Mental Contrasting and the Self-Regulation of Helping Relations

While mental contrasting of positive future and negative reality promotes commitment to feasible goals, it has not been tested whether it also promotes the choice of suitable means. In two studies we examined the effects of mental contrasting (Oettingen, 2000) on seeking and giving help as means to an end. For college-age students, mental contrasting about attaining academic help led to expectancy-dependent commitment to seek help (Study 1),...