Towards a Mechanistic Account of Maintenance Goals

People need to invest tremendous effort and motivational resources to ensure that all the valuable things they have will be maintained, on both an individual level (e.g., family, households, health) and a societal level (e.g., public infrastructures, the natural environment). Nevertheless, little is known about people’s motivation to routinely maintain, nurture, and care for what they have.

Psychological theory on motivation has focused on approach (e.g., starting a new relationship) and avoidance goals (e.g., avoiding separation), and left maintenance goals understudied .

Addressing this gap in the literature, the current project introduces and tests a first general model of goal-directed maintenance.

Instead of increasing gains or avoiding negative outcomes, maintenance goals are used to stabilize positive current states.

When maintaining one’s existing relationship, for instance, people are not only avoiding separation; they are engaged in a set of acts that stabilizes their relationship in a manner that keeps acute threats like separation at bay.

In a similar manner, environmentalism is not only the aspiration to slow down global warming (an avoidance goal), but also, and perhaps more importantly, the aspiration that humanity will learn to maintain a stable relationship with the biological world.

The proposed empirical research will combine lab studies using implicit behavioral measures with experience sampling methods (ESM).

The results of this research will lay the foundation for the study of maintenance goals as distinct from approach and avoidance goals, shedding light on processes involved in the most pressing socio-political issues of our time.