{"id":{"repo_id":"unsw","oai_identifier":"oai:unsworks.library.unsw.edu.au:1959.4/58685"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/unsw/oai:unsworks.library.unsw.edu.au:1959.4/58685","repository":{"repo_id":"unsw","name":"University of New South Wales","base_url":"https://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/oai/provider"},"display":{"title":"Not in the mood to achieve? Hedonistic discounting reduces the motivation to self-regulate","abstract":"Six experiments examined the effects of mood on the motivation to self-regulate and persevere on complex achievement tasks. Based on several existing affect theories as well as the Expectancy-Value model of achievement motivation (Atkinson, 1957; 1964), a novel prediction was formulated for how affective states can influence self-regulatory processes during goal-pursuit: the hedonistic discounting hypothesis. According to the hedonistic discounting hypothesis, in the absence of competing motivations triggered by external factors in an achievement situation, individuals in a happy mood were expected to discount the value of future success on an achievement task, leading to decreased perseverance relative to individuals in an affectively-neutral or negative mood. In a real-life achievement situation, Study 1 confirmed that transient happy feelings can reduce goal-value perceptions as well as intentions to study for an upcoming university examination. Study 2 replicated and extended these results in a controlled laboratory experiment. It was found that mood-induced differences in goal-value perceptions partially mediated the effects of mood on perseverance on a cognitive abilities task. Studies 3 and 4 investigated the moderating influence of clearly-defined extrinsic goals on the hedonistic discounting effect. Study 3 confirmed that positive mood decreased perseverance, but an extrinsic incentive to perform well (movie passes worth $30AUD) attenuated mood effects. Study 4 again replicated reduced perseverance in positive mood, but also found that the motivational effects of a competitive interpersonal context attenuated mood effects, and individual differences in competitive tendencies further moderated goal-pursuit strategies. Studies 5 and 6 explored the effect of externally increasing the need to attend to achievement goals, either consciously or non-consciously, on the hedonistic discounting effect. Study 5 found that when an achievement mindset had been subliminally activated, positive mood increased rather than decreased perseverance. Finally, the results of Study 6 revealed that receiving negative performance feedback on an initial cognitive abilities task while in a positive mood motivated achievement behaviour in a subsequent achievement task. An integrative multi-process model is proposed to account for the way mood interacts with various contextual features in the regulation of motivation to persevere in different achievement settings.","abstract_html":"Six experiments examined the effects of mood on the motivation to self-regulate and persevere on complex achievement tasks. Based on several existing affect theories as well as the Expectancy-Value model of achievement motivation (Atkinson, 1957; 1964), a novel prediction was formulated for how affective states can influence self-regulatory processes during goal-pursuit: the hedonistic discounting hypothesis. According to the hedonistic discounting hypothesis, in the absence of competing motivations triggered by external factors in an achievement situation, individuals in a happy mood were expected to discount the value of future success on an achievement task, leading to decreased perseverance relative to individuals in an affectively-neutral or negative mood. In a real-life achievement situation, Study 1 confirmed that transient happy feelings can reduce goal-value perceptions as well as intentions to study for an upcoming university examination. Study 2 replicated and extended these results in a controlled laboratory experiment. It was found that mood-induced differences in goal-value perceptions partially mediated the effects of mood on perseverance on a cognitive abilities task. Studies 3 and 4 investigated the moderating influence of clearly-defined extrinsic goals on the hedonistic discounting effect. Study 3 confirmed that positive mood decreased perseverance, but an extrinsic incentive to perform well (movie passes worth $30AUD) attenuated mood effects. Study 4 again replicated reduced perseverance in positive mood, but also found that the motivational effects of a competitive interpersonal context attenuated mood effects, and individual differences in competitive tendencies further moderated goal-pursuit strategies. Studies 5 and 6 explored the effect of externally increasing the need to attend to achievement goals, either consciously or non-consciously, on the hedonistic discounting effect. Study 5 found that when an achievement mindset had been subliminally activated, positive mood increased rather than decreased perseverance. Finally, the results of Study 6 revealed that receiving negative performance feedback on an initial cognitive abilities task while in a positive mood motivated achievement behaviour in a subsequent achievement task. An integrative multi-process model is proposed to account for the way mood interacts with various contextual features in the regulation of motivation to persevere in different achievement settings.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Goldenberg, Liz"],"institution":"UNSW, Sydney","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2017,"date_issued":"2017","date_published":"2017","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:31:47Z","subjects":["Goal pursuit","Mood","Achievement motivation"],"languages":["EN"],"rights":["open access","CC BY-NC-ND 3.0","free_to_read"],"rights_urls":["https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2","https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/"],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/3285"],"render_values":[{"text":"https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/3285","href":"https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/3285","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/58685","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Goldenberg, Liz"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2017"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["UNSW, Sydney"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["doctoral thesis","http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Goal