2025 Theses Doctoral

How Does It Fit? Basic Distinctions for Conceptualizing and Operationalizing Regulatory Fit and Non-Fit

Nakkawita, Emily Blanche

Regulatory fit—the experience of alignment between an individual’s motivational orientation and his or her goal pursuit strategies—has garnered substantial attention in psychology, yet fundamental questions remain about how best to conceptualize and measure this phenomenon.

This dissertation addresses these open questions by proposing and investigating two fundamental distinctions for operationalizing regulatory fit and non-fit: (a) regulatory fit effects resulting from motivational sensitivities related to seeing the world (i.e., the chronic accessibility of motivational constructs) versus dealing with the world (i.e., the effectiveness with which individuals pursue motivation-specific goals), and (b) regulatory fit effects resulting from simultaneous alignment between an activity and one’s motivations on more than one motivational dimension. It encompasses six studies involving both correlational and experimental designs.

Central to the methods was the development, validation, and application of a novel 2 (promotion vs. prevention) x 2 (truth vs. control) motivational framework of goal pursuit activities. Results suggest that distinct measures of regulatory fit and non-fit are relevant to ways-of-seeing versus ways-of-dealing outcomes for prevention and promotion motivations. Furthermore, analyses reveal that activities can be driven by motives on both the promotion-prevention and truth-control dimensions at the same time, yielding simultaneous fit effects with important consequences for individuals’ preferences and beliefs about goal pursuit activities, as well as the accessibility and actual selection of the same set of activities. Collectively, these findings contribute to the field’s understanding of regulatory fit and non-fit by demonstrating that different types of motivational sensitivities shape cognition and behavior through distinct mechanisms.

The dissertation concludes with implications for how researchers and practitioners might better operationalize and harness regulatory fit in education, healthcare, organizational contexts, and beyond.