Motivation and action

Jutta Heckhausen 

Heinz Heckhausen Editor s

Motivation

and Action

Third Edition

Motivation and Action

Jutta Heckhausen · Heinz Heckhausen

Editors

Motivation and Action

Third Edition

ISBN 978-3-319-65093-7 ISBN 978-3-319-65094-4 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65094-4

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Editors

Jutta Heckhausen

Department of Psychology

and Social Behavior

University of California

Irvine, CA, USA

Heinz Heckhausen (deceased)

Max Planck Institute for

Psychological Research

Munich, Germany

For Christa Heckhausen

vii

This is the third English edition of Motivation and Action, an extensively

revised version of the second English edition and fifth German edition, with

four entirely new chapters. All chapters have been updated to incorporate

current research trends and findings, while new chapters on the motivation of

developmental regulatory behavior as well as the applied fields of school and

college, workplace, and sports were added. The chapters on the affiliation

motive, the power motive, and goals were completely rewritten by new

authors. Each chapter comes with an individual list of references, allowing

instructors to use them separately for their courses. In addition, the Springer

website for the book will provide useful materials for students and instructors

alike, including a glossary with key terms.

The first English edition of Motivation and Action, based on the second

German edition, was written by Heinz Heckhausen, who passed away on

October 30, 1988. Springer and I agreed that a revised edition of this influen￾tial textbook on motivational psychology was needed. There have been many

exciting and important conceptual and empirical innovations since the second

English edition published in 2008, for example, in the research fields of voli￾tion and sequential phases of behavioral regulation, two perspectives that

Heinz Heckhausen already discussed in the second edition (especially in

Chaps. 6 “Volition” and 15 “Extended Perspectives”). Additionally, there have

been important contributions to the study of the differences between and inter￾action of implicit versus explicit motives, as well as motivational and behav￾ioral influences on development over the lifespan. It would be a Herculean

task to provide a comprehensive overview of all these developments and to

survey the field of motivation psychology in its full range and complexity. No

single scientist could hope to follow in Heinz Heckhausen’s footsteps and

accomplish this task alone. A collaborative approach was clearly called for,

and a look at the ranks of Heinz Heckhausen’s students—and their students—

shows that almost every subdomain of motivation psychology is represented

by one or several renowned researchers. This new edition of Motivation and

Action was only possible with the support of these scholars as authors. This

book thus represents the intellectual legacy of Heinz Heckhausen in two

respects. First, it shows how Heckhausen’s approach to motivation psychology

has been further developed and refined and that, while much has been retained,

there have also been some important changes. Second, the book’s chapters

have been written by Heinz Heckhausen’s intellectual heirs: by members of

Preface

viii

his research groups in Bochum and Munich and their students and by myself,

his daughter.

This new edition pursues the same goals as the earlier edition. It seeks to

disentangle convoluted perspectives within the psychology of motivation. It

seeks to integrate separate research strands by pointing to common issues and

offering a unifying conceptual framework. It introduces and critically

discusses new research findings that have proven particularly fruitful. As in

the previous editions, the motivational categories examined are limited to

classes of behavior that are characteristic of humans. The individual chapters

build on one another, but each can also be read and understood independently.

There are four main parts to the book. The first five chapters provide a

broad introduction to the field of motivation psychology, mapping out

different perspectives and research traditions. The first chapter gives a brief

overview of the main issues addressed and previews the book’s contents. The

second chapter on the historical development of motivation research remains

unchanged from the original version written by Heinz Heckhausen for the

first and updated for the second edition. Chapters 3 and 4 present two

contrasting and one-sided perspectives, focusing exclusively on person

factors versus situation factors. In Chap. 5, these perspectives are integrated

through the introduction of models that take into account the expectancies

and values of different persons in different situations.

The second group of chapters includes Chaps. 6, 7, and 8 on achievement,

affiliation, and power motivation, which examine the major themes of human

motivation. Further fundamental processes of motivation psychology are

discussed in Chap. 9 on implicit and explicit motives, Chap. 10 on

biopsychological foundations, and Chap. 11 on goals.

