Publications

Most of my publications are available as preprints on PsyArXiv. If possible, the corresponding data and materials are available via OSF. If you need an individual copy of a publication or access to additional data and materials, please send me an email.

Development and validation of the Value of Physical Effort (VoPE) scale

Collabra: Psychology

preprint (peer-reviewed)

original research

scale development

Peer-reviewed and recommended by PCI Health & Movement Sciences, 10.24072/pci.healthmovsci.100115

Maik Bieleke, Johanna Stähler, Wanja Wolff, Julia Schüler

“Why am I doing this anyway?” A control-value perspective on boredom in endurance sports

Psychology of Sport & Exercise

journal article

original research

Boredom is a common experience in daily life, yet it has been largely overlooked in the context of sports and exercise. This neglect is perplexing, especially considering that endurance sports can have characteristics conducive to boredom. To fill this gap, we investigated boredom in endurance sports, along with its antecedents and consequences, through the lens of control-value theory (CVT). In a study involving 667 recreational runners and cyclists, we found support for CVT’s predictions. Specifically, lower levels of self-concept, greater levels of underchallenge and overchallenge, as well as lower levels of value were all linked to increased boredom. In turn, higher levels of boredom were associated with more negative psychological (e.g., less satisfaction) and behavioral consequences (e.g., reduced training). Few differences emerged between runners and cyclists, and these differences were primarily in the magnitude of effects. Overall, our research demonstrates that CVT is a promising theoretical framework for studying boredom in sports and exercise. Conversely, endurance sports provides a natural environment in which people experience boredom, and studying boredom in this context might thus provide novel insights into boredom research and CVT. This perspective also suggests actionable insights for practitioners and researchers to mitigate boredom more effectively.

Maik Bieleke, Wanja Wolff, Catharina Cremer, Fanni Kaisinger, Thomas Goetz

Anstrengung, Langeweile, Krisen: Neue Perspektiven und Ansätze zur Selbstkontrolle im Sport

Sportpsychologie: Grundlagen und Trends

book chapter

Wie einfach es ist, sich Ziele zu setzen, zeigt ein Blick auf die vielfach gefassten, jedoch selten erfolgreich umgesetzten Neujahrsvorsätze vieler Menschen. Ziele zu erreichen ist ungleich schwieriger, da situativ attraktiver erscheinende Handlungsalternativen willentlich unterdrückt werden müssen und stattdessen als aversiv wahrgenommene Verhaltensweisen auszuführen sind (z. B. Training bei schlechtem Wetter) bzw. auf attraktivere Verhaltensweisen zu verzichten ist (z. B. Ausruhen auf dem Sofa). Dieser willentliche Kontrollprozess wird als Selbstkontrolle bezeichnet. Die daraus resultierende Lücke zwischen den gesetzten Zielen und dem tatsächlich gezeigten Verhalten tritt häufig in sportspezifischen Kontexten auf und wird meist auf eine Beeinträchtigung der Selbstkontrolle attribuiert. Dem liegt die traditionelle Sichtweise von Selbstkontrolle als einer limitierten Ressource zugrunde, deren Erschöpfung es in der Folge schwieriger macht, Hindernisse bei der Zielerreichung zu überwinden. In diesem Kapitel stellen wir dieser Perspektive aktuelle Ansätze gegenüber, die Selbstkontrolle als eine motivierte Kosten-Nutzen-Abwägung konzipieren und damit den Fokus auf die Bereitschaft legen, Selbstkontrolle auszuüben. Am Beispiel von Langeweile und Handlungskrisen illustrieren wir, wie sich die Kosten und Nutzen von Selbstkontrolle während der Erreichung sportlicher Ziele verändern können. Einerseits kann das Empfinden von Langeweile oder das Erleben einer Krise den Fokus auf alternative, potenziell lohnenswertere Ziele lenken, wodurch der Wert der aktuellen Zielerreichung und damit der Nutzen von Selbstkontrolle sinkt. Gleichzeitig handelt es sich bei Langeweile und Krisen um aversive Zustände, deren Regulation Anstrengung erfordert und die so die Kosten von Selbstkontrolle erhöhen können. Abschließend widmen wir uns der Frage, wie Menschen mit Langeweile und Krisen im Sport umgehen und welche Strategien dabei helfen können, die Bereitschaft zur Ausübung von Selbstkontrolle im Sport aufrechtzuerhalten.

