Construal Theory Research Articles

When Does Self-Promotion Work?

Based on temporal construal theory, this study examined how temporal distance (i.e., hiring someone for the near vs. distant future) influences the effectiveness of different types of self-promotion, applied by a fictive applicant in a personnel selection interview. Findings of two experiments were in line with our predictions that promoting oneself in a direct way (i.e., referring to one’s own achievements) or in concrete terms (i.e., focusing on situation-specific behaviors) is more successful when applying for immediate entry whereas promoting oneself in an indirect way (i.e., emphasizing connections with others) or in abstract terms (i.e., focusing on traits) is more successful when applying for a vacancy to be filled in the distant future.

Independent self-construal, self-reflection, and self-rumination: A path model for predicting happiness

A construal theory of happiness emphasises the mediating impact of cognitive and motivational processes on the individual's perceptions of their happiness. This study investigated a path model with the two cognitive variables, self-reflection and self-rumination as mediating factors between an independent self-construal and subjective happiness. One hundred and twenty three participants completed a questionnaire designed to measure subjective happiness, independent self-construal, self-reflection, and self-rumination. Individuals' propensity to self-reflect and self-ruminate was not found to be affected by an independent self-construal. A higher independent self-construal was associated with greater happiness. The results also indicated that self-reflection has the potential to both increase and decrease (when mediated by self-rumination) subjective happiness. This study suggests that although meaningful self-reflection may be beneficial for individuals who do not enjoy high levels of happiness, the perils of self-reflection are that it may trigger self-rumination which has detrimental consequences for happiness.

As Time Goes By: Do Cold Feet Follow Warm Intentions for Really New versus Incrementally New Products?

Combining prior theory about really new products (RNPs) with temporal construal theory, the authors show in four field studies that consumers follow through less often on positive purchase intentions to buy RNPs than on intentions to buy incrementally new products (INPs), and the decrement grows over time. Compared with consumers of INPs, consumers of RNPs are less likely to think concretely about the circumstances of buying and using the products and are more poorly calibrated in their expectations of initial product use. The authors discuss implications for both the marketing of and the market research on RNPs.

Effects of Fluency on Psychological Distance and Mental Construal (or Why New York Is a Large City, but New York Is a Civilized Jungle)

People construe the world along a continuum from concretely (focusing on specific, local details) to abstractly (focusing on global essences). We show that people are more likely to interpret the world abstractly when they experience cognitive disfluency, or difficulty processing stimuli in the environment, than when they experience cognitive fluency. We observed this effect using three instantiations of fluency: visual perceptual fluency (Study 1b), conceptual priming fluency (Study 2b), and linguistic fluency (Study 3). Adopting the framework of construal theory, we suggest that one mechanism for this effect is perceivers' tendency to interpret disfluently processed stimuli as farther from their current position than fluently processed stimuli (Studies 1a and 2a).

Influencing attitudes toward near and distant objects

It is argued that the temporal distance of attitude objects systematically changes how the object is mentally represented, and thus influences the strength of particular persuasive appeals. Three experiments tested the hypothesis that people preferentially attend to arguments that highlight primary, abstract (high-level) vs. incidental, concrete (low-level) features when attitude objects are temporally distant vs. near. Results suggested that when attitude objects are temporally distant vs. near, arguments emphasizing primary vs. secondary features (Study 1), desirability vs. feasibility features (Study 2), and general classes vs. specific cases are more persuasive (Study 3). The relation of construal theory to dual process theories of persuasion and persuasion phenomena, such as personal relevance effects and functional matching effects, are discussed.

Attitude Construction: Evaluation in Context

Most theories treat attitudes as enduring evaluative tendencies; the dispositional focus enjoys intuitive appeal because it is compatible with observers' preference for dispositional explanations (aka fundamental attribution error). From the actor's perspective, evaluation stands in the service of action. Any adaptive system of evaluation needs to be highly sensitive to the specifics of the present, turning deplorable “context dependency“ into laudable “context sensitivity.” Attitude construal theories conceptualize the context sensitivity of evaluative judgment and provide a parsimonious account of core findings of the attitude literature without assuming enduring dispositions; their assumptions are compatible with theories of situated cognition.

Consuming Now or Later?

Decisions are often temporally separated from their outcomes. Using theories of structural alignment and temporal construal, we examined how temporal distance and the associated shift in decision processes moderate susceptibility to context effects. Specifically, in two experiments (one hypothetical, one with real outcomes), we demonstrated that people attend more to nonalignable differences when the outcome of the decision is in the distant future than when it is in the near future. This shift in decision processes was found in preference and choice data, as well as coded written protocols. We further show that this temporal shift cannot be explained by differential involvement with the decision or by the feasibility and desirability of the attributes. Our findings establish temporal distance as an important moderator of structural alignment effects and also extend the implications of temporal construal theory beyond the nature of the attributes to the structural relationships among attributes.

