Abstract
People's beliefs concerning their abilities differ. Incremental theorists believe their abilities (e.g., intelligence) are malleable; entity theorists believe their abilities are fixed (Dweck in Mindset: the new psychology of success. Random House, New York, 2007). On the basis that incremental theorists should emphasize improving their abilities for the future, whereas entity theorists should emphasize demonstrating their abilities in the present reality, we predicted that, when thinking about their wishes, compared to entity theorists, incremental theorists focus more toward the desired future than the present reality. We assessed participants' motivational focus using a paradigm that differentiated how much they chose to imagine the desired future versus the present reality regarding an important wish (Kappes et al. in Emotion 11: 1206-1222, 2011). We found the predicted effect by manipulating (Study 1) and measuring implicit theories (Study 2), in the academic (Study 1) and in the sport domain (Study 2).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Motivation and Emotion |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Pages (from-to) | 36-46 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| ISSN | 0146-7239 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 01.02.2014 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Acknowledgments Preparation of this article was supported by German Science Foundation grant OE 237/10-1 to Gabriele Oettin-gen. We thank Greta Wagner and Linus Wittmann for their help with collecting the data.
Research areas and keywords
- Entity theory
- Future
- Incremental theory
- Motivational focus
- Reality
- Self-regulatory thought
- Psychology
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
- Social Psychology
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