Seeing Future Success: Does Imagery Perspective Influence Achievement Motivation?

• 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
• ISSN: 0146-1672; 1552-7433
• DOI: 10.1177/0146167207304541

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.