Motivational structure and its importance in emotional regulation have been well-established. An individual's motivational structure comprises more or less stable habits, evaluations and feelings about how to achieve life goals. Motivational structure affects the way people approach various situations they encounter in their everyday lives. Adaptive motivational structure promotes successful goal attainment, whereas maladaptive motivation hinders people from effective goal seeking. Evidence based on the Motivational Model of Alcohol Use (Cox & Klinger, 1998, 2004) shows that decisions to drink are more likely when the individuals are unable to achieve emotional satisfaction through other goal pursuits or to overcome miseries in their lives. Evidence from the model also shows the vital importance of motivational structure in emotional regulation. The decisions to drink are more likely when the individuals are unable to achieve emotional satisfaction through other goal pursuits or to overcome the miseries that impede their lives. The current study, (N = 144, 38% males) was an experimental study, which tested the relative and combined effects of Enhancement information (including, choice, knowledge and feedback) and goal setting as two motivational techniques while participants were performing a series of experimental tasks (i.e., Computerized Conceptual Cards, Anagrams). The design was a 2 x 2 (i.e., control group; goal-setting group; information group and combination group)factorial that included pre- and post-test measures, including the Task Specific Personal Concern Inventory, Task Specific Sense of Control Inventory and Task Specific Intrinsic Motivation Inventory. The results showed that the greatest increase in adaptive motivation resulted from the combined technique and the order of the groups on the post-test was: Combination Group (enhancement information and goal-setting) > Information Group > Goal-Setting Group > No-Intervention Group. In addition, a 45-day follow-up assessment showed that the Combination Group’s task-specific adaptive motivation continue to increase after the post-experimental assessment.

Keywords