Maik Bieleke, Lucas Keller, Chris Englert

Feeling politics at school: Antecedents and effects of emotions in civic education

Political Psychology

journal article

original research

Studies on voters have shown that emotions are an important factor in politics. However, less is known about emotions experienced by adolescents in the context of civic education. Applying the control-value theory to a cross-curricular context, we analyze the relations between two types of emotions experienced in civic education and their antecedents and effects on learning: achievement emotions experienced during in-class political discussions and epistemic emotions experienced during individual processing of political information in school. We hypothesized both types of emotions relate to control and value appraisal antecedents (e.g., internal political efficacy, personal importance). Further, we expected—depending on the specific emotion—positive or negative relations with academic outcomes (e.g., motivation, engagement, and knowledge). Data were collected with an online questionnaire in Austrian upper secondary schools with students (N = 594, M_age = 17.1) from grades 10 to 13. Bivariate latent correlations broadly support the expectations: We found mainly positive associations of antecedents and outcomes to enjoyment, hope, pride, curiosity, and surprise and negative associations to hopelessness, confusion, and boredom, but more complex correlation patterns for anxiety, anger, and shame. The results provide first insights into which emotions are experienced during political learning and underscore the importance of acknowledging the role of emotions in civic education.

Elisabeth Graf, Thomas Goetz, Maik Bieleke, Dana Murano

Inner obstacles and goal-directed behaviors of elite and youth level cyclists: A qualitative analysis from the perspective of athletes and coaches

journal article

original research

Journal of Applied Sport and Exercise Psychology

Anna Hirsch, Maik Bieleke, Julia Schüler, Wanja Wolff

Assessing and exploring self-enacted behavior change techniques: Frequency, structure, and relevance for physical activity and healthy eating

journal article

original research

Current Psychology

Julia Schüler, Maik Bieleke

Latent profiles of effort functions and their impact on task experience and behavior

preprint

original research

Johanna Stähler, Wanja Wolff, Maik Bieleke, Julia Schüler

Bug or feature? Boredom feels aversive, and this is why it matters

miscellaneous

Wanja Wolff, Katja Rewitz, Maik Bieleke

On the specifics of valuing effort: A developmental and a formalized perspective on preferences for mental and physical effort

journal article

original research

Peer Community Journal, peer-reviewed and recommended by PCI Health & Movement Sciences, 10.24072/pci.healthmovsci.100041

Wanja Wolff, Johanna Stähler, Julia Schüler, Maik Bieleke

On the virtues of fragile self-control: Boredom as a catalyst for adaptive behavior regulation

book chapter

Handbook of Boredom

Maik Bieleke, Wanja Wolff, Alex Bertrams

Boredom is not boring

book chapter

Handbook of Boredom

Maik Bieleke, Wanja Wolff, Corinna S. Martarelli

Overview of current directions in boredom research

book chapter

Handbook of Boredom

Maik Bieleke, Wanja Wolff, Corinna S. Martarelli, Christine Emilie Tonne Artak, Nazim Asani, Ambroise Baillifard, Alex Bertrams, Aenne Brielmann, Linda L. Caldwell, Christian S. Chan, Géraldine Coppin, James Danckert, Van Dang, Lia Daniels, Peter Dayan, Allison Drody, Andreas Elpidorou, Asli Erdemli, Ursula Fischer, Thomas Goetz, Eric R. Igou, Nathanael S. Jost, Heather C. Lench, Anastasiya A. Lipnevich, Carrie Anne Marshall, Andrew B. Moynihan, Muireann K. O’Dea, Patti Parker, Reinhard Pekrun, Stefan Pfattheicher, Vanessa C. Radtke, Noah T. Reed, Josefa Ros Velasco, Lisa Stempfer, Katy Y. Y. Tam, Virginia Tze, Madelon L. M. Van Hooff, Edwin A. J. Van Hooft, Wijnand A. P. Van Tilburg, David Weibel, Christian Weich, Elizabeth Weybright, Bartholomäus Wissmath, Ofir Yakobi

Handbook of Boredom

book

Routledge International Handbook of Boredom

Maik Bieleke, Wanja Wolff, Corinna S. Martarelli

Starting tests with easy versus difficult tasks: Effects on appraisals and emotions

Journal of Experimental Education

journal article

original research

Tests in educational contexts often start with easy tasks, assuming that this fosters positive experiences—a sense of control, higher valuing of the test, and more positive and less negative emotions. Although intuitive and widespread, this assumption lacks an empirical basis and a theoretical framework. We conducted a field experiment and randomly assigned 208 students to an easy-to-difficult or a difficult-to-easy condition in a mathematics test. Perceived challenge was measured along with control appraisals, value appraisals, and emotions (enjoyment, pride, anxiety, anger, boredom). While students starting with easy tasks felt less challenged than students starting with difficult tasks in Part 1, no differences emerged regarding control and value appraisals and emotions. In Part 2, students who had started with easy tasks proceeded to difficult tasks and reported a higher level of challenge, less value and control, and less positive and more negative emotions than students who proceeded from difficult-to-easy tasks. Control and value appraisals mediated the differences between the two conditions, especially regarding positive emotions. These results cast doubt on the preference for easy-to-difficult over difficult-to-easy task orders, revealing their potential for causing adverse experiences at the end of the test (e.g., reflecting contrast effects).

