Self‐regulation is essential for maintaining harmonious social connections and sustaining groups, yet little research has examined how individuals regulate their actions for the benefits of groups and which self‐regulatory strategies promote effective self‐regulation (active engagement and disengagement) in group contexts. In three experiments, focusing on identity groups (family and friends in Study 1) and two distinct functional groups (workplace teams in Study 2; sports teams in Study 3), we investigated whether mental contrasting of a desired future with the obstacle of reality, compared to indulging in the desired future, facilitates expectancy‐dependent contributions for the benefits of groups. We assessed participants' expectancies of successfully contributing to their groups and varied the mode of thought (mental contrasting vs. indulging). Contributions to groups were measured 1 week (Studies 1 and 2) and 3 weeks later (Study 3). Results showed that mental contrasting guided people to align their actions with expectancy levels; the higher their expectancy, the more people contributed to their groups. In contrast, indulging resulted in insensitivity to expectancy levels. Our findings suggest the potential applicability of the mental contrasting strategy for promoting effective self‐regulation in various group settings and provide insights into designing interventions to enhance individuals' engagement in groups.

中文翻译：

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心理对比促进有效的自我调节，以造福群体


自我调节对于维持和谐的社会联系和维持群体至关重要，但很少有研究探讨个人如何为了群体的利益而调节自己的行为，以及哪些自我调节策略可以促进群体环境中有效的自我调节（积极参与和脱离）。在三个实验中，重点关注身份群体（研究 1 中的家人和朋友）和两个不同的功能群体（研究 2 中的工作团队；研究 3 中的运动队），我们调查了理想未来与现实障碍的心理对比是否，与沉迷于期望的未来相比，促进了对群体利益的依赖于期望的贡献。我们评估了参与者对成功为其团体做出贡献的期望，并改变了思维模式（心理对比与沉迷）。 1 周（研究 1 和 2）和 3 周后（研究 3）测量各组的贡献。结果表明，心理对比引导人们根据期望水平调整自己的行为；他们的期望越高，为自己的团体做出贡献的人就越多。相反，放纵会导致对期望水平不敏感。我们的研究结果表明，心理对比策略对于促进各种群体环境中有效的自我调节具有潜在的适用性，并为设计干预措施以增强个人在群体中的参与度提供了见解。