Browsing by Subject "regulatory focus"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6

Open Access
Chasing Dreams or Avoiding Ruin: Neural Activation to Goal Priming in Low-Income vs. Control Adolescents
(2021-04-09) Pandya, Urmi
Goals are central to our identities. An important process related to goals is self-regulation: the process of pursuing goals despite internal and external forces that might disrupt it. Adolescents have been shown to struggle with self-regulation, particularly when environmental factors such as poverty interfere with successful goal pursuit. One theory of self-regulation is regulatory focus theory (RFT). RFT consists of promotion and prevention focus. An example of promotion focus is studying to do well on a test because it is an achievement (i.e., an ideal). An example of prevention focus is studying to do well on a test because it is one’s responsibility to do so (i.e., an ought). This exploratory study followed self-regulation as defined by RFT and centered on neural correlates of goal attainment in low-income adolescents. This study compared performance on a subliminal priming fMRI task between low-income and control adolescents. It was found that the low-income adolescents showed greater activation in the mPFC, linked to error-monitoring, for ideal goals that they were close to attaining and less activation in areas associated with self-focus for ideal goals that they were not close to attaining and ought goals that they were close to attaining. These results suggest a potential role of poverty-related stressors in shifting attention away from the self and instead towards vigilant management of external responsibilities. Even during ideal goal pursuit, low-income adolescents may be more focused on correcting errors rather than maximizing positive affect.
Open Access
Individual differences in regulatory focus predict neural response to reward.
(Soc Neurosci, 2016-04-30) Scult, Matthew A; Knodt, Annchen R; Hanson, Jamie L; Ryoo, Minyoung; Adcock, R Alison; Hariri, Ahmad R; Strauman, Timothy J
Although goal pursuit is related to both functioning of the brain's reward circuits and psychological factors, the literatures surrounding these concepts have often been separate. Here, we use the psychological construct of regulatory focus to investigate individual differences in neural response to reward. Regulatory focus theory proposes two motivational orientations for personal goal pursuit: (1) promotion, associated with sensitivity to potential gain, and (2) prevention, associated with sensitivity to potential loss. The monetary incentive delay task was used to manipulate reward circuit function, along with instructional framing corresponding to promotion and prevention in a within-subject design. We observed that the more promotion oriented an individual was, the lower their ventral striatum response to gain cues. Follow-up analyses revealed that greater promotion orientation was associated with decreased ventral striatum response even to no-value cues, suggesting that promotion orientation may be associated with relatively hypoactive reward system function. The findings are also likely to represent an interaction between the cognitive and motivational characteristics of the promotion system with the task demands. Prevention orientation did not correlate with ventral striatum response to gain cues, supporting the discriminant validity of regulatory focus theory. The results highlight a dynamic association between individual differences in self-regulation and reward system function.
Open Access
Intrinsic functional connectivity of motor and heteromodal association cortex predicts individual differences in regulatory focus.
(PNAS nexus, 2024-05) Kim, Nayoung; Kim, M Justin; Strauman, Timothy J; Hariri, Ahmad R
Regulatory focus theory (RFT) describes two cognitive-motivational systems for goal pursuit-the promotion and prevention systems-important for self-regulation and previously implicated in vulnerability to psychopathology. According to RFT, the promotion system is engaged in attaining ideal goals (e.g. hopes and dreams), whereas the prevention system is associated with accomplishing ought goals (e.g. duties and obligations). Prior task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have mostly explored the mapping of these two systems onto the activity of a priori brain regions supporting motivation and executive control in both healthy and depressed adults. However, complex behavioral processes such as those guided by individual differences in regulatory focus are likely supported by widely distributed patterns of intrinsic functional connectivity. We used data-driven connectome-based predictive modeling to identify patterns of distributed whole-brain intrinsic network connectivity associated with individual differences in promotion and prevention system orientation in 1,307 young university volunteers. Our analyses produced a network model predictive of prevention but not promotion orientation, specifically the subjective experience of successful goal pursuit using prevention strategies. The predictive model of prevention success was highlighted by decreased intrinsic functional connectivity of both heteromodal association cortices in the parietal and limbic networks and the primary motor cortex. We discuss these findings in the context of strategic inaction, which drives individuals with a strong dispositional prevention orientation to inhibit their behavioral tendencies in order to shield the self from potential losses, thus maintaining the safety of the status quo but also leading to trade-offs in goal pursuit success.
Open Access
Revising a Self-Regulation Phenotype for Depression Through Individual Differences in Macroscale Brain Organization.
