Seeing Future Success: Does Imagery Perspective Influence Achievement Motivation?

Imagining future success can sometimes enhance people's motivation to achieve it. This article examines a phenomenological aspect of positive mental imagery— the visual perspective adopted—that may moderate its motivational impact. The authors hypothesize that people feel more motivated to succ...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Personality & social psychology bulletin 2007-10, Vol.33 (10), p.1392-1405
Main Authors: Vasquez, Noelia A., Buehler, Roger
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic achievement
Achievement
Adult
Attitudes
Canada
Female
Humans
Imagery (Psychotherapy)
Male
Mental imagery
Mental simulation
Motivation
Opinions
Perceptions
Perspectives
Students - psychology
Success
Surveys and Questionnaires
Universities
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Imagining future success can sometimes enhance people's motivation to achieve it. This article examines a phenomenological aspect of positive mental imagery— the visual perspective adopted—that may moderate its motivational impact. The authors hypothesize that people feel more motivated to succeed on a future task when they visualize its successful completion from a third-person rather than a first-person perspective. Actions viewed from the third-person perspective are generally construed at a relatively high level of abstraction—in a manner that highlights their larger meaning and significance—which should heighten their motivational impact. Three studies in the domain of academic motivation support this reasoning. Students experience a greater increase in achievement motivation when they imagine their successful task completion from a third-rather than a first-person perspective. Moreover, mediational analyses reveal that third-person imagery boosts motivation by prompting students to construe their success abstractly and to perceive it as important.
ISSN:0146-1672
1552-7433
DOI:10.1177/0146167207304541