought. For example, when the cigarette smoker who is trying to quit sees a passer-by smoking, she will be better able to resist asking for a cigarette if her automatic reaction to the cigarette is immediatly and spontaneously negative, rather than positive. But, the critical question in this line of research is how can people who do not have such functional automatic reactions to goals acquire them? Recent findings suggest that changing one's evaluative associations with goals and temptations through an implicit paradigm might effectively alter the person's behavior toward those goals. The current research application tests the causal impact and durability of altering self-regulation through an evaluative learning paradigm. Given that research has shown that decision-making and self-regulatory capacities change developmentally, the proposed work also tests the success of this evaluative conditioning procedure across the lifespan. The proposed work tests two critical questions about the causal impact and durability of improving self-regulation through an evaluative conditioning paradigm across the lifespan. Research Question 1 tests the exact circumstances under which acquiring positive versus negative associations with one's long-term goals leads to better goal pursuit. Research Question 2 of the proposed work tests whether the success of changing people's implicit goal evaluations varies across age groups. This research application has significant theoretical value in that it tests the causal influence of evaluative conditioning for behavior, and identifies the direction of that influence under various theoretically relevant circumstances. The proposed work also has tremendous practical value in that it seeks to identify a relatively easy and quick way to alter people's automatic evaluative reactions to the world around them with concomitant adaptive behavioral changes. Such findings would possess considerable translational value in terms of informing and advancing treatment within the fields of mental and physical health and self- regulation.

People often have trouble regulating their behavior according to their professed long-term goals. Many people enthusiastically want to meet broad goals, such as health and fitness, but have trouble enacting the effortful, resource-consuming actions that are required to do so. For example, many people who are strongly committed to increasing their physical fitness may plan with all earnestness on getting to the gym every morning or taking the stairs instead of the elevator, but ultimately fail to do so. These kinds of self-control failures are common and have wide-scale consequences for mental and physical health. Psychological science has shown that to understand self-control, it is not enough to merely measure what people say they think and feel about a goal and the actions needed to get to that goal. Instead, it is necessary to also measure people's spontaneous and uncontrollable thoughts and feelings about goals and the means for achieving those goals. This type of implicit cognition can predict who will and who may not end up successfully enacting the difficult activities required to reach their goals. Laboratory experiments and a field study with high school students will improve our understanding of how people frame, strengthen, and bolster their behaviors in self-control dilemmas. The research will ultimately have applications in understanding health, education, and personal finances.

This project examines a neglected aspect of the psychology of self-control: people's implicit beliefs about the importance of means. In addition to knowing how much someone desires a broad goal, it is also necessary to know a person's beliefs about the importance of the actions needed to reach that goal. For example, one might greatly desire to be fit, but unless they regard the difficult actions required to become fit as important and critical, they may not enact those behaviors. The hypothesis tested across the studies in this project is that people's implicit beliefs about the importance of means will uniquely predict their success at self-control. Some of the studies use an established measure of implicit importance. Other studies develop an innovative new measure that captures people's nonconscious beliefs about the importance of goal-relevant actions. The studies also examine the self-control domains of physical fitness and academic performance among college and high school students. A final study includes high school students in underserved communities who are trying to get into college. This study follows these students across a school year, measures the students' implicit beliefs about the importance of school-related actions (using two different measures), and predicts critical outcomes such as grades and college entry. The fields of self-control and goal-pursuit might be transformed by introducing the role of implicit importance. By focusing on evidence that implicit importance predicts behavioral outcomes, this project offers the potential to advance an underdeveloped topic in the research literature on self-control. This project is supported by a partnership between the National Science Foundation and the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.