(Current directions in psychological science, 2023-08) Strauman, Timothy J; Hariri, Ahmad R
Self-regulation denotes the processes by which people initiate, maintain, and control their own thoughts, behaviors, or emotions to produce a desired outcome or avoid an undesired outcome. Self-regulation brings the influence of distal factors such as biology, temperament, and socialization history onto cognition, motivation, and behavior. Dysfunction in self-regulation represents a contributory causal factor for psychopathology. Accordingly, we previously proposed a risk phenotype model for depression drawing from regulatory focus theory and traditional task-based fMRI studies. In this article, we revise and expand our risk phenotype model using insights from new methodologies allowing quantification of individual differences in task-free macroscale brain organization. We offer a set of hypotheses as examples of how examination of intrinsic macroscale brain organization can extend and enrich investigations of self-regulation and depression. In doing so, we hope to promote a useful heuristic for model development and for identifying transdiagnostic risk phenotypes in psychopathology.
Open Access
Self-Regulation before and after a Developmental Transition: a Study of Adaptive Goal Change in Retirement
(2008-08-08) Aspnes, Ann
Retirement is the quintessential transition from mid-life to late-life for many working Americans. However, questions about the positive and negative effects of retirement have sparked widely divergent empirical findings. Developmental theories of self-regulation may add to the understanding of the subtle differences and transitions within retirement. Retirement may be viewed as a transition in resources (e.g., psychological, social, and financial), so that individual mental health outcomes are linked to how well these resources are reallocated. According to goal disengagement perspectives, failure either in disengagement from past goals or reengagement in new goals can lead to decreased well-being and increased depression. Further, as individuals enter late-life, their focus may turn away from growth and achievement and more toward preventing losses and maintaining current resources. In the present study, it was hypothesized that when pre-retirement individuals were compared against early and late post-retirement individuals, engagement in developmentally relevant goals (e.g., self, family, and leisure) in retirees would be associated with better mental health outcomes while retirees who reported continued engagement in less developmentally accessible goals (i.e., occupational and financial) would report worse outcomes.
A total of 100 study participants (aged 50 to 84) were interviewed about their current goals and completed self-report measures of depression, well-being, social support, physical health, and regulatory focus. Interview data were coded for goal content as well as for regulatory focus. Findings did not support the hypotheses, as there were no significant differences among the 47 pre-retirement, 29 early post-retirement, and 24 late post-retirement participants in their goal content or regulatory focus. Goal content also was not associated differentially with depression or well-being among the three groups. However, the interview data did provide valuable information about the heterogeneous and fluid nature of retirement. Retirement, rather than a clear loss in certain resources (i.e., financial and occupational) and a clear gain in others (i.e., time and personal freedom), seemed to be a renegotiation of those resources. Furthermore, even pre-retirement participants named retirement goals, suggesting that, if a goal transition did occur, it may have been a more conscious, gradual process.
Open Access
What shall I be, what must I be: neural correlates of personal goal activation.
(Front Integr Neurosci, 2012) Strauman, Timothy J; Detloff, Allison M; Sestokas, Rima; Smith, David V; Goetz, Elena L; Rivera, Christine; Kwapil, Lori
How is the brain engaged when people are thinking about their hopes, dreams, and obligations? Regulatory focus theory postulates two classes of personal goals and motivational systems for pursuing them. Ideal goals, such as hopes and aspirations, are pursued via the promotion system through "making good things happen." Ought goals, such as obligations or responsibilities, are pursued via the prevention system through "keeping bad things from happening." This study investigated the neural correlates of ideal and ought goal priming using an event-related fMRI design with rapid masked stimulus presentations. We exposed participants to their self-identified ideal and ought goals, yoked-control words and non-words. We also examined correlations between goal-related activation and measures of regulatory focus, behavioral activation/inhibition, and negative affect. Ideal priming led to activation in frontal and occipital regions as well as caudate and thalamus, whereas prevention goal priming was associated with activation in precuneus and posterior cingulate cortex. Individual differences in dysphoric/anxious affect and regulatory focus, but not differences in BAS/BIS strength, were predictive of differential activation in response to goal priming. The regions activated in response to ideal and ought goal priming broadly map onto the cortical midline network that has been shown to index processing of self-referential stimuli. Individual differences in regulatory focus and negative affect impact this network and appeared to influence the strength and accessibility of the promotion and prevention systems. The results support a fundamental distinction between promotion and prevention and extend our understanding of how personal goals influence behavior.