Andrea Seifert
Andrea Seifert is a co-author of Gollwitzer, Sheeran, Michalski and Seifert (2009), published in Psychological Science, the four-experiment paper on what happens to an intention once other people have noticed it. That is the whole of what this site can stand behind about her, and it is stated as a role on a paper rather than as a biography. No current position, institution or later body of work could be verified, and a short accurate page is better than a padded one.
Who they are
This page is deliberately confined to a role, because the role is what we can stand behind. Seifert is a co-author on one of the papers this site relies on. We have not been able to verify a current position, an institution or a later body of work, and a short accurate page is a better thing to publish than a padded one.
The paper itself is worth describing properly, since it is what she is here for. It tests a prediction taken from self-completion theory: if being recognised as the kind of person who pursues a goal is itself a symbol of that identity, then having an intention noticed should settle part of the account and reduce the pressure to complete the rest. Across four experiments, one of them running in the field over a week and the others in the laboratory, that is what happened. The result held among participants strongly committed to the identity goal and not among the weakly committed, which is the pattern that distinguishes symbolic completion from duller explanations such as distraction or embarrassment.
The scope limit travels with the finding, on this page as on every other. These are studies of announced intentions rather than of work shown. Saying you intend to do something and handing over a piece of a thing you have made are different acts, and only the first was tested.
Key papers
Gollwitzer, P. M., Sheeran, P., Michalski, V. & Seifert, A. E. (2009), "When Intentions Go Public: Does Social Reality Widen the Intention-Behavior Gap?", Psychological Science, 20, 612-618. Fourth author. Four experiments; identity-related intentions noticed by other people were translated into action less intensively than intentions that were ignored, in the field over one week and in the laboratory; the effect held among participants with strong commitment to the identity goal and not among those with weak commitment.
Our notes record no other publication of hers, and this page lists none.
Key ideas
Recognition of an intention can function as a symbol of the identity behind it, and symbols substitute in part for the work.
The cost falls on the strongly committed, because that is where the recognition is worth most.
The evidence concerns intentions that were announced and noticed, not work that was shown.
Sources
- Gollwitzer, P. M., Sheeran, P., Michalski, V., & Seifert, A. E. (2009), "When Intentions Go Public: Does Social Reality Widen the Intention-Behavior Gap?", Psychological Science, 20, 612-618.
- Vault note: [[Andrea Seifert]], which records that no biographical claim is made beyond the co-author role.