Maik Bieleke, Thomas Goetz, Maike Krannich, Anna-Lena Roos, Takuya Yanagida

Measuring emotions in mathematics: The Achievement Emotions Questionnaire—Mathematics (AEQ-M)

ZDM Mathematics Education

journal article

scale development

Understanding the structure, antecedents, and outcomes of students’ emotions has become a topic of major interest in research on mathematics education. Much of this work is based on the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire—Mathematics (AEQ-M), a self-report instrument assessing students’ mathematics-related emotions. The AEQ-M measures seven emotions (enjoyment, pride, anger, anxiety, shame, hopelessness, boredom) across class, learning, and test contexts (internal structure). Based on control-value theory, it is assumed that these emotions are evoked by control and value appraisals, and that they influence students’ motivation, learning strategies, and performance (external relations). Despite the popularity and frequent use of the AEQ-M, the research leading to its development has never been published, creating uncertainty about the validity of the proposed internal structure and external relations. We close this gap in Study 1 (N = 781 students, Grades 5–10, mean age 14.1 years, 53.5% female) by demonstrating that emotions are organized across contexts and linked to their proposed antecedents and outcomes. Study 2 (N = 699 students, Grade 7 and 9, mean age 14.0 years, 56.9% female) addresses another deficit in research on the AEQ-M, the lack of evidence regarding the assumption that emotions represent sets of interrelated affective, cognitive, motivational, and physiological/expressive components. We close this gap by evaluating extended AEQ-M scales, systematically assessing these components for five core mathematics emotions (enjoyment, anger, anxiety, hopelessness, boredom). Our work provides solid grounds for future research using the AEQ-M to assess emotions and their components in the domain of mathematics.

Maik Bieleke, Thomas Goetz, Takuya Yanagida, Elouise Botes, Anne C. Frenzel, Reinhard Pekrun

If-then planning, self-control, and boredom as predictors of adherence to social distancing guidelines: Evidence from a two-wave longitudinal study with a behavioral intervention

Current Psychology

journal article

original research

In the wake of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), social distancing is instrumental for containing the pandemic. To maximize its effectiveness, it is paramount to investigate psychological factors that predict adherence to social distancing guidelines and examine corresponding interventions. We focused on individual differences in if-then planning, self-control, and boredom, and tested an intervention based on if-then planning. We conducted a two-wave longitudinal study combining observational and experimental methods. Participants (N = 574, 35.7% female, age: M = 37.5 years, SD = 10.8) reported their adherence to social distancing guidelines and the perceived difficulty of adherence at T1, along with trait measures of if-then planning, self-control, and boredom. Afterwards, they were randomly assigned to an if-then planning intervention to increase adherence, or to a control intervention. One week later at T2, participants again reported their adherence and the perceived difficulty of adhering. Multiple regression and structural equation modeling were used to establish whether trait if-then planning, self-control, and boredom predicted adherence, and to examine the effects of the if-then planning intervention. Trait if-then planning, self-control, and boredom were associated with T1 adherence, while only if-then planning and boredom predicted T2 adherence. No overall treatment effect of the if-then planning intervention emerged; however, participants who complied with the intervention (75.6%) maintained higher levels of adherence over time than control participants. In sum, individual differences in if-then planning, self-control, and boredom predicted adherence to social distancing guidelines. If-then planning interventions are promising but require further steps to ascertain compliance.

Maik Bieleke, Corinna S. Martarelli, Wanja Wolff

Are older individuals predisposed to habitual control more resilient?

journal article

original research

Current Psychology

Lotte P. Brinkhof, K. Richard Ridderinkhof, Maik Bieleke, Jaap M. J. Murre, Harm J. Krugers, Sanne de Wit

How long does it take to form a habit? A multi-center replication

preregistration

PCI Registered Reports (Stage 1)

Sanne de Wit, Maik Bieleke, Paul Fletcher, Annette Horstmann, Julia Schüler, Lotte P. Brinkhof, Lukas J. Gunschera, Jaap Murre

