Relationship of success and expectation to affect on goal-seeking tasks.

Abstract

EDWIN A. LOCKEAmerican Institutes for Research, Washington Office3 experiments examined the relationship between deviation of outcome fromexpectation and affect using goal-seeking tasks on which S was responsible forthe outcome. All experiments yielded a linear relationship between degree ofdeviation and affect, positive deviations (where S did better than expected)being valued more than negative deviations (where S did worse than expected).However, further analyses demonstrated that it was not deviation from ex-pectation that was responsible for the affect differences but success and failure—•which were associated with positive and negative deviations from expectancy,respectively. Success produced satisfaction and the same amount of satisfac-tion whether it was expected or unexpected; failure produced dissatisfactionand the same amount of dissatisfaction whether it was expected or unexpected.It was suggested, contrary to McClelland's theory, that it was the relationshipof outcome to aspiration (to what S wants or values) rather than the rela-tionship of outcome to expectation (or adaptation level) that determines affect.

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