Although in most situations approaching desired end-states entails decreasing distance between oneself and an object, and avoiding undesired end-states increases such distance, in some cases distancing can also be a means to approach a given goal. We highlight examples involving responses to obstacles to achievement and self-control dilemmas, showing that motivational direction is not equivalent to the motivational strategy involved when people pursue their goals.
AronA.AronE.SmollanD. (1992). Inclusion of other in the self scale and the structure of interpersonal closeness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 596–612.
2.
BrownJ. S. (1948). Gradients of approach and avoidance responses and their relation to motivation. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 41, 450–465.
3.
CacioppoJ. T.PriesterJ. R.BerntsonG. G. (1993). Rudimentary determinants of attitudes, II: Arm flexion and extension have differential effects on attitudes, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 5–17.
4.
ChenM.BarghJ. A. (1999). Consequences of automatic evaluation: Immediate behavioral predispositions to approach or avoid the stimulus. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 215–224.
5.
ElliotA. J. (2006). The hierarchical model of approach avoidance motivation. Motivation and Emotion, 30, 111–116.
6.
FishbachA.ShahJ. Y. (2006). Self control in action: Implicit dispositions toward goals and away from temptations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 820–832.
7.
FishbachA.ZhangY.TropeY. (2010). Counteractive evaluation: Asymmetric shifts in the implicit value of conflicting motivations. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 29–38.
8.
FörsterJ.DannenbergL. (2010). GLOMOSYS: A systems account of global versus local processing. Psychological Inquiry, 21, 175–197.
9.
FriedmanR.FörsterJ. (2010). Implicit affective cues and attentional tuning: An integrative review. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 875–893.
10.
HigginsE. T. (1997). Beyond pleasure and pain. American Psychologist, 52, 1280–1300.
11.
KochS.HollandR. W.HengstlerM.van KnippenbergA. (2009). Body locomotion as regulatory process: Stepping backward enhances cognitive control. Psychological Science, 20, 549–550.
12.
KrayL. J.GalinskyA. D.WongE. (2006). Thinking within the box. The relational processing style elicited by counterfactual mind-sets. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 33–48.
13.
KruglanskiA. W.ThompsonE. P.HigginsE. T.AtashM. N.PierroA.ShahJ. Y.SpiegelS. (2000). To “do the right thing” or to “just do it”: Locomotion and assessment as distinct self-regulatory imperatives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 793–815.
14.
KuhlJ. (1994). Action versus state orientation: Psychometric properties of the Action-Control-Scale (ACS-90). In KuhlJ.BeckmannJ. (Eds.), Volition and personality: Action versus state orientation (pp. 47–56). Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe.
15.
LewinK. (1935). A dynamic theory of personality: Selected papers. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
16.
LibermanN.FörsterJ. (2009). Distancing from experienced self: How global versus local perception affects estimation of psychological distance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 203–216.
17.
LibermanN.TropeY.StephanE. (2007). Psychological distance. In KruglanskiA. W.HigginsE. T. (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (Vol. 2, pp. 353–383). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
18.
MacraeC. N.BodenhausenG. V.MilneA. B.JettenJ. (1994). Out of mind but back in sight: Stereotype on the rebound. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 808–817.
19.
MargucJ.FörsterJ.van KleefG. A. (2011). Stepping back to see the big picture: When obstacles elicit global processing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 883–901.
20.
MargucJ.van KleefG. A.FörsterJ. (2012). Stepping back while staying engaged: When facing an obstacle increases psychological distance. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 3, 379–386.
21.
NeumannR.StrackF. (2000). “Mood contagion”: The automatic transfer of mood between persons. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 211–223.
22.
RoschE. (1975). Cognitive representations of semantic categories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 104, 192–233.
23.
SeibtB.NeumannR.NussinsonR.StrackF. (2008). Movement direction or change in distance? Self- and object-related approach–avoidance motions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 713–720.
24.
SolarzA. K. (1960). Latency of instrumental responses as a function of compatibility with the meaning of eliciting verbal signs. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 59, 239–245.
25.
TropeY.FishbachA. (2000). Counteractive self-control in overcoming temptation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 493–506.