Topic 8
[Lecture notes]
Goals and habits
Dual process
- Automaticity
o Efficient
o Unintentional
o Unaware
o Uncontrollable
Goals: Can goals be automatic?
- The strive for desired end-states
- Come from an internal, agentic self
o Is responsible for setting goals, behave goal-directed, evaluate, prevent
conflicting behaviour
- Characteristics of motivation
o Behavioural activation: goals drive behaviour
o Persistence: goals remain activated until attained
o Flexibility: to how the goal is attained
- Priming reward can induce goal driven behaviour
o What is rewarding? Positive affect is an implicit motivator
Empirical research: Hand grip task – Primed positively toward the behaviour of pressing the
handgrip results in harder and quicker pressing.
- Flexibility
Empirical research: Priming letters – Either means of goals are primed and conditioned with
positive or neutral pictures. Priming the means results in high switching costs while priming
the goal results in low switching costs.
Habits: How do habits differ from unconscious goals?
- Mental construct; activated by cues; characterized by automaticity
[Lecture notes]
Goals and habits
Dual process
- Automaticity
o Efficient
o Unintentional
o Unaware
o Uncontrollable
Goals: Can goals be automatic?
- The strive for desired end-states
- Come from an internal, agentic self
o Is responsible for setting goals, behave goal-directed, evaluate, prevent
conflicting behaviour
- Characteristics of motivation
o Behavioural activation: goals drive behaviour
o Persistence: goals remain activated until attained
o Flexibility: to how the goal is attained
- Priming reward can induce goal driven behaviour
o What is rewarding? Positive affect is an implicit motivator
Empirical research: Hand grip task – Primed positively toward the behaviour of pressing the
handgrip results in harder and quicker pressing.
- Flexibility
Empirical research: Priming letters – Either means of goals are primed and conditioned with
positive or neutral pictures. Priming the means results in high switching costs while priming
the goal results in low switching costs.
Habits: How do habits differ from unconscious goals?
- Mental construct; activated by cues; characterized by automaticity
