Man’s Pursuit of Meaning: Unexpected Termination Bolsters One’s Autonomous Motivation in an Irrelevant Ensuing Activity
Meaningfulness has been suggested as one of the fundamental psychological needs, as one would actively pursue meaning in both his/her work life and personal life. Previous studies consistently showed that a lack of meaning in work would reduce one’s autonomous motivation in the current job, which is...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2020-03-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00081/full |
| _version_ | 1828388128184860672 |
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| author | Wei Wei Wei Wei Zan Mo Zan Mo Jianhua Liu Jianhua Liu Liang Meng Liang Meng |
| author_facet | Wei Wei Wei Wei Zan Mo Zan Mo Jianhua Liu Jianhua Liu Liang Meng Liang Meng |
| author_sort | Wei Wei |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Meaningfulness has been suggested as one of the fundamental psychological needs, as one would actively pursue meaning in both his/her work life and personal life. Previous studies consistently showed that a lack of meaning in work would reduce one’s autonomous motivation in the current job, which is the motivation to engage in self-determined activities driven by one’s own interests or personal beliefs. However, researchers overlooked the fact that in work settings, it is not uncommon that people work on multiple tasks in a row. As a result, the cross-task effect of work meaningfulness remains understudied. Based on the meaning maintenance model (MMM) and the suggested fluid compensation strategy, we predicted that the disappearance of the meaning of work may induce a compensatory response and thus enhance one’s autonomous motivation in an irrelevant ensuing activity. To test this hypothesis, we invited participants to work on an encyclopedic knowledge quiz in Session 1 and a StopWatch (SW) task in Session 2. A between-subject design was adopted. While participants in the control group successfully completed their tasks in Session 1, those in the experimental group encountered unexpected program quits by the end of the quiz, and their previous efforts suddenly became futile and meaningless. Electroencephalography was recorded during the experiment to measure reward positivity (RewP). In Session 2, a more pronounced RewP in the win–lose difference wave was observed in the experimental group in contrast to the control group, suggesting that the disappearance of the meaning of work enhanced one’s autonomous motivation in an irrelevant activity that follows. Therefore, results of this study provided preliminary electrophysiological evidence for one’s pursuit of meaning and the compensation effect induced by the disappearance of the meaning of work. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T06:07:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6b3065aeb3a0400bbe4045031109ceb5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5161 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T06:07:34Z |
| publishDate | 2020-03-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-6b3065aeb3a0400bbe4045031109ceb52022-12-22T01:59:39ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612020-03-011410.3389/fnhum.2020.00081525149Man’s Pursuit of Meaning: Unexpected Termination Bolsters One’s Autonomous Motivation in an Irrelevant Ensuing ActivityWei Wei0Wei Wei1Zan Mo2Zan Mo3Jianhua Liu4Jianhua Liu5Liang Meng6Liang Meng7School of Management, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, ChinaLaboratory of Neuromanagement and Decision Neuroscience, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, ChinaSchool of Management, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, ChinaLaboratory of Neuromanagement and Decision Neuroscience, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, ChinaSchool of Management, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, ChinaLaboratory of Neuromanagement and Decision Neuroscience, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, ChinaSchool of Business and Management, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, ChinaWharton Neuroscience Initiative, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United StatesMeaningfulness has been suggested as one of the fundamental psychological needs, as one would actively pursue meaning in both his/her work life and personal life. Previous studies consistently showed that a lack of meaning in work would reduce one’s autonomous motivation in the current job, which is the motivation to engage in self-determined activities driven by one’s own interests or personal beliefs. However, researchers overlooked the fact that in work settings, it is not uncommon that people work on multiple tasks in a row. As a result, the cross-task effect of work meaningfulness remains understudied. Based on the meaning maintenance model (MMM) and the suggested fluid compensation strategy, we predicted that the disappearance of the meaning of work may induce a compensatory response and thus enhance one’s autonomous motivation in an irrelevant ensuing activity. To test this hypothesis, we invited participants to work on an encyclopedic knowledge quiz in Session 1 and a StopWatch (SW) task in Session 2. A between-subject design was adopted. While participants in the control group successfully completed their tasks in Session 1, those in the experimental group encountered unexpected program quits by the end of the quiz, and their previous efforts suddenly became futile and meaningless. Electroencephalography was recorded during the experiment to measure reward positivity (RewP). In Session 2, a more pronounced RewP in the win–lose difference wave was observed in the experimental group in contrast to the control group, suggesting that the disappearance of the meaning of work enhanced one’s autonomous motivation in an irrelevant activity that follows. Therefore, results of this study provided preliminary electrophysiological evidence for one’s pursuit of meaning and the compensation effect induced by the disappearance of the meaning of work.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00081/fullmeaningfulnessfluid compensationmeaning maintenance modelautonomous motivationreward positivityevent-related potentials |
| spellingShingle | Wei Wei Wei Wei Zan Mo Zan Mo Jianhua Liu Jianhua Liu Liang Meng Liang Meng Man’s Pursuit of Meaning: Unexpected Termination Bolsters One’s Autonomous Motivation in an Irrelevant Ensuing Activity Frontiers in Human Neuroscience meaningfulness fluid compensation meaning maintenance model autonomous motivation reward positivity event-related potentials |
| title | Man’s Pursuit of Meaning: Unexpected Termination Bolsters One’s Autonomous Motivation in an Irrelevant Ensuing Activity |
| title_full | Man’s Pursuit of Meaning: Unexpected Termination Bolsters One’s Autonomous Motivation in an Irrelevant Ensuing Activity |
| title_fullStr | Man’s Pursuit of Meaning: Unexpected Termination Bolsters One’s Autonomous Motivation in an Irrelevant Ensuing Activity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Man’s Pursuit of Meaning: Unexpected Termination Bolsters One’s Autonomous Motivation in an Irrelevant Ensuing Activity |
| title_short | Man’s Pursuit of Meaning: Unexpected Termination Bolsters One’s Autonomous Motivation in an Irrelevant Ensuing Activity |
| title_sort | man s pursuit of meaning unexpected termination bolsters one s autonomous motivation in an irrelevant ensuing activity |
| topic | meaningfulness fluid compensation meaning maintenance model autonomous motivation reward positivity event-related potentials |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00081/full |
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