Psychology

Event Title

How the Number of Competitors Moderates Performance Between Avoidant and Approach Motivated Individuals

Document Type

Oral Presentation

Location

Indianapolis, IN

Subject Area

Psychology

Start Date

11-4-2014 8:30 AM

End Date

11-4-2014 10:00 AM

Description

Motivation, competition, and performance have all been primary topics in social psychology literature for many years, especially motivation and its influence on performance. Research shows that when the number of competitors increases the motivation to compete decreases (Garcia & Tor, 2009; Vandegrift & Holaday, 2012). This is known as the n-effect. The present study involves this effect and two motivational orientations known as approach-motivation (a motive to pursue rewards) and avoidant motivation (a motive to avoid failure or setbacks). It is possible that people who are motivated differently in competitive situations will perform differently due to the number of competitors in the situation. What causes this change is the mental framing that the individuals have on the competitive situation. For those with approach motivation, increasing the number of people will actually cause a decrease in motivation due to having less of a chance for reward. But for those with avoidant motivation, the increase in competitors dampens the embarrassment, potentially causing a "nothing to lose" mentality which would increase performance. The participants are assigned randomly to a thought task that promotes either approach or avoidant thinking and then a number task that is described as a competition of either 10 or 100 students. We hypothesize that the n-effect will not have the same effect for both avoidant- and approach-motivated people. We predict that as the number of competitors increases approach-motivated individuals will decrease in performance and avoidant-motivated individuals will have an increase in performance. Data collection is on going.

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Apr 11th, 8:30 AM Apr 11th, 10:00 AM

How the Number of Competitors Moderates Performance Between Avoidant and Approach Motivated Individuals

Indianapolis, IN

Motivation, competition, and performance have all been primary topics in social psychology literature for many years, especially motivation and its influence on performance. Research shows that when the number of competitors increases the motivation to compete decreases (Garcia & Tor, 2009; Vandegrift & Holaday, 2012). This is known as the n-effect. The present study involves this effect and two motivational orientations known as approach-motivation (a motive to pursue rewards) and avoidant motivation (a motive to avoid failure or setbacks). It is possible that people who are motivated differently in competitive situations will perform differently due to the number of competitors in the situation. What causes this change is the mental framing that the individuals have on the competitive situation. For those with approach motivation, increasing the number of people will actually cause a decrease in motivation due to having less of a chance for reward. But for those with avoidant motivation, the increase in competitors dampens the embarrassment, potentially causing a "nothing to lose" mentality which would increase performance. The participants are assigned randomly to a thought task that promotes either approach or avoidant thinking and then a number task that is described as a competition of either 10 or 100 students. We hypothesize that the n-effect will not have the same effect for both avoidant- and approach-motivated people. We predict that as the number of competitors increases approach-motivated individuals will decrease in performance and avoidant-motivated individuals will have an increase in performance. Data collection is on going.