What Distinguishes Promotion and Prevention? Attaining “+1” from “0” as Non-Gain Versus Maintaining “0” as Non-Loss

• Authors: E. Tory Higgins

Abstracts

EN

This paper reviews the history of the distinctions that have been made, and the differences discovered, between promotion and prevention self-regulation. These include, respectively: (1) Nurturance versus security; (2) ideal (hopes) versus ought (duties) self-guides; (3) presence and absence of positive outcomes versus absence and presence of negative outcomes; (4) approaching matches to a desired end-state versus avoiding mismatches to a desired end-state; (5) eager for “hits” versus vigilant against “errors of commission”; (6) speed versus accuracy; (7) global/abstract versus local/concrete; and (8) intuitions versus reasons. A fundamental, “story of 0”, distinction between promotion and prevention self-regulation is then discussed: attaining “+1” from “0” versus maintaining “0” against “-1”, where “0” is a non-gain in the former and a non-loss in the latter. The paper then shows how each of the earlier distinctions and differences between promotion and prevention can be understood in terms of this fundamental distinction.

Keywords

EN

promotion; prevention; regulatory focus; motivation; self-regulation

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk
• Journal: Polish Psychological Bulletin
• Year: 2018
• Volume: 49
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 40-49

Dates

published

2018

Contributors

author

E. Tory Higgins

Identifiers

Biblioteka Nauki

2127283