The instrumentality of tasks as a moderator of their motivational connection with goals

Context and relevance. Contemporary motivation research increasingly highlights the future as a central space for motivational regulation. Particular attention is paid to the constructs of future-oriented motivation and motivation for the possible, as well as to task instrumentality as a meaning-based mechanism linking distant goals with immediate actions (means–ends). Objective: to empirically investigate the role of the instrumentality of current tasks in the motivational regulation of activities related to educational and personal goals. Instrumentality is understood as the degree to which the performance of a current task contributes to the achievement of life goals. Methods and materials. The study was conducted on a sample of senior-year students from universities in Moscow and St. Petersburg (N = 64, age M = 21.4; SD = 1.91), who participated in the procedure of forming a list of current tasks (N = 640) and goals, followed by an assessment of motivational regulation. Questionnaire methods were used, including a shortened version of the UPLOC and the instrumentality matrix (R. Emmons). Results. Educational goals were found to provide mainly external motivation for academic tasks, whereas personal goals were associated with internal task motivation. A moderation effect of instrumentality was revealed: perceiving a task as instrumental to important life goals significantly strengthened both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for performing it. Conclusions. The results indicate that instrumentality functions as a key meaning-based link that integrates future-oriented motivation and motivation for the possible into everyday activity regulation, thereby expanding contemporary motivational models through the dynamic means–ends structures.

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