Motivation in Social Settings: Studies of Effort-Related Cardiovascular Arousal

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511735066.007

5 - Motivation in Social Settings: Studies of Effort-Related Cardiovascular Arousal

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010

Guido H. E. Gendolla and

Rex A. Wright

Edited by

Joseph P. Forgas ,

Kipling D. Williams and

Simon M. Laham

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Guido H. E. Gendolla: Affiliation:
Institute of Psychology, University of Erlangen, Germany
Rex A. Wright: Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Joseph P. Forgas: Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney
Kipling D. Williams: Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney
Simon M. Laham: Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

The construct of effort, or task engagement, figures prominently in contemporary explanations of a number of social psychological phenomena. However, social psychologists have often based their analyses on intuitive effort assumptions, with two being especially prominent: (a) that effort increases with the perceived importance of success (Eisenberger, 1992; Fowles, 1983) and (b) that effort is greater in people who view themselves as capable with respect to a task than in people who view themselves as incapable with respect to a task (Bandura, 1986).

In this chapter, we discuss programs of research from our laboratories that have sought to improve understanding of fundamental effort processes and explore implications of those processes for responses in social settings. The programs rely heavily on Jack Brehm's theory of motivational intensity (e.g., Brehm & Self, 1989). The programs also take as a working hypothesis the proposition advanced by the late Paul Obrist (1981) that sympathetic nervous system influence on the heart varies with task engagement (what Obrist termed active coping), being greater when engagement is high than when it is low. Together, Brehm's theory and Obrist's proposition provide a framework for predicting engagement and a means of measuring it.

MOTIVATIONAL INTENSITY THEORY

Fundamental Arguments

Brehm's motivational intensity theory is concerned with the determinants of momentary effort, that is, effort expended at a point in time. Drawing from the classic difficulty law of motivation (see Ach, 1935), it argues that such effort is determined by appraisals of task difficulty.

Type: Chapter
Information: Social Motivation
Conscious and Unconscious Processes
, pp. 71 - 90

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511735066.007 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2004

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