Sirois, F.M. orcid.org/0000-0002-0927-277X (2021) Trait procrastination undermines outcome and efficacy expectancies for achieving health-related possible selves. Current Psychology, 40 (8). pp. 3840-3847. ISSN 1046-1310
Abstract
People often fail at following through with their health behaviour goals. How health goals are cognitively represented holds promise for understanding successful health behaviour change. Health-related possible selves (HPS) reflect cognitive representations of a future self that people may wish to achieve (hoped-for-HPS) or avoid (feared-HPS), that can promote health behaviour change. However, success depends on the strength of the efficacy and outcome expectancies for achieving/avoiding the HPS. Personality traits linked to poor self-regulation are often not considered when assessing the potential self-regulatory functions of HPS. The current study addressed this issue by examining the associations of trait procrastination with efficacy and outcome expectancies for hoped-for-HPS and feared-HPS, and health behaviour change intentions and motivations in a community sample (N = 191) intending to make healthy changes in the next 6 months. Trait procrastination was associated with weaker intentions and motivations for health behaviour change, and lower efficacy and outcome expectancies for hoped-for-HPS, but not feared-HPS. Bootstrapped multiple mediation analysis found significant indirect effects of procrastination on health behaviour intentions, through outcome, but not efficacy, expectancies for hoped-for-HPS. Results suggest that issues in imagining a hoped-for-HPS can be achieved are linked to weak intentions for health behaviour change for those with chronic self-regulation difficulties. Research into interventions that strengthen feeling connected to hoped-for-HPS is recommended.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. |
Keywords: | Possible selves; Procrastination; Efficacy expectancies; Outcome expectancies; Health behaviour change |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada) 410-2005-0094 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 02 Sep 2019 11:27 |
Last Modified: | 10 Dec 2021 11:52 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Nature |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s12144-019-00338-2 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:150244 |