Test boredom: Exploring a neglected emotion

Journal of Educational Psychology

journal article

original research

The emotion of boredom has sparked considerable interest in research on teaching and learning, but boredom during tests and exams has not yet been examined. Based on the control-value theory of achievement emotions, we hypothesized that students may experience significant levels of boredom during testing (“test boredom”; Hypothesis 1) and that test boredom may be significantly related to theoretically hypothesized antecedents (control and value appraisals; Hypothesis 2) and outcomes (performance; Hypothesis 3). We further hypothesized that test boredom was more detrimental when students felt overchallenged during the test than when they felt underchallenged (“abundance hypothesis”; Hypothesis 4). We tested these hypotheses in two studies (Study 1: N = 208 eighth graders; 54% female; Study 2: N = 1,612 fifth to 10th graders, 47% female) using both trait and state measures of test boredom in mathematics and their proposed antecedents and outcomes. In support of Hypothesis 1, participants reported statistically significant levels of boredom during tests. Furthermore, the relations of test boredom with its control and value antecedents (i.e., being over- or underchallenged, facets of value) were in line with our assumptions (Hypothesis 2). In support of Hypothesis 3, test boredom was significantly negatively related to academic achievement (grades). In line with Hypothesis 4, test scores were negatively related to boredom due to being overchallenged but unrelated, or even positively related, to boredom due to being underchallenged. Directions for future research on test boredom as well as practical implications are outlined.

Thomas Goetz, Maik Bieleke, Takuya Yanagida, Maike Krannich, Anna-Lena Roos, Anne C. Frenzel, Anastasiya A. Lipnevich, Reinhard Pekrun

Mindset-Theorie der Handlungsphasen und Wenn-Dann-Pläne

book chapter

Sozialpsychologie: Von der Theorie zur Anwendung

Lucas Keller, Maik Bieleke, Peter M. Gollwitzer

Bored of sports? Investigating the interactive role of engagement and value as predictors of boredom in athletic training

journal article

original research

Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology

Corinna Martarelli, Pauline Berthouzoz, Maik Bieleke, Wanja Wolff

Control, anxiety and test performance: Self-reported and physiological indicators of anxiety as mediators

journal article

original research

British Journal of Educational Psychology

Anna-Lena Roos, Thomas Goetz, Maike Krannich, Monika Donker, Maik Bieleke, Anna Caltabiano, Tim Mainhard

Different functions of physical effort: A scoping review of the value of physical effort in physical activity and sports

preprint

literature review

Johanna Stähler, Maik Bieleke, Wanja Wolff, Julia Schüler

Boredom, performance & health

journal article

editorial

Performance Enhancement & Health

Wanja Wolff, Maik Bieleke, Corinna S. Martarelli

Promoting Physical Exercise in Lab and Life (ProPELL)

German Clinical Trial Register (DRKS00029727)

preregistration

Physical inactivity is a serious threat to public health and individual well-being, and levels of physical inactivity are soaring worldwide. Unfortunately, existing interventions aiming at the promotion of physical activity seem incapable of stopping or reversing this trend. In the ProPELL research project, we therefore adopt a novel multidisciplinary and multimethodological approach to promote physical activity with a dedicated focus on physical exercise. In a 21-week randomized controlled trial (RCT) study, participants in the experimental group receive an eight-week lab-based jump training, while participants in the control group receive no training. This is followed by an eight-week observation of physical activity and exercise behavior in both groups. Various physiological (e.g., cardiovascular, neuromuscular, and endocrine) and psychological (e.g., motivational, emotional, and behavioral) parameters are measured in both conditions at three time points: at baseline, after the intervention, and after the follow-up. This will be complemented by continuous measurements of exercise- and activity-related variables (e.g., physical activity, heart rate). The analyses will focus on changes and dynamic interactions of the assessed parameters during the intervention and the follow-up period, for instance, by capitalizing on visual data analytics.

Maik Bieleke, Ursula Fischer, Markus Gruber, Martina Kanning, Daniel Keim, Daniela Mier, Jens Pruessner, Julia Schüler

Boredom is the root of all evil — or is it? A psychometric network approach to individual differences in behavioral responses to boredom

Royal Society Open Science

journal article

original research

scale development

Functional accounts of boredom propose that boredom serves as an impartial signal to change something about the current situation, which should give rise to adaptive and maladaptive behaviour alike. This seemingly contrasts with research on boredom proneness, which has overwhelmingly shown associations with maladaptive behaviour. To shed light on this discrepancy, we disentangled boredom proneness from individual differences in (i) the urge to avoid and escape boredom and (ii) adaptive and maladaptive ways of dealing with boredom by developing corresponding trait scales. In a study with N = 636 participants, psychometric network modelling revealed tight associations between boredom proneness and less adaptive and (especially) more maladaptive ways of dealing with boredom. However, its associations with the urge to avoid and escape boredom were rather weak. Importantly, a higher urge to avoid and escape boredom was linked not only to more maladaptive but also to more adaptive ways of dealing with boredom. This pattern of results was robust across various specific behaviours that have previously been linked to boredom. Our findings provide novel evidence for functional accounts of boredom from an individual difference perspective, cautioning against a shallow view of boredom as being associated with purely maladaptive behaviour.