pursuit","Mood","Achievement motivation"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["EN"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["open access","https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2","CC BY-NC-ND 3.0","https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/","free_to_read"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/58685","https://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/bitstreams/9c0407f5-fc81-4749-b110-4257b7d56d1f/download","https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/3285"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Six experiments examined the effects of mood on the motivation to self-regulate and persevere on complex achievement tasks. Based on several existing affect theories as well as the Expectancy-Value model of achievement motivation (Atkinson, 1957; 1964), a novel prediction was formulated for how affective states can influence self-regulatory processes during goal-pursuit: the hedonistic discounting hypothesis. According to the hedonistic discounting hypothesis, in the absence of competing motivations triggered by external factors in an achievement situation, individuals in a happy mood were expected to discount the value of future success on an achievement task, leading to decreased perseverance relative to individuals in an affectively-neutral or negative mood. In a real-life achievement situation, Study 1 confirmed that transient happy feelings can reduce goal-value perceptions as well as intentions to study for an upcoming university examination. Study 2 replicated and extended these results in a controlled laboratory experiment. It was found that mood-induced differences in goal-value perceptions partially mediated the effects of mood on perseverance on a cognitive abilities task. Studies 3 and 4 investigated the moderating influence of clearly-defined extrinsic goals on the hedonistic discounting effect. Study 3 confirmed that positive mood decreased perseverance, but an extrinsic incentive to perform well (movie passes worth $30AUD) attenuated mood effects. Study 4 again replicated reduced perseverance in positive mood, but also found that the motivational effects of a competitive interpersonal context attenuated mood effects, and individual differences in competitive tendencies further moderated goal-pursuit strategies. Studies 5 and 6 explored the effect of externally increasing the need to attend to achievement goals, either consciously or non-consciously, on the hedonistic discounting effect. Study 5 found that when an achievement mindset had been subliminally activated, positive mood increased rather than decreased perseverance. Finally, the results of Study 6 revealed that receiving negative performance feedback on an initial cognitive abilities task while in a positive mood motivated achievement behaviour in a subsequent achievement task. An integrative multi-process model is proposed to account for the way mood interacts with various contextual features in the regulation of motivation to persevere in different achievement settings."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Not in the mood to achieve? Hedonistic discounting reduces the motivation to self-regulate"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Goldenberg, Liz"],"dc:date":["2017"],"dc:description":["Six experiments examined the effects of mood on the motivation to self-regulate and persevere on complex achievement tasks. Based on several existing affect theories as well as the Expectancy-Value model of achievement motivation (Atkinson, 1957; 1964), a novel prediction was formulated for how affective states can influence self-regulatory processes during goal-pursuit: the hedonistic discounting hypothesis. According to the hedonistic discounting hypothesis, in the absence of competing motivations triggered by external factors in an achievement situation, individuals in a happy mood were expected to discount the value of future success on an achievement task, leading to decreased perseverance relative to individuals in an affectively-neutral or negative mood. In a real-life achievement situation, Study 1 confirmed that transient happy feelings can reduce goal-value perceptions as well as intentions to study for an upcoming university examination. Study 2 replicated and extended these results in a controlled laboratory experiment. It was found that mood-induced differences in goal-value perceptions partially mediated the effects of mood on perseverance on a cognitive abilities task. Studies 3 and 4 investigated the moderating influence of clearly-defined extrinsic goals on the hedonistic discounting effect. Study 3 confirmed that positive mood decreased perseverance, but an extrinsic incentive to perform well (movie passes worth $30AUD) attenuated mood effects. Study 4 again replicated reduced perseverance in positive mood, but also found that the motivational effects of a competitive interpersonal context attenuated mood effects, and individual differences in competitive tendencies further moderated goal-pursuit strategies. Studies 5 and 6 explored the effect of externally increasing the need to attend to achievement goals, either consciously or non-consciously, on the hedonistic discounting effect. Study 5 found that when an achievement mindset had been subliminally activated, positive mood increased rather than decreased perseverance. Finally, the results of Study 6 revealed that receiving negative performance feedback on an initial cognitive abilities task while in a positive mood motivated achievement behaviour in a subsequent achievement task. An integrative multi-process model is proposed to account for the way mood interacts with various contextual features in the regulation of motivation to persevere in different achievement settings."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/58685","https://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/bitstreams/9c0407f5-fc81-4749-b110-4257b7d56d1f/download","https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/3285"],"dc:language":["EN"],"dc:publisher":["UNSW, Sydney"],"dc:rights":["open access","https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2","CC BY-NC-ND 3.0","https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/","free_to_read"],"dc:subject":["Goal pursuit","Mood","Achievement motivation"],"dc:title":["Not in the mood to achieve? Hedonistic discounting reduces the motivation to self-regulate"],"dc:type":["doctoral thesis","http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:31:47Z"}