The interplay between motivation and social perception: New ideas

The preparation of the Special Issue was supported by a grant 2013/11/B/HS6/01463 from the National Science Center awarded to Hanna Brycz. This special issue is the result of cooperation between the Society for the Study of Motivation (SSM) and Polish social psychologists at the University of Gdansk and Jagiellonian University. Cooperation between these parties dates back to the point at which the SSM was first established, in 2007. It has yielded fruitful idea exchanges, including ones that occurred during a series of international conferences concerned with human motivation. The most recent international conference had the theme “Motivation and Social Perception” and took place in Gdansk – July, 2016. Following the theme of the most recent conference, this special issue is devoted to motivation and social perception. The existing psychological literature contains many relevant approaches. Examples are approaches concerned with goal-directed behavior (Aarts & Eliot, 2012), social judgments and decision making (Krueger, 2012; Weiner, 1995), lay theories of intelligence (Dweck, 2000), self and identity (Alicke, Dunning, & Krueger, 2005), work and achievement (Locke, Latham, 1990), and goal-striving and health (Wright & Gendolla, 2012). Broad psychological theories address broad meanings of motivation and social perception (Higgins, 2012; Higgins & Kruglanski, 2000; Van Lange, Kruglanski & Higgins, 2012; Weiner, 1972). It is impossible to understand core motivational processes such as the establishment and operation of motives without understanding related social perception processes (Baumeister & Vohs, 2004; Fiske, 2013; Weiner, 2014). The articles in this special issue address multiple links between motivation and social perception, demonstrating the depth and richness of theory in both domains. In the passages below, we briefly describe these articles, noting the central focus of each. One of the fundamental questions in psychological science is how human motivation and associated emotions are influenced by attributions, including those generated by people’s perspective as actors or observers (Nisbett & Ross, 1980). Bernard Weiner addresses this question, applying his classic attribution model. Weiner’s classic model built on ideas presented in Heider’s (1958) seminal book, “The psychology of interpersonal relations” and shows every sign of standing beautifully the test of time moving forward. Marcin Bukowski, Rosa Rodríguez-Bailón, Soledad de Lemus, Guillermo Willis, Gloria Jiménez-Moya, and Russell Spears do something similar. Specifically, they address the problem of emotions generated by attributions towards powerless groups, considering the role of power asymmetries. Ideas expressed by these authors are highly relevant to the social integration of refugee youth and lead nicely to the following chapter by Jaana Juvonen. Jaana discusses successful models of social integration and reviews lessons learned about school–based interethnic relations in the USA. Goals and goal striving processes are central to human functioning (Belanger, Lafreniere, Giacomantonio, Brizi, & Kruglanski, 2016). Arie Kruglanski, Conrad Baldner, Marina Chernikova, Calogero Lo Destro, and Antonio Pierro address the essential function of goals and describe their new perspective on the attitude–behavior relation. A key to understanding goal striving is understanding two self-regulatory focuses, one oriented toward advancement and accomplishment and the other oriented toward safety and responsibility (Higgins, 2012). Tory Higgins elaborates in context of his promotion versus prevention regulatory focus theory and considers different applications. Monischa Amlinger-Chatterjee and Nicola Baumann consider self-regulation in a different light. They discuss individual differences in the ability to moderate emotions taking the state versus action orientation championed by Kuhl (1981). The Authors elaborate on populations that Hanna Brycz* Rex Wright**