Maik Bieleke, Leonie Ripper, Julia Schüler, Wanja Wolff

The agonizing effects of uncertainty: Effects of announced vs. unannounced performance assessments on emotions and achievement

journal article

original research

Performance assessments play an essential role in performance diagnostics at schools. In practice, both announced and unannounced assessments are regularly used. However, it is unclear whether assessments are better administered announced or unannounced. From a theoretical perspective, it can be argued that announced assessments, mediated by the greater degree of students’ subjective control that accompanies them, should have a more beneficial effect on emotions, as well as the subsequently resulting performance, than unannounced assessments. To investigate these assumptions, emotion (enjoyment, anxiety) and achievement data (grades) were collected from 414 students in 19 lower- and upper-level tracks at a German secondary school on both announced and unannounced performance assessments. Less anxiety and more enjoyment occurred on the announced assessments. Moreover, enjoyment and anxiety were predictors of performance (i.e., school grades), which was better overall on announced assessments than on unannounced ones. The results of our field study suggest that announced assessments have more beneficial effects on emotions than unannounced assessments.

Maik Bieleke, Jean-Marie Schwarzkopf, Thomas Goetz, Ludwig Haag

Getting trapped in a dead end? Trait self-control and boredom are linked to goal adjustment

journal article

original research

Motivation and Emotion

Maik Bieleke, Wanja Wolff, Lucas Keller

A single item measure of self-control - Validation and location in a nomological network of self-control, boredom, and if-then planning

journal article

original research

scale development

Social Psychological Bulletin

Wanja Wolff, Maik Bieleke, Chris Englert, Alex Bertrams, Julia Schüler, Corinna S. Martarelli

Boredom proneness predicts self-assessed decision errors in sports but is unrelated to risk taking in general

journal article

original research

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Wanja Wolff, Maik Bieleke, Lucas Keller

Trajectories of boredom in self-control demanding tasks

Cognition and Emotion

journal article

original research

Self-control does not always work effectively. Whether this reflects the depletion of a global self-control resource is subject to an ongoing debate. We turned to boredom as a potential confounding variable to advance this debate. In a high-powered experiment (N = 719), participants worked on a primary (transcription) task of varying self-control demands (low, high) and length (2, 4, 8 min), followed by a secondary (Stroop) task with low and high self-control demanding trials. In addition to trait boredom, we measured effort, difficulty, tiredness, frustration, and boredom after the primary task and repeatedly during the secondary task. Effort, difficulty, tiredness, and frustration increased with the demand and duration of the primary task; however, without affecting performance in the secondary task. Importantly, participants rated both the primary and the secondary task as boring, and higher boredom at the state and the trait level was associated with lower effort and higher difficulty, tiredness, and frustration. During the secondary task, boredom increased steadily but was generally lower in more self-control demanding trials. Finally, boredom predicted performance in the secondary task. These results show an intricate relationship between self-control and boredom that research on these two constructs should carefully disentangle.

Maik Bieleke, Leon Barton, Wanja Wolff

The AEQ-S: A short version of the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire

Contemporary Educational Psychology

journal article

scale development

The Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ) is a well-established instrument for measuring achievement emotions in educational research and beyond. Its popularity rests on the coverage of the component structure of various achievement emotions across different academic settings. However, this broad conceptual scope requires the administration of 6 to 12 items per scale (Mdn = 10), which limits the applicability of the AEQ in empirical studies that necessitate brief administration times. We therefore developed the AEQ-S, a short version of the AEQ, with only 4 items per scale that nevertheless maintain the conceptual scope of the instrument. We validated the AEQ-S based on a reanalysis of Pekrun, Goetz, Frenzel, Barchfeld, and Perry’s (2011) dataset (N = 389 university students) and by administering them to a new and independent validation sample (N = 471 university students). Despite their brevity, the AEQ-S scales achieved satisfactory reliability and correlated substantially with the original AEQ scales. Moreover, structural relationships and intercorrelations between the scales and their relations with external measures of antecedents and outcomes of achievement emotions were highly similar for the AEQ-S and AEQ scales. These findings suggest that the AEQ-S is a suitable substitute for the AEQ when administration time is limited.

Maik Bieleke, Katarzyna Gogol, Thomas Goetz, Lia Daniels, Reinhard Pekrun

Individual differences in if-then planning: Insights from the development and application of the If-Then Planning Scale (ITPS)

Personality and Individual Differences

journal article

scale development

Making if-then plans is a self-regulation strategy that facilitates goal attainment. An open question is, however, whether there are individual differences in if-then planning. We, therefore, developed and validated the If-Then Planning Scale (ITPS) in three independent studies with more than 2600 participants. The ITPS is conceptually grounded in implementation intention theory, measuring whether individuals identify critical situations (if-part) and plan goal-directed behaviors (then-part) in terms of opportunities and obstacles. We established the psychometric qualities of the ITPS in Studies 1a and 1b and its convergent and discriminant validity in Studies 2 and 3. Applying the ITPS, we showed that if-then planning is associated with the attainment of environmental goals (Studies 1a and 1b), socioeconomic status (Studies 1a, 1b, and 2), and academic achievement (Study 3). Our results demonstrate individual differences in if-then planning that can be efficiently and reliably measured with the ITPS, and reveal systematic associations between these individual differences and goal attainment.

