When wanting and fearing go together: The effect of co‐occurring social approach and avoidance motivation on behavior, affect, and cognition

Abstract

Three studies investigated the association of social approach and avoidance motivation with cognition, behavior, emotions, and subjective well-being. Study 1 (N ¼ 245), a correlative self-report study, showed that approach and avoidance motivation mediated the effects of adult attachment-styles on social anxiety. A secure attachment-style was associated with co-occurring approach and avoidance motivation. Study 2, a social-interaction study (N ¼ 38), revealed an association of avoidance motivation with a negative experience and passive behavior, and approach motivation with a positive experience and active behavior. Interestingly, the interaction of approach and avoidance motivation predicted engaged behavior and a positive emotional experience. Study 3 (N ¼ 203), an online survey, showed that subjective well-being was negatively associated with high avoidance motivation, irrespective of the strength of approach motivation. Taken together, the studies show that social approach and avoidance motivation interact in predicting positive experiences and social behavior in a concrete social situation. However, from the long-term perspective, the negative consequences of social avoidance motivation seem to prevail when approach and avoidance motivation co-occur. Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.The experience of and reactions to social situations partly depends on a person's expectations about his or her interaction partners. Social approach motivation refers to a general positive expectation for social interactions, i.e., a dispositional orientation toward positive, hoped-for social incentives, whereas social avoidance motivation refers to a general negative expectation, i.e., an orientation away from negative, feared social incentives (McClelland, 1985). Previous research has repeatedly shown that approach and avoidance motivation are largely independent of each other (e.g., Ebner, Freund, & Baltes, 2006) and show differential effects on emotion, cognition, and behavior (e.g., Freund, 2006;Gable, 2006;Gray, 1982). This implies that social approach and avoidance motivation can co-occur within a person (for a detailed discussion see Nikitin & Freund, 2008).As of yet, little is known about the effects of co-occurring social approach and avoidance motivation on behavior, cognition, and emotion. The current paper addresses this gap. More specifically, Study 1 explored the role of attachment styles as antecedents of social approach and avoidance motivation and their co-occurrence. Study 2 investigated how social approach and avoidance motivation interact in predicting experience and behavior in an actual social interaction. Finally, Study 3 examined how social approach and avoidance motivation are related to habitual subjective well-being. In all three studies, we tested if co-occurring social approach and avoidance motivation is best characterized by an ambivalent character (e.g., Mehrabian, 1994;Schmidt, 1999) or if the negative pattern of avoidance motivation for cognition, emotion, behavior, and subjectiv...

The joint effects of promotion and prevention focus on performance, exhaustion and sickness absence among managers and non-managers

“…This dual focus on two equally desirable end-states calls for an examination of simultaneous use of both promotion and prevention values. This also seems to be in agreement with insights from synergistic motivation and self-regulation (Amabile, 1993;Nikitin and Freund, 2010;Tamir and Diener, 2008); namely, the motivation that occurs via the joint activation of multiple orientations. Although motivational theories suggest that individual motivational styles exclude each other, several authors have proposed that individuals sometimes need to embrace diverse, even contradicting motivational styles in order to benefit the most (Amabile, 1993).…”

Poczucie przywiązania i osamotnienia w relacjach małżeńskich

“…Bowlby, 2007;Mikulincer, Shaver, 2007;Cordova, Jacobson, 1997). Osoby o bezpiecznym stylu przywiązania czują siĊ kochane i potrafią odwzajemniaü to uczucie, mają wysokie kompetencje społeczne i samoocenĊ, co umoĪliwia im umiejĊtne rozwiązywanie sytuacji konfliktowych, posiadają zasoby pozwalające im na odwrócenie siĊ mentalne od emocji negatywnych i zwrócenie siĊ ku emocjom pozytywnym, a takĪe w sytuacjach trudnych rozwijają dodatkowe obszary realizacji siebie, które zwiĊkszają osobistą satysfakcjĊ i chronią przed symptomami depresji (Nikitin, Freund, 2009;Mikulincer, Shaver, 2007;Williams, 2007;Banse, 2004). Osoby te potrafią takĪe aktywnie poszukiwaü pomocy, wsparcia i bliskoĞci osób znaczących w sytuacjach trudnych, co pozwala zredukowaü stres i poszukiwaü efektywnych rozwiązaĔ.…”

“…MoĪe wynikaü to stąd, iĪ osoby, które nie doĞwiadczyły adekwatnej do potrzeb miłoĞci rodzicielskiej, wykształciły u siebie brak zaufania do innych i otoczenia społecznego, a tym samym rozwinĊły poczucie lĊku i chĊci ucieczki od innych osób (Lindboe, 2014;Deniz, Hamarta, Ari, 2005;DiTommaso, Brannen-McNulty, 2003;Hazan, Shaver, 1990;Kobak, Sceery, 1988). Z powodu niskiego poziomu zaufania i poczucia wartoĞci osoby o pozabezpiecznych stylach przywiązania traktują innych jako odrzucających i niespójnych, wykazują siĊ takĪe mniejszymi kompetencjami komunikacyjnymi, przez co mają trudnoĞci w podtrzymywaniu relacji interpersonalnych (Nikitin, Freund, 2009).…”

The Role of Implicit Motives in Strategic Decision-Making: Computational Models of Motivated Learning and the Evolution of Motivated Agents

“…Approach-avoidance motivation has also been studied into the social domain [19]. In this domain it is used to model the differences in goals concerned with positive social outcomes-such as affiliation and intimacy-and goals concerned with negative social outcomes-such as rejection and conflict [20].…”

“…Each simulation is run for 3000 generations. Mutation is governed by the matrix Q shown in Equation (19). Each type of agent has a probability of 0.98 of no mutations from within that type.…”