Social Psychology, Vol 53(6), 2022, 368-382; doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000507
Previous research found mental contrasting to be an effective self-regulatory strategy. This study explored whether motivational features such as regulatory focus, as promotion focus and prevention focus, could affect people’s spontaneous use of a mental contrasting strategy. The present study hypothesized that promotion focus positively predicts spontaneous mental contrasting. Across the correlational (Study 1) and experimental (Study 2) designs, predominantly promotion-focused university students spontaneously employed more mental contrasting strategies. The implications and suggestions for future research have been discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)