Vandercammen Leen, Hofmans Joeri, Theuns Peter
Department of Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Elsene, Belgium.
PLoS One. 2014 Dec 17;9(12):e115396. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0115396. eCollection 2014.
Despite the fact that studies on self-determination theory have traditionally disregarded the explicit role of emotions in the motivation eliciting process, research attention for the affective antecedents of motivation is growing. We add to this emerging research field by testing the moderating role of emotion differentiation -individual differences in the extent to which people can differentiate between specific emotions- on the relationship between twelve specific emotions and intrinsic motivation. To this end, we conducted a daily diary study (N = 72) and an experience sampling study (N = 34). Results showed that the relationship between enthusiasm, cheerfulness, optimism, contentedness, gloominess, miserableness, uneasiness (in both studies 1 and 2), calmness, relaxation, tenseness, depression, worry (only in Study 1) on one hand and intrinsic motivation on the other hand was moderated by positive emotion differentiation for the positive emotions and by negative emotion differentiation for the negative emotions. Altogether, these findings suggest that for people who are unable to distinguish between different specific positive emotions the relationship between those specific positive emotions and intrinsic motivation is stronger, whereas the relationship between specific negative emotions and intrinsic motivation is weaker for people who are able to distinguish between the different specific negative emotions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
尽管关于自我决定理论的研究传统上忽视了情绪在动机激发过程中的明确作用，但对动机的情感前因的研究关注度正在不断增加。我们通过测试情绪分化（即个体在区分特定情绪的程度上的个体差异）对十二种特定情绪与内在动机之间关系的调节作用，为这一新兴研究领域做出了贡献。为此，我们进行了一项日记研究（N = 72）和一项经验抽样研究（N = 34）。结果表明，一方面，热情、愉悦、乐观、满足、忧郁、痛苦、不安（在研究1和研究2中均如此）、平静、放松、紧张、沮丧、担忧（仅在研究1中）与内在动机之间的关系，对于积极情绪而言，受到积极情绪分化的调节；对于消极情绪而言，受到消极情绪分化的调节。总体而言，这些发现表明，对于那些无法区分不同特定积极情绪的人来说，这些特定积极情绪与内在动机之间的关系更强；而对于那些能够区分不同特定消极情绪的人来说，特定消极情绪与内在动机之间的关系则较弱。我们还讨论了理论和实践意义。
