“Don’t Make Me Choose”: The Effects of Choice and Dysphoria on Persistence

Diplôme Master “Don’t Make Me Choose”: The Effects of Choice and Dysphoria on Persistence eng 2024 author Lomeli Gonzalez Sofia 963075 director Gendolla Guido H.E. 0000-0002-8066-0951 135519 Section de psychologie (PSICO) Forming intentions creates a specific determination mindset that elicits the urge to implement goal-related action in spite of potential distractions. Task contexts that favor engaging in actions via personal choice (i.e., having the freedom to choose) strengthen the determination mindset through heightened commitment and task focus, shielding volition against the detrimental influences of incidental affect. This can result in positive motivational outcomes, like longer task persistence. However, depression, characterized by persistent negative mood and motivational deficits, is often immune to task contexts that favor positive outcomes, resulting in reduced persistence. This study aimed to investigate whether dysphoric undergraduates would minimize their persistence deficits when given the freedom to choose tasks versus having them assigned. Here we show that having the freedom to choose did not affect persistence in dysphoric individuals, who persisted equally long whether they chose the task or had it assigned. Surprisingly, only non-dysphoric undergraduates demonstrated increased persistence when having the freedom to choose, benefiting from volitional shielding. These findings reveal that the natural depressive mood undermines task persistence, contrasting with the positive effects seen in non-dysphoric individuals. Our results highlight the limitations of choosing in improving persistence for dysphoric individuals. This suggests that alternative strategies are needed to address motivational deficits in depression. These insights advance our understanding of motivational processes and volitional deficits in affective disorders. Dewey 150 Maîtrise universitaire en psychologie 108 Section de psychologie 71 false 591 Geneva Motivation Lab 3ad9cc40-6efe-49dd-9943-9e44df4e2e0a Master thesis Public LOMELIGONZALEZ_Sofia_Memoire_Septem.pdf 1272320 application/pdf 2707ba832e3e540dfda7d2f6556432dd3c6deae9fda9e7403a48cb49db69f89d openAccess Faculté de psychologie et des sciences de l'éducation / Section de psychologie

Title	Published in	Access level	OA Policy	Year	Views	Downloads

“Don’t Make Me Choose”: The Effects of Choice and Dysphoria on Persistence				2024	122	144

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Lomeli Gonzalez, Sofia

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