The Influence Of Temporal Distance On College Students' Willingness To Participate In Tasks:The Role Of Self-Control And Self-Efficacy

Whether working or studying,individuals often encounter problems or task situations that require effort to resolve in life.But in general,our brains prefer simple,fun,and effortless things to complex,difficult tasks.There are too many complicated problems in daily life that we need to face and deal with,it is significantly important to understand and explore how to better encourage individuals to participate and invest in complex task situations.The willingness of an individual to commit to or participate in a complex task situation not only depends on the individual's belief in one's own ability,that is,an assessment of whether or not they can effectively mobilize their physical,intellectual,emotional resources and successfully complete their tasks,but also needs to consider the individual's motivation and will process.Therefore,under the framework of social psychology theory,this study is based on the cognitive and motivational level,based on the construal level theory,self-control theory,self-efficacy theory and the theory of planned behavior,we want to construct a moderated mediation model.this study explores how temporal distance and trait self-control affect the individual's self-efficacy and willingness to participate in the task.The study validated the hypothesis through three experiments.One was to explore the effects of different time distances(one week or six months later)on individual's willingness to participate in tasks,as well as the role of self-control and self-efficacy.The other was to use two-factor experimental design to manipulate individual's self-control level through experiments.The changes of self-efficacy and willingness to participate in tasks with different time distances in the future(after a week/3 months).The third study used two-factor experimental design to explore the effect of time distance(one week later/four months later),tasks characteristics(complex tasks/pleasure tasks)and trait self-control on task self-efficacy and willingness to participate.Through three experiments,we draw the following conclusions:(1)The time distance affects the individual's willingness to participate in the task through the individual's sense of self-efficacy.Self-efficacy plays a mediating role between the temporal distance and the participation willingness.(2)The relationship between time distance and the task self-efficacy was moderated by trait self-control.For individuals with low self-control levels,they have a higher self-efficacy for tasks under far future conditions,and thus have a higher willingness to participate;for individuals with high self-control levels,they have a higher sense of self-efficacy and are therefore more willing to participate in the task under the near future conditions.(3)The relationship among time distance,trait self-control and task self-efficacy was moderated by the characteristic of the task.When individuals face complex tasks,individuals with low self-control have higher self-efficacy for tasks that occur under far future conditions,and thus show higher willingness to participate in tasks than in near future;In terms of far future conditions,individuals with high self-control have higher self-efficacy for tasks appearing in near future and are more willing to participate in the activity;When individuals face interesting tasks,individuals with different levels of self-control do not differ in their self-efficacy and participation willingness in the tasks that occur under different time distance.