DETERMINANTS OF THE MAGNITUDE OF GOAL VALENCE - THE INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF NEED, INSTRUMENTALITY, AND THE DIFFICULTY OF GOAL ATTAINMENT

An experiment was conducted in which subjects could earn either a high (14/15) or a low (1/15) chance of winning a McDonald's Big Mac hamburger by successfully performing a difficult or very difficult memorization task. During the morning hours prior to the experimental session, half the subjects did not eat (high need) whereas the rest did (low need). As predicted, anticipatory ratings of the attractiveness of the hamburger increased across task difficulty for subjects in high need given the high chance and decreased across task difficulty for subjects in low need given the high chance. Furthermore, ratings were low and unaffected by task difficulty for the low-need subjects given the low chance. An unexpected increase in attractiveness ratings among subjects in high need given the low chance provided the impetus for a second experiment. In this study, subjects, all of whom were in high need, were given either an extremely high (79/80) or an extremely low (1/80) chance of winning the hamburger given success on the difficult or very difficult task. With this stronger manipulation, the attractiveness ratings of the hamburger increased as a function of task difficulty for subjects given the high chance and, unlike the first experiment, decreased modestly as a function of task difficulty for subjects given the low chance. Results of the two experiments are discussed in terms of the energization theory of motivation.