Two concerns dominate speculation about the lack of progress in motivational disposition research. First, truly unique dispositional constructs have not been identified since wide acceptance of the approach / avoidance distinction. Second, research has largely neglected to account for context in models of motivated behavior. Effective avoidance has systematically been unassessed in motivation research. Social cognitive theory was used to define an effective avoidance motivational trait, vigilance, as an antecedent to effective regulatory behaviors that are avoidant in nature and/or strategy. Two studies were conducted: First, development and psychometric evaluation of a scale measuring vigilance within the existing motivational trait framework (Heggestad and Kanfer, 2000). Exploratory and confirmatory analyses provided initial validity evidence for the vigilance construct; composed of diligence and error-detection facets. Convergent – discriminant analysis revealed that vigilance is significantly related to approach and avoidance motivational constructs identifying two possible sources of contamination in self-report measures of motivational traits. Measurement items may be contaminated with implied outcomes and measurement items may be contaminated with generalized self-efficacy. In the second study, a within-subjects experiment tested the predictive validity of the vigilance measurement scale for task-specific self-efficacy and performance on a task that rewards avoidance-oriented strategies. Vigilance predicted prevention task-specific self-efficacy ( = .29) in one of two experimental conditions. The validation study also offered construct validity evidence for the vigilance construct. Implications and future directions are discussed. / Ph. D. / Motivation is defined as the force that energizes, directs, and maintains behavior. Researchers in the field of motivation continuously strive to understand individual differences in motivation levels (e.g., personality traits) and how those individual differences are related to task performance. Current consensus is that individuals differ on their levels of approach-oriented motivation (the motive to approach success) and/or avoidance-oriented motivation (the motive to avoid failure). Researchers tend to treat approach-oriented motivation as “good” and avoidanceoriented motivation as “bad”. The current study argues that, in a variety of contexts, avoidanceoriented motivation is actually good and that it leads to enhanced task performance. Thus, effective aspects of avoidance motivation were identified and used to define a new individual difference trait construct termed “vigilance”. Vigilance is defined as a predisposition for maintaining alertness, meticulousness, fastidiousness, and being heedful of overt warnings or obscure warning signs. Highly vigilant individuals are more likely to engage in careful planning, be good at error detection, and engage in safety-related behaviors. Results of this two-part study indicate that vigilance is a unique motivational trait construct and that it may be related to enhanced performance for some tasks. To the extent that vigilance is a valid motivational trait, it can be used to predict individual’s performance in on various tasks and help ensure that people are entered into jobs that they are likely to excel in. However, support for vigilance was mixed in these studies and further research is required.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/74003 |
| Date | 06 January 2017 |
| Creators | Bateman, Tanner Alan |
| Contributors | Psychology, Hauenstein, Neil M. A., Stephens, Robert S., Foti, Roseanne J., Geller, E. Scott |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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