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The Influence of the Achievement Motive on Spontaneous Thoughts in Pre- and Postdecisional Action Phases

University of Tübingen, Germany, rosa-maria.puca{at}uni-tuebingen.de

Heinz-Dieter Schmalt

University of Wuppertal, Germany

Drawing on current goal theories of motivation, the authors investigated participants’ spontaneous thoughts in pre- and postdecisional action phases. In contrast with the research originally initiated by Heckhausen and his coworkers, the authors used a repeated-measures design and considered individual differences in achievement motivation. Participants were given a choice between two tasks. They had to report their thoughts twice, before and after they had made the decision. Thought contents were analyzed according to the theory of action phases. The data clearly indicate that spontaneous thoughts reflect different states of mind in pre- and postdecisional action phases. Furthermore, an optimistic bias in thought contents was found, which was, however, moderated by the achievement motive. Success-motivated participants were optimistic after and pessimistic before decision making. The reverse was true for failure-motivated participants. The results were interpreted as an important extension of the achievement-motive nomological network.

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