Role models are often suggested as a means of motivating people to set and reach ambitious goals, especially for members of stigmatised groups in achievement settings. Yet, findings in relation to the effectiveness of role model are mixed and the literature on role models suffers from a number of limitations: (1) it lacks a clear definitional consensus of role models, (2) there is a lack of an integrated theoretical framework around role modelling, (3) very little of our current understanding of role models draws on the motivational literature to explain how role models can influence motivation and goals, and (4) the focus of the extant role model literature has been mainly on the attributes that make role models effective at the expense of understanding how this occurs. In this thesis, we first review the literature on role models (Chapter 1) and present two studies highlighting the limitations of the extant understanding of role modelling (Chapter 2). We then address these limitations by developing a theoretical framework of role modelling where we integrate different definitions of role models into a new conceptualisation in which we propose that role models influence goals and motivation in three distinct ways: by acting as behavioural models, by representing the possible, and by being inspirational. We then draw on expectancy-value theories of motivation to build a theoretical framework for understanding not only when but also how role models can effectively influence motivation and goals in these three functions (Chapter 3). This new theoretical framework, the Motivational Theory of Role Modelling, highlights how the power of role models can be harnessed to increase role aspirants’ motivation, reinforce their existing goals, and facilitate their adoption of new goals. We present four empirical studies supporting the ideas put forward in this theoretical framework, namely that role models in their three functions increase expectancy and value and, in turn, motivation and goals (Chapters 4,5, and 6). Finally, we integrate and summarise our findings and discuss theoretical and practical implications (Chapter 7).

According to the dual valuing process model (Grouzet, 2013), the social context can either facilitate the natural human tendency to pursue intrinsic goals, or thwart it by promoting extrinsic goals. Congruent with this idea, research in self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) suggests that parental autonomy support (PAS) is associated with the development of intrinsic goals, whereas more controlling parenting styles, such as conditional regard (PCR), are expected to facilitate extrinsic goals. Results from two preliminary studies suggest that mothers tended to use PAS to promote goals that were more intrinsic, as well young adults were more likely to autonomously internalize these goals, whereas PCR was associated with more extrinsic goals. In the current study, we sought to extend these findings by including a general measure of perceived parenting style, as well as asking participants to recall a goal that was promoted during adolescence (i.e., 13-16 years). Results from this study indicate no difference in the type of goal that was promoted or the way in which it was internalized when mothers used either autonomy support or conditional regard, over and above general parenting style. Results will be further discussed in with respect to parenting, self-determination theory, and the dual valuing process model. / Graduate

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Automated planning is a branch of AI that addresses the problem of generating a course of action to achieve a specified objective, given an initial state of the world. It is an area that is central to the development of intelligent agents and autonomous robots. In the last decade, automated planning has seen significant progress in terms of scalability, much of it achieved by the development of heuristic search approaches. Many of these advances, are only immediately applicable to so-called classical planning tasks. However, there are compelling applications of planning that are non-classical. An example is the problem of web service composition, in which the objective is to automatically compose web artifacts to achieve the objective of a human user. In doing so, not only the hard goals but also the \emph{preferences} of the user---which are usually not considered in the classical model---must be considered. % Also, the automated composition %should deal with abstract representations of the web %artifacts---which may also not adjust to the classical model. In this thesis we show that many of the most successful advances in classical planning can be leveraged for solving compelling non-classical problems. In particular, we focus on the following non-classical planning problems: planning with temporally extended goals; planning with rich, temporally extended preferences; planning with procedural control, and planning with procedural programs that can sense the environment. We show that to efficiently solve these problems we can use a common approach: reformulation. For each of these planning tasks, we propose a reformulation algorithm that generates another, arguably simpler instance. Then, if necessary, we adapt existing techniques to make the reformulated instance solvable efficiently. In particular, we show that both the problems of planning with temporally extended goals and with procedural control can be mapped into classical planning. Planning with rich user preferences, even after reformulation, cannot be mapped into classical planning and thus we develop specialized heuristics, based on existing heuristics, together with a branch-and-bound algorithm. Finally, for the problem of planning with programs that sense, we show that under certain conditions programs can be reduced to simple operators, enabling the use of a variety of existing planners. In all cases, we show experimentally that the reformulated problems can be solved effectively by either existing planners or by our adapted planners, outperforming previous approaches.

The concept of level of aspiration bears directly on goal setting behavior; it is a convenient and important variable in understanding human motivation in a variety of situations. Thus it was the purpose of this study to investigate the relationships between levels of aspiration and the psychological needs of achievement, dominance, autonomy, change, and aggression.