Maik Bieleke, Lucas Keller

If-then planning

European Review of Social Psychology

journal article

literature review

The self-regulation strategy of forming implementation intentions has now been studied for almost 30 years. We trace the development of this research and explicate the questions that have been addressed. We then present current research that investigates the consequences of implementation intentions for flexible goal striving, behaviour in situations for which one had not planned, and neuropsychological processes underlying the action control by implementation intentions. Next, we turn to novel applications focusing on how implementation intentions affect physical endurance and promote strategic information processing. Our review concludes with an outlook on future research on implementation intentions that covers emerging individual difference perspectives, innovative approaches to characterize underlying cognitive processes, and the prospects of integrating insights from related fields of research. As such, our review is an empathic call for addressing the many intriguing conceptual and empirical questions that still revolve around implementation intentions.

Maik Bieleke, Lucas Keller, Peter M. Gollwitzer

It’s not a bug, it’s boredom: Effortful willpower balances exploitation and exploration

journal article

commentary

Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Maik Bieleke, Wanja Wolff

Bug or Feature? Langeweile ist unangenehm und gerade deswegen wichtig

miscellaneous

Maik Bieleke, Wanja Wolff

Special Issue: The self-regulation of human performance

journal article

editorial

Performance Enhancement & Health

Maik Bieleke, Wanja Wolff

If-then planning in sports: A scoping review

journal article

literature review

Zeitschrift für Sportpsychologie

Maik Bieleke, Wanja Wolff, Chris Englert, Peter M. Gollwitzer

Getting along and feeling good: Reciprocal associations between student-teacher relationship quality and students’ emotions

Learning and Instruction

journal article

original research

Relationship quality and emotional experience are both important constructs in learning environments but the question of how they are linked requires more attention in empirical research. We hypothesized reciprocal associations between student-teacher relationship quality (i.e., interpersonal closeness) and students’ emotions in the classroom (i.e., enjoyment, pride, anxiety, anger, boredom, and shame). Data from a two-wave longitudinal study with annual assessments in grade 10 (Time 1) and 11 (Time 2) were used to test this hypothesis (N = 535; mean age at Time 1: 16.7 years, SD = 0.6). Student-perceived relationship quality and students’ emotions were assessed in the academic domains of mathematics, German, English, and French. In line with our hypothesis, cross-lagged panel models showed reciprocal associations: Higher relationship quality was associated with stronger positive emotions and weaker negative emotions over time. In turn, lower negative emotions and higher positive emotions were associated with higher relationship quality. The association between initial emotions and student-teacher relationship quality one year later was stronger than the reverse association. Further, the links between relationship quality and emotions were largely equivalent across school domains but differed in strength across emotions. Implications for future research and educational practice are discussed.

Thomas Goetz, Maik Bieleke, Katarzyna Gogol, Jan van Tartwijk, Tim Mainhard, Anastasiya A. Lipnevich, Reinhard Pekrun

Struggles and strategies in anaerobic and aerobic cycling tests: A mixed-method approach with a focus on tailored self-regulation strategies

journal article

original research

Anna Hirsch, Maik Bieleke, Raphael Bertschinger, Julia Schüler, Wanja Wolff

Bursting balloons - Comparison of risk propensity between extreme sports, esports, and the general public

journal article

original research

Current Psychology

Lucas Keller, Maik Bieleke, Wanja Wolff

Overclaiming is related to confidence but not to dark triad personality traits or stated and revealed risk preferences

journal article

original research

Lucas Keller, Kim-Marie Koppe, Peter M. Gollwitzer, Maik Bieleke

High trait self-control and low boredom proneness help COVID-19 homeschoolers

journal article

original research

Frontiers in Psychology

Corinna S. Martarelli, Simona Pacozzi, Maik Bieleke, Wanja Wolff

Bored by bothering? A cost-value approach to pandemic boredom

journal article

original research

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

Corinna S. Martarelli, Wanja Wolff, Maik Bieleke

Deliberation decreases the likelihood of expressing dominant responses

journal article

original research

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

Torsten Martiny-Huenger, Maik Bieleke, Johannes T. Doerflinger, Matthew B. Stephensen, Peter M. Gollwitzer