Consuming Now or Later? The Interactive Effect of Timing and Attribute Alignability

Decisions are often temporally separated from their outcomes. Using theories of structural alignment and temporal construal, we examined how temporal distance and the associated shift in decision processes moderate susceptibility to context effects. Specifically, in two experiments (one hypothetical, one with real outcomes) we demonstrated that people attend relatively more to non-alignable differences when the outcome of the decision is in the distant compared to the near future. We show this shift in decision processes by using preference and choice data as well as coded written protocols. We further show that this temporal shift cannot be explained by differential involvement with the decision or by the feasibility/desirability of the attributes. Our findings establish temporal distance as an important moderator of structural alignment effects, as well as extending the implications of temporal construal theory beyond the characteristics of the attributes to the structural relationships among attributes.

Competition between primary and non-primary relations during sentence comprehension.

The four eye-tracking experiments reported examined the way in which Adjunct Predicates (APs) located at the beginning of French sentences of the type "Tired (feminine/masculine) of calling the woman (s/he) left the room" are interpreted and interact with syntactic parsing strategies. The results suggest that the first NP (the woman) was initially interpreted as the potential AP gender controller. Moreover, in the case of gender agreement (the woman is the one who is tired) the syntactic status of the first NP (either the object of the preceding verb or the subject of the main verb) apparently remained ambiguous until the main verb was reached. The implications of these results for Frazier and Clifton's (1996) Construal Theory are discussed.

Why are some people happier than others? The role of cognitive and motivational processes in well-being.

Addressing the question of why some people are happier than others is important for both theoretical and practical reasons and should be a central goal of a comprehensive positive psychology. Following a construal theory of happiness, the author proposes that multiple cognitive and motivational processes moderate the impact of the objective environment on well-being. Thus, to understand why some people are happier than others, one must understand the cognitive and motivational processes that serve to maintain, and even enhance, enduring happiness and transient mood. The author's approach has been to explore hedonically relevant psychological processes, such as social comparison, dissonance reduction, self-reflection, self-evaluation, and person perception, in chronically happy and unhappy individuals. In support of a construal framework, self-rated happy and unhappy people have been shown to differ systematically in the particular cognitive and motivational strategies they use. Promising research directions for positive psychology in pursuit of the sources of happiness, as well as the implications of the construal approach for prescriptions for enhancing well-being, are discussed.

Temporal construal and time-dependent changes in preference.

Five studies tested the predictions of temporal construal theory and time-discounting theories regarding evaluation of near future and distant future options (outcomes, activities, products). The options had abstract or goal-relevant features (called high-level construal features) as well as more concrete or goal-irrelevant features (called low-level construal features). The studies varied the valence (positive vs. negative) and the type of valence (affective vs. cognitive) of the low-level and high-level construal features. The results show that the weight of high-level construal features, compared with the weight of low-level construal features, is greater in determining distant future preferences than near future preferences. The implications of the results for extant theories of time-dependent changes in preference are discussed.

The role of feasibility and desirability considerations in near and distant future decisions: A test of temporal construal theory.

The role of feasibility and desirability considerations in near and distant future decisions: A test of temporal construal theory.

The role of feasibility and desirability considerations in near and distant future decisions: A test of temporal construal theory.

Temporal construal theory states that distant future situations are construed on a higher level (i.e., using more abstract and central features) than near future situations. Accordingly, the theory suggests that the value associated with the high-level construal is enhanced over delay and that the value associated with the low-level construal is discounted over delay. In goal-directed activities, desirability of the activity's end state represents a high-level construal, whereas the feasibility of attaining this end state represents a low-level construal. Study 1 found that distant future activities were construed on a higher level than near future activities. Studies 2 and 3 showed that decisions regarding distant future activities, compared with decisions regarding near future activities, were more influenced by the desirability of the end state and less influenced by the feasibility of attaining the end state. Study 4 presented students with a real-life choice of academic assignments varying in difficulty (feasibility) and interest (desirability). In choosing a distant future assignment, students placed relatively more weight on the assignment's interest, whereas in choosing a near future assignment, they placed relatively more weight on difficulty. Study 5 found that distant future plans, compared with near future plans, were related to desirability of activities rather than to time constraints. In everyday life, people judge and make decisions about events that will take place either in the relatively near future or in the distant future. For example, one may need to decide whether to take a vacation, give a lecture, or attend a conference a few months in advance or just a few days in advance. This article addresses the question of how temporal distance from an event affects people's decisions regarding that event. We argue that distant future events are construed on a higher level (i.e., by using more central and abstract features of the event) than near future events. Therefore, decisions regarding distant future events are likely to be based on relatively central and

Modifier Attachment in Sentence Parsing: Evidence from Dutch

Current theories of parsing suggest a wide variety of mechanisms by which modifiers, such as relative clauses, may be related to constituents that offer more than one potential attachment site. Some, like the tuning hypothesis, are based on the premise that people's parsing performance is shaped by prior exposure to language. Others (e.g. garden-path theory and construal theory) play down any potential role of past linguistic experience, stressing instead the varying influences of structural characteristics of the sentence in question. The two views encourage differing expectations about cross-linguistic variation in parsing preference. A questionnaire study and two on-line experiments were carried out to investigate attachment preferences in Dutch. The results pose a number of problems for the majority of the existing parsing models and are clearly inconsistent with some of the traditional theories. In contrast, the findings are compatible with models incorporating parsing mechanisms that are tuned by language experience. The results highlight the need for further corpus studies to subject these accounts to more searching scrutiny.