Following the chapters on the fundamentals of motivation psychology

which lay the groundwork for discoveries regarding motivated and goal￾oriented behavior, the third group of chapters, Chapters 12, 13, 14, 15, 16,

and 17, considers the major components of action as well as its regulation and

development. Chapters 12 and 13 discuss approaches to behavioral regulation

and individual differences in these processes. Chapter 14 addresses intrinsic,

activity-inherent incentives of behavior. Chapter 15 takes a close look at

causal attributions in the context of behavior and its outcomes. Chapters 16

and 17 unite different approaches and strands of research by exploring the

relationship of motivation and development from two perspectives: the

development of motivation (Chap. 16) and the motivation of development

(Chap. 17). The topics and research programs covered in this group of

chapters (i.e., Chaps. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17) reflect the recent surge in

research activity in international motivation psychology. Issues from current

research provide fruitful topics of discussion for seminars and promising

ideas for researchers and doctoral students.

The final group of chapters is the latest addition to this volume and

elaborates the roles of motivation and volition in the three practical fields of

school and college, workplace, and sports. In terms of authorship, Heinz

Heckhausen is cited as coauthor of all chapters that contain parts of his

original chapters, but they have been revised and expanded. This seemed the

best way of reflecting Heinz Heckhausen’s authorship without suggesting

that he authorized the changes and additions himself.

Preface

ix

The chapter authors and I have done our best to ensure the reader￾friendliness that is now expected of academic texts and textbooks in particular.

I think we have succeeded in making the highly complex domain of motivation

psychology accessible to students and novices while ensuring that the text

remains informative and stimulating for experts and researchers in the field.

These efforts have been facilitated by special formatting elements: text boxes,

summaries, definitions, and review questions give the reader practical tools

for navigating the texts.

I am most thankful to the chapter authors for their readiness to participate

in this project and for the outstanding chapters they have written and revised.

I am greatly indebted to Angela Wirsig-Wolf, who edited the German edition

and compiled the reference lists for the individual chapters as well as the

complete reference list for this book. For the English edition, I would also

like to thank Markus Russin, who masterfully translated the new chapters and

revisions into English.

Irvine, CA, USA Jutta Heckhausen

Preface

xi

1 Motivation and Action: Introduction and Overview . . . . . . . . . 1

Jutta Heckhausen and Heinz Heckhausen

2 Historical Trends in Motivation Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Heinz Heckhausen

3 Trait Theories of Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

David Scheffer and Heinz Heckhausen

4 Situational Determinants of Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Jürgen Beckmann and Heinz Heckhausen

5 Motivation as a Function of Expectancy and Incentive . . . . . . . 163

Jürgen Beckmann and Heinz Heckhausen

6 Achievement Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Joachim C. Brunstein and Heinz Heckhausen

7 Social Bonding: Affiliation Motivation and Intimacy

Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Jan Hofer and Birk Hagemeyer

8 Power Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Holger Busch

9 Implicit and Explicit Motives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Joachim C. Brunstein

10 Biopsychological Aspects of Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407

Oliver C. Schultheiss and Michelle M. Wirth

11 Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

Veronika Brandstätter and Marie Hennecke

12 Motivation and Volition in the Course of Action . . . . . . . . . . . . 485

Anja Achtziger and Peter M. Gollwitzer

13 Individual Differences in Self-Regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

Julius Kuhl

14 Intrinsic Motivation and Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

Falko Rheinberg and Stefan Engeser

Contents

xii

15 Causal Attribution of Behavior and Achievement . . . . . . . . . . . 623

Joachim Stiensmeier-Pelster and Heinz Heckhausen

16 Development of Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 679

Jutta Heckhausen and Heinz Heckhausen

17 The Motivation of Developmental Regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745

Jutta Heckhausen

18 Motivation at School and University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 783

Joachim Stiensmeier-Pelster and Nantje Otterpohl

19 Motivation and Volition in the Workplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 819

Hugo M. Kehr, Matthias Strasser, and Andrea Paulus

20 Motivation and Volition in Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 853

Jürgen Beckmann and Tom Kossak

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 891

Contents

xiii

Anja Achtziger Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen, Germany

Jürgen Beckmann Department of Sport and Health Sciences, Technical

University of Munich, Munich, Germany

Veronika Brandstätter Department of Psychology, University of Zurich,

Zurich, Switzerland

Joachim C. Brunstein Division of Psychology and Sports Science, Justus￾Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany

