Experiments important to Carver and Scheier's self- regulation theory are not replicable

Four experiments with 45, 53, 40 and 60 participants were conducted to test an effect predicted by Carver and Scheier's (1998) theory and which has been confirmed in four independent studies by Carver and coworkers. With favorable expectations of success, participants low in self-awareness shou...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Swiss journal of psychology 2003-03, Vol.62 (1), p.53-65
Main Authors: Dahme, Gisela, Eichstaedt, Jan, Rudolph, Udo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Expectations
Female
Human
Male
Motivation
Persistence
Self-Perception
Self-Regulation
Theories
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Summary:Four experiments with 45, 53, 40 and 60 participants were conducted to test an effect predicted by Carver and Scheier's (1998) theory and which has been confirmed in four independent studies by Carver and coworkers. With favorable expectations of success, participants low in self-awareness should be less persistent (measured by time until explicitly giving up an intractable task) than participants high in self-awareness. The opposite should be true for unfavorable expectancy. Empirical evidence reported in this paper shows that various theory-consistent ways of manipulating expectancies and self-awareness as well as subtracting periods of mental disengagement from time on task did not yield this predicted interaction. It is discussed whether self-awareness theory ( Duval & Wicklund, 1972 ) can better explain the pattern of results found in the present as well as in Carver's studies than self-regulation theory.
ISSN:1421-0185
1662-0879
DOI:10.1024//1421-0185.62.1.53