The majority of students experience peer victimization at least once during middle school. Existing research has established a strong link between exposure to peer victimization and poor psychosocial outcomes, including, but not limited to, maladaptive coping processes. Although little empirical attention has been devoted to examining how peer victimization impacts the development of social goals, the few existing studies have shown a positive relation between peer victimization and revenge goals. To further advance this research, several concurrent and longitudinal models delineating the relations among peer victimization, physical aggression, parental attitudes toward aggression, peer deviance, and revenge goals were examined in a sample of 5,068 sixth graders in the fall and spring of the academic year. It was hypothesized that the relation between overt victimization and revenge goals would be moderated by: a) physical aggression, b) parental support of aggression, and c) peer deviancy, such that the relation would strengthen as levels of each moderator increased. Hierarchical linear regression models found significant, positive main effects for overt victimization, physical aggression, parental support for aggression, and peer deviancy on revenge goals both concurrently and over time. These effects did not differ by gender. Results indicated that the relation between overt victimization and revenge goals was strongest for students with low to moderate levels of physical aggression, whereas victimization was inversely related to revenge goals for highly aggressive students. In addition, overt victimization was positively related to revenge goals for students with low to moderate numbers of deviant peers, but this relation was no longer significant for students at the highest quartile of peer deviancy. These results have important implications regarding the inclusion of traditionally “low risk” students in violence prevention programs, and also highlight the importance of intervening at the individual, parent, and peer level.

Consumers consistently pursue new beginnings regarding health, financial wellbeing, and personal growth. Conceptual metaphors like the "fresh start" can be powerful tools for reframing problems and motivating behaviors (Coulter and Zaltman 2000; Lakoff and Johnson 1980; Landau, Keefer and Meier 2010; Thibodeau and Boroditsky 2011), and are frequently featured in movies, blogs, strategic marketing communication, and products. However, research has not examined whether fresh starts can indeed help consumers set new goals and improve their performance. This dissertation seeks to explore the role of the fresh start metaphor in consumers' lives. In Chapter 2, I define the fresh start as consumers' pursuit of new beginnings, and develop a reliable scale distinct from related constructs such as optimism, hope, entity theory and psychological closure. I find that consumers who score higher on the fresh start scale focus on the future more optimistically, report higher intentions to set new goals, and increase efforts toward health and financial budgeting. In Chapter 3, I investigate whether actively engaging the metaphor of the fresh start can change consumer outcomes. I find that when participants are prompted to activate a fresh start they expect to perform better on a challenging task (e.g., losing weight or saving money) because it increases their belief that present obstacles will have less hold in the future. I also find that a fresh start translates into performance improvements when participants perform poorly on a task in a personally important domain, and self-efficacy mediates the effect. Overall, results provide strong support for the role of the fresh start as a powerful tool that consumers can use to improve well-being, overcome poor performance, set new goals, and transform for the better.

I have worked together with three Swedish families with small children, focusing on their intrinsic goals as a way to increase well-being in their everyday life.  I have designed ceremonial objects for the families to use to create their own ceremony, as a way to practice togetherness by being more present in the moment. These objects are made in a do-it-yourself manner so that other people can make their own objects from the instructions.  By practicing togetherness people can have an entry way for focusing more on what they actually want and need, on a personal level, but it could also cause a ripple effect and support a more sustainable society, both socially and environmentally.

Research on healthy eating motivation has shown that people who are autonomously motivated tend to engage in healthier eating behaviours than people with controlled forms of motivation (Ng et al., 2012; Verstuyf et al., 2012). However, healthy eating requires both trying to eat healthy foods (i.e., approach goals) and trying to avoid unhealthy foods (i.e., avoidance goals), and previous research on the association between motivation and approach-avoidance eating goals is mixed (Harrison et al., 2011; Otis & Pelletier, 2008). In the current study, we explored the relationship between motivation and approach-avoidance goals using a 21-day daily diary design. Our findings indicated that approach goals were more difficult than avoidance goals and that higher relative autonomous motivation was associated with greater approach goal success, but not avoidance goal success. We also investigated the relationship between goal specificity, the temporal scope of approach-avoidance goals, and goal success/failure. Our findings are consistent with previous research on motivation and goal difficulty (Aitken et al., 2016; Green-Demers et al., 1997), but our approach-avoidance goal difficulty findings warrant further investigation. / Graduate / 2018-06-11

This paper aims to estimate how much Official Development Assistance (ODA) per capita and year is required to eradicate extreme poverty for all people in Nigeria by 2030 and hence achieve the first target of the first Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 1) in Nigeria. This is done with a method proposed by Kakwani and Son (2006) estimating headcount ratio, required growth rates, investment rates and ODA in order to achieve the first target of SDG 1. The paper takes into account three different growth scenarios; pro-poor, distribution neutral and anti-poor growth and comes to the conclusion that $29 200, $35 566 or $41 374 ODA per capita and year is necessary to eradicate extreme poverty in Nigeria by 2030.