Holger Busch Department of Psychology, University of Trier, Trier,

Germany

Stefan Engeser Department of Psychology, Friedrich-Schiller University,

Jena, Germany

Peter M. Gollwitzer Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz

(Germany) and New York University, New York City, NY, USA

Birk Hagemeyer Institute of Psychology, Friedrich-Schiller University,

Jena, Germany

Heinz Heckhausen (deceased) Max Planck Institute for Psychological

Research, Munich, Germany

Jutta Heckhausen Department of Psychology and Social Behavior,

University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

Marie Hennecke Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich,

Switzerland

Jan Hofer Department of Psychology, Trier University, Trier, Germany

Hugo M. Kehr TUM School of Management, Technical University of

Munich, Munich, Germany

Tom Kossak Sportpsychologie München, Munich, Germany

Julius Kuhl Universität Osnabrück, Institut für Psychologie, Osnabrück,

Germany

Nantje Otterpohl Division of Psychology and Sports Science, Justus￾Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany

Contributors

xiv

Andrea Paulus TUM School of Management, Technical University of

Munich, Munich, Germany

Falko Rheinberg Department of Psychology, Universität Potsdam, Potsdam,

Germany

David Scheffer Nordakademie Graduate School, Hamburg, Germany

Oliver C. Schultheiss Department of Psychology and Sport Sciences,

Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen, Germany

Joachim Stiensmeier-Pelster Division of Psychology and Sports Science,

Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany

Matthias Strasser TUM School of Management, Technical University of

Munich, Munich, Germany

Michelle M. Wirth Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame,

Notre Dame, IN, USA

Contributors

xv

Jutta Heckhausen, PhD is a professor in the Department of Psychology

and Social Behavior at the University of California, Irvine. Her areas of inter￾est are lifespan developmental psychology, motivational psychology, control

behavior, psychological influences on health, and developmental regulation

across the lifespan. Her ongoing research addresses the role of the individual

as an active agent in major life-course transitions and when confronted with

challenging life events. Dr. Heckhausen has published articles in many behav￾ioral and social science journals, including Psychological Review,

Developmental Psychology, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,

Motivation Science, Health Psychology, Psychology and Aging, Journal of

Research on Adolescence, The Journals of Gerontology: Psychological

Sciences, and the Journal of Vocational Behavior. She is author of the mono￾graph Developmental Regulation in Adulthood and editor of several books

including Motivation and Self-Regulation Across the Life Span, Motivational

Psychology of Human Development, and Motivation and Action.

About the Editor

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 1

J. Heckhausen, H. Heckhausen (eds.), Motivation and Action,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65094-4_1

Motivation and Action:

Introduction and Overview

Jutta Heckhausen and Heinz Heckhausen

Human life is composed of a continuous flow of

activity. Besides the infinite variety of overt

actions and expressions that impact the social and

physical environment, it also has a more covert

side in the mental activities of experiencing, per￾ceiving, thinking, feeling, and imagining. These

mental activities are part of the flow, although

they cannot be observed directly by others and

have no direct impact on the environment. The

scope of human activity thus ranges from dream￾ing (Klinger, 1971) to preplanned, intentional

acts. The psychology of motivation is specifically

concerned with activities that reflect the pursuit

of a particular goal and in this function form a

meaningful unit of behavior. Motivational

research seeks to explain these units of behavior

in terms of their whys and hows.

Questions pertaining to the whys of human

activity address its purposes from a variety of

perspectives; for example:

• Can different units of behavior be assigned to

one and the same class of goals and differenti￾ated from other classes of goals?

• How do these classes of goals evolve in the

course of an individual’s development, and

which individual differences exist in this

regard?

• Why is it that specific situational conditions

prompt people to choose certain goal-oriented

activities over others and to pursue them with

a certain amount of time and energy?

