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 3 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. (shrink)

Motivational and emotional changes across adulthood have a profound impact on cognition. In this registered report, we conducted an experimental investigation of motivational influence on remembering intentions after a delay (prospective memory; PM) in younger, middle-aged, and older adults, using gain- and loss-framing manipulations. The present study examined for the first time whether motivational framing in a PM task has different effects on younger and older adults’ PM performance (N = 180; age range: 18–85 years) in a controlled laboratory setting. (...) Based on lifespan theories of motivation, we assumed that the prevention of losses becomes more relevant with increasing age: We expected that older adults show relatively higher PM performance in a task with loss-related consequences following PM failure than in a task in which successful PM leads to gains. The opposite pattern of performance was expected for younger adults. The findings suggest that the relevance of reward and positive gain-related consequences for successful remembering appears to decrease with age. As hypothesised, a motivational framing × age interaction indicated that age differences in memory performance were smaller with loss-related than gain-related consequences, supporting a loss-prevention view on motivated cognition. (shrink)

Based on Vallerand’s dualistic model of passion, this study theorizes and empirically examines the temporal dynamics of two types of entrepreneurial passion in female entrepreneurs, harmonious entrepreneurial passion and obsessive entrepreneurial passion, and examines the mechanisms by which entrepreneurial effort0 and fear of failure influence the temporal dynamics of entrepreneurial passion. Using data collected from a three-wave, lagged survey of female entrepreneurs, we employed Mplus to build a latent growth model for entrepreneurial passion and built a cross-lag model of the (...) relationship between entrepreneurial passion, entrepreneurial effort, and fear of failure. We found that female entrepreneurs’ HmEP and ObEP present different temporal dynamics. Furthermore, the temporal dynamics of HmEP are achieved through changes in entrepreneurial effort, whereas the temporal dynamics of ObEP are achieved through changes in current entrepreneurial effort and fear of failure in the next stage. Therefore, due to traditional gender stereotypes and varying motivations to engage in entrepreneurship, the two entrepreneurial passions have different dynamic evolution processes. Our results underscore the importance of effort and fear of failure in stimulating the dynamics of female entrepreneurial passion. (shrink)

The target articles in this special section shed new light on the old question whether and how emotions influence action. However, what is missing is a straightforward motivational analysis—considering what we have learned from the science of explaining the “why” and “how” of behavior. I posit that emotions can influence the motivation process and thus action by fulfilling at least three functions: First, being grounded in needs, experienced emotions can function as strong need-like motivational states. Second, anticipated emotions can function (...) as incentives and justify action. Third, emotions can inform about progress in goal pursuit permitting behavior calibration. In summary, there is little doubt that emotions influence action. They can do so because they are hypo-phenomena of motivation. (shrink)

The road to internationalisation is paved with risk, uncertainty, the possibility of failure, and the Coronavirus Disease-19 phenomenon. However, the process of internationalisation theory treats an individual decision-maker as a “black box.” Emotions are largely ignored by international business researchers. This study offers conceptual thoughts on the role of fear of failure in the process of internationalisation. It argues that managers experience this emotion in making internationalisation decisions for a firm, which is an area of study that requires further understanding. (...) Following the content analysis method in the literature review and a theory-based adaptation approach to complete the conceptualisation, this manuscript joins the scholarly conversations on “connecting the IP model to people” and “emotion and internationalisation.” Focussing on fear of failure as a new perspective, this manuscript contributes to IB literature by suggesting new avenues in understanding decision-making about international activities by embracing psychological insights. It also contributes to IB practitioners by offering implications for understanding one’s emotional state and its effect on decision-making about internationalising ventures. (shrink)

This study investigated the immediate effect of slow yoga breathing at 6 breaths per minute simultaneously on working memory performance and heart rate variability in yoga practitioners. A total of 40 healthy male volunteers performed a working memory task, ‘n-back’, consisting of three levels of difficulty, 0-back, 1-back, and 2-back, separately, before and after three SYB sessions on different days. The SYB sessions included alternate nostril breathing, right nostril breathing, and breath awareness. Repeated measures analysis of variance showed a significant (...) reduction in reaction time in 2-back condition immediately after ANB, RNB and BAW practices. Similarly, the accuracy was improved in the 0-back condition after RNB, and in the 2-back condition after ANB and RNB practices. These results suggest that SYB practice enhances cognitive abilities related to memory load and improves the functioning of cardiac autonomic activity, which is required for the successful completion of mental tasks.Trial registered in the Clinical Trials Registry of India. (shrink)