Constructive thinking: A complex coping variable that distinctively influences the effectiveness of specific difficult goals

The main purpose of the present work was to examine the construct of Constructive Thinking [Epstein, S., & Meier, P. (1989). Constructive thinking: a broad coping variable with specific components. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 332-350] in the context of task performance with specific difficult goals. Based on former studies we hypothesized that different aspects of Constructive Thinking would influence task performance and adaptation to change in the nature of the task distinctively. Moreover, in line with the Goal Setting paradigm, we suggested that good behavioral and emotional coping (as compared to poor coping) would help subjects to overcome the inherent difficulties of specific difficult goals and to benefit from their motivating advantages. In contrast, high categorical thinking, superstitious thinking, naive optimism and Negative Thinking would lead to decrement performance under specific difficult goals. To test our hypotheses 155 subjects engaged in the stocks' prediction task developed by Earley, Connolly, and Eakergen [Earley, P. C., Connolly, T., & Eakergen, G. (1989) Goal, strategy development and task performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74, 24-33]. We used a two by two design in which goals and experimental phase (as repeated factor) conditions were varied to test the hypotheses. In addition, Constructive Thinking was introduces as a personal disposition. Results supported the hypotheses on categorical thinking, superstitious thinking, naive optimism and Negative Thinking but not those on behavioral and emotional coping. These results are discussed in light of the differences between these different subscales and their relevance to Goal Setting theory.