THE EFFECTS OF SELF-PRESENTATIONAL CONCERNS ON INFORMATION-PROCESSING TIME (MOTIVATION, CONTROL THEORY, HIERARCHY, CYBERNETICS)

This study tested a prediction derived from Carver and Scheier's cybernetic model (1981,1982; Carver, 1979). A critical but untested component of this model is that there exists a hierarchy of reference values, or goals, which dictates motivated behavior. According to the model a goal such as completing a term paper could be said to be under the control of, or subordinate to, a more abstract goal, such as "be prompt". This model would suggest that changing between lower level goals must be preceded by changes in the goals at higher levels of the hierarchy.; The purpose of the experiment was to demonstrate that shifting from one activity to another would require longer reaction times if the shift also entailed a shift in higher-order goals. Subjects evaluated two careers with a 20 trial block of ten random presentations of each career. Half of the subjects evaluated the careers in private and half evaluated the careers in the presence of the experimenter, who made known that he was a psychology student. Some of the subjects evaluated psychologist as one of their careers. For the subjects who publicly evaluated psychologist it was believed that evaluating the two different careers would entail two distinct higher-order motivations, "be honest" and "don't insult the experimenter". Thus, for these subjects the difference between trials in which the subjects shifted between the two careers would require longer reaction times than non-shift trials.; The prediction was indirectly supported. For one of the groups of subjects who evaluated psychologist the difference between the reaction times for shifts and non-shifts was greatest among subjects who favored psychologist over lawyer. Implications are discussed for future research into information processing models of motivation.