Entwicklung eines kognitiven Trainings zur Steigerung der Informationsverarbeitungskompetenz unter Belastung für den Deutschen Segler-Verband

book chapter

BISp-Jahrbuch Forschungsförderung 2020/21

Kim-Marie Stadler, Maik Bieleke, Ole Benthien, Wanja Wolff

A primer on the role of boredom in self-controlled sports and exercise behavior

journal article

literature review

Frontiers in Psychology

Wanja Wolff, Maik Bieleke, Corinna S. Martarelli, James Danckert

Too bored for sports? Adaptive and less-adaptive latent personality profiles for exercise behavior

journal article

original research

scale development

Psychology of Sport and Exercise

Wanja Wolff, Maik Bieleke, Johanna Stähler, Julia Schüler

Neuroscientific approaches to self-regulatory control in sports

book chapter

literature review

Motivation and Self-regulation in Sport and Exercise

Wanja Wolff, Anna Hirsch, Maik Bieleke, Amitai Shenhav

Task duration and task order do not matter: No effect on self-control performance

journal article

original research

Psychological Research

Wanja Wolff, Vanda Sieber, Maik Bieleke, Chris Englert

Effects of social value orientation (SVO) and decision mode on controlled information acquisition - A Mouselab perspective

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

journal article

original research

Insights into the processes underlying observed decisions are crucial for a comprehensive understanding of behavior. We investigate how individual social value orientation (SVO) relates to controlled information acquisition and how this relationship may be governed by intuitive versus reflective decision modes. We measure controlled information acquisition with the process tracing tool Mouselab and demonstrate its potential for advancing research on social decision-making. In two experiments, participants worked on two consecutive SVO tasks, in which they allocated points between themselves and others. Information regarding the available distributions of points had to be actively acquired by moving the mouse cursor over corresponding boxes on the screen. We observed a stable relationship between SVO and controlled information acquisition in both experiments: less selfish participants acquired more information and made more other-oriented acquisitions, and this relationship showed up in both an intuitive and a reflective decision mode. However, participants in a reflective decision mode acquired more information, their acquisitions were more strongly other-oriented, and their decisions were more prosocial compared to participants in an intuitive mode. Taken together, our results advance research on SVO by showing that non-selfish individuals invest considerable time and effort to gauge the consequences of their decisions for others, which might underlie the pervasive effects of SVO on many socially relevant behaviors. Moreover, we demonstrate how intuitive versus reflective decision modes can alter controlled information acquisition. Finally, our results illustrate that Mouselab is a simple-to-use and versatile tool for tracing cognitive processes underlying social psychological phenomena.

Maik Bieleke, David Dohmen, Peter M. Gollwitzer

Implicit theories about athletic ability modulate the effects of if-then planning on performance in a standardized endurance task

journal article

original research

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Anna Hirsch, Maik Bieleke, Julia Schüler, Wanja Wolff

If-then plans help regulate automatic peer influence on impulse buying

journal article

original research

European Journal of Marketing

J. Lukas Thürmer, Maik Bieleke, Frank Wieber, Peter M. Gollwitzer

High boredom proneness and low trait self-control impair adherence to social distancing guidelines during the COVID-19 Pandemic

journal article

original research

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Wanja Wolff, Corinna S. Martarelli, Julia Schüler, Maik Bieleke

Served well? A pilot field study on the effects of conveying self-control strategies on volleyball service performance

Behavioral Sciences

journal article

original research

Volleyball serves constitute an important example for a self-controlled sequence of actions in sports that is difficult to improve. It is therefore paramount to investigate whether and how conveying self-control strategies to athletes affects their service performance. To address this question, we conducted a pilot field study with sixty-two players from four Swiss volleyball schools. They performed a warm-up and subsequently a first series of 15 serves. Objective service performance was measured in terms of errors, velocity, and precision. Afterwards, players formulated either individual goals (goal condition) or plans (plan condition) based on their coaches’ correction instructions. In a second series of 15 serves objective performance was worse in some respects compared to the first series (i.e., more errors in the plan condition, reduced precision in both conditions). Mixed-effects analyses of performance development across conditions in the second series showed initially reduced but steadily recouping precision and velocity, while the number of errors stayed constant. In contrast to the objective performance, coaches evaluated their players’ service performance during the second series of serves as substantially better than during the first series. Taken together, the results of this pilot field study suggest that conveying either goals or plans as self-control strategies may involve initial adjustment costs followed by a subsequent recovery period.

