Publication details
An involuntary revolt: Controlled motivation, reactance, and self-regulatory failure
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| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Citation | |
| Description | Stemming from procrastination research, our model of "motivated self-regulatory failure", based on the reactance theory, proposes that increased distractedness and distraction preference may actually serve as an adaptive equilibrating mechanism preventing people from entering implementation phases with tasks threatening one’s autonomy. The objective of the present study was to test the assumption that controlled motivation might affect procrastination through increased reactance. 96 students (70 female; mean age = 23.0) completed self-report measures of academic procrastination, trait reactance, cognitive self-regulation, and motivation types (controlled vs. autonomous). It turned out that the overlap between the effects of reactance and controlled motivations / amotivation was not as large as expected. While reactance was found to be related mainly to external motivation, procrastination was more closely associated with introjected motivation and amotivation. Interestingly, cognitive self-regulation, which did not explain the effect of reactance, completely accounted for the effects of non-autonomous motivations on procrastination. |