It is only recently that the focus of attention in

academic psychology has returned to the hows of

human activity; e.g., to how people, having

decided on a course of action, actually come to

execute (or abandon) it. Questions of this kind

have always occupied laypeople – after all, we

are all familiar with the difficulties of following

through on our intentions in everyday life, for

example:

• Why do we find it easy to implement some

intentions, but keep losing track of others?

• Why is it that some people find it easier than

others to act on their decisions and realize

their goals?

• Do people become better at pursuing their

adopted goals over the course of life?

• Which situational conditions facilitate or

inhibit the resolute pursuit of goals?

J. Heckhausen (*)

Department of Psychology and Social Behavior,

University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

e-mail: [email protected]

H. Heckhausen (deceased)

Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research,

Munich, Germany

1

2

1.1 Universal Characteristics

of Human Action

Two universal characteristics determine the basic

structure and general directionality of motivated

human action:

1. The striving for control

2. The organization of goal engagement and goal

disengagement

These two characteristics of human action are

so universal within and indeed far beyond our

species that it is hard to imagine human behavior

being any different (see the overview in

J. Heckhausen, 2000; the first author is solely

responsible for the arguments presented in this

section). It would seem to be a given that human

behavior is geared to effecting change in the

environment, and how else might it be directed

than either pursuing a goal or withdrawing from

a goal? On closer consideration, however, it is

clear that these characteristics are in fact an out￾come of behavioral evolution and anything but a

given. Moreover, the function they fulfill in guid￾ing and organizing the organism’s activities is

highly adaptive. This is one of the reasons why

biopsychological approaches to motivation that

predominantly use animal models are so useful

for investigating specific functions of the brain to

explain motivational phenomena (see Chap. 10).

1.1.1 Control Striving

Control striving – i.e., the striving for direct or

primary control of the physical and social envi￾ronment – is part of the motivational makeup of

our species (White, 1959). In fact, control striv￾ing is not unique to humans but is an outcome of

behavioral evolution in all mammals and possi￾bly all species that are mobile and thus in need of

general mechanisms of behavioral regulation.

Under changing environmental conditions, the

organism can thus stay focused on the aimed for

outcome as a guideline to modify its behavior

(see the overview in J. Heckhausen, 2000;

Schneider & Dittrich, 1990). Fixed stimulus￾response patterns and instinctive behavior are not

flexible enough to allow adaptive responses to

environmental variation. Open behavioral pro￾grams (Mayr, 1974) or behavioral modules

(Cosmides & Tooby, 1994; Fodor, 1983; Rozin,

1976), operating in conjunction with domain￾general processes of behavioral regulation asso￾ciated with emotional states and motivational

orientations (Hamburg, 1963; Plutchik, 1980;

Scherer, 1984), offer a more promising approach.

In recent decades there has been a veritable

explosion of research on cognitive modules such

as risk perception and decision making (e.g.,

Gigerenzer, Todd, & ABC Research Group,

1999), social exchange (e.g., Cosmides & Tooby,

1992), and foraging (e.g., Krebs, 1980). However,

comparative and evolutionary psychology has

virtually ignored the motivational and volitional

control of behavior. Yet there are both theoretical

and empirical reasons for assuming that a set of

basic motivational modules regulates control

striving and control-related behavior (see also

Chap. 15, Sect. 15.2):

1. In mammals and probably many other spe￾cies, there seems to be a widespread prefer￾ence for behavior-event contingencies over

event-event contingencies: organisms are

motivated to engage in behaviors that produce

contingent effects (e.g., baby smiles, mother

vocalizes).

2. Exploration is also a universal motivational

system in mammals and engages the organism

with the goal of extending its range of control

over the external environment.

3. There is much evidence for an asymmetric pat￾tern of affective responses to positive and neg￾ative events (Frijda, 1988): Organisms soon

get used to the positive affect experienced after

positive events, whereas the negative emotions

elicited by negative events are much longer

lasting. This motivates individuals to aspire to

new goals rather than resting on their laurels

after successes and prevents them from giving

up too soon in the face of setbacks.

The first manifestations of control striving in

human ontogenesis can be observed in neonates

(Janos & Papoušek, 1977; Papoušek, 1967).

Experiences of control are fostered in early

J. Heckhausen and H. Heckhausen