Maik Bieleke, Claudio Kriech, Wanja Wolff

Mindset theory of action phases and if-then planning

book chapter

Social Psychology in Action

Lucas Keller, Maik Bieleke, Peter M. Gollwitzer

Goal striving and endurance performance

book chapter

literature review

Endurance performance in sport: Psychological theory and interventions

Wanja Wolff, Maik Bieleke, Julia Schüler

More than planned: Implementation intention effects in non-planned situations

Acta Psychologica

journal article

original research

Forming implementation intentions (i.e., if-then planning) is a powerful self-regulation strategy that enhances goal attainment by facilitating the automatic initiation of goal-directed responses upon encountering critical situations. Yet, little is known about the consequences of forming implementation intentions for goal attainment in situations that were not specified in the if-then plan. In three experiments, we assessed goal attainment in terms of speed and accuracy in an object classification task, focusing on situations that were similar or dissimilar to critical situations and required planned or different responses. The results of Experiments 1 and 3 provide evidence for a facilitation of planned responses in critical and in sufficiently similar situations, enhancing goal attainment when the planned response was required and impairing it otherwise. In Experiment 3, additional unfavorable effects however emerged in situations that were dissimilar to the critical one but required the planned response as well. We discuss theoretical implications as well as potential benefits and pitfalls emerging from these non-planned effects of forming implementation intentions.

Maik Bieleke, Eve Legrand, Astrid Mignon, Peter M. Gollwitzer

Downregulation of anger by mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII)

journal article

original research

Frontiers in Psychology

Inge Schweiger Gallo, Maik Bieleke, Miguel A. Alonso, Peter M. Gollwitzer, Gabriele Oettingen

Increase in prefrontal cortex oxygenation during static muscular endurance performance is modulated by self-regulation strategies

journal article

original research

Scientific Reports

Wanja Wolff, Maik Bieleke, Anna Hirsch, Christian Wienbruch, Peter M. Gollwitzer, Julia Schüler

Social value orientation moderates the effects of intuition versus reflection on responses to unfair ultimatum offers

Journal of Behavioral Decision Making

journal article

original research

We investigated whether social value orientation (SVO) moderates the effects of intuitive versus reflective information processing on responses to unfair offers. We measured SVO one week prior to an ultimatum game experiment in which participants had to accept or reject a series of 10 ultimatum offers including very low (unfair) ones. Before making these decisions, participants mentally contrasted their individual goals with the obstacle of pondering at length or acting in a hasty way; then they made the plan to adopt an intuitive or a reflective mode of processing (intuitive and reflective condition, respectively), or made no such plans (control condition). Participants with rather high (prosocial) SVO scores were more likely to accept unfair offers in the reflective than the intuitive condition. This effect also evinced for a subset of selfish individuals; however, the majority with rather low (selfish) scores made similar decisions in both conditions. This pattern of results suggests that SVO moderates the effects of intuitive versus reflective modes of processing on responses to low ultimatum offers.

Maik Bieleke, Peter M. Gollwitzer, Gabriele Oettingen, Urs Fischbacher

That escalated quickly–Planning to ignore RPE can backfire

journal article

original research

Frontiers in Physiology

Maik Bieleke, Wanja Wolff

Nothing will stop me? Flexibly tenacious goal striving with implementation intentions

Motivation Science

journal article

original research

Implementation intentions (if-then plans) help people to automatically perform goal-directed behaviors when they encounter goal-relevant critical situations. Besides the intended beneficial effects on goal attainment, however, goal-directed behaviors might entail various costs. Successful goal striving then requires flexible tenacity: tenaciously holding on to behaviors that inflict bearable costs but flexibly backing off from performing excessively costly behaviors. In the present research, we investigated whether goal striving with implementation intentions is characterized by such flexible tenacity. In Experiments 1 and 2, implementation intention participants held on to goal-directed behaviors that inflicted bearable costs (sustaining unpleasant noise and annoying effort), whereas participants with mere goal intentions reduced their performance of goal-directed behaviors. In Experiment 3, both goal and implementation intention participants backed off from performing an excessively costly behavior (involving monetary loss). This effect was more pronounced among implementation intention participants, who additionally lowered their goal commitment. We conclude that implementation intentions render goal striving tenaciously flexible, facilitating goal-directed behaviors unless this is associated with excessive costs.

Eve Legrand, Maik Bieleke, Peter M. Gollwitzer, Astrid Mignon

Enhancing consumer behaviour with implementation intentions

book chapter

Routledge International Handbook of Consumer Psychology

Peter M. Gollwitzer, Maik Bieleke, Paschal Sheeran

From thought to automatic action: Strategic and spontaneous action control by if-then planning

book chapter

Reflective and Impulsive Determinants of Human Behavior

Torsten Martiny-Huenger, Maik Bieleke, Gabriele Oettingen, Peter M. Gollwitzer

The benefit of no choice: Goal-directed plans enhance perceptual processing

journal article

original research

Psychological Research

Markus Janczyk, Michael Dambacher, Maik Bieleke, Peter M. Gollwitzer