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Adolescents often compare themselves favorably to others. Although such downward social comparisons make adolescents feel proud, they entail the risk of focusing adolescents on outperforming others rather than on improving themselves. This daily diary study (N = 389 adolescents, ages 11-15) tested the hypothesis that downward temporal comparisons-comparing one's present self favorably to one's past self, rather than to others-may elicit pride while encouraging adolescents to strive for self-improvement rather than superiority. Such a desire for self-improvement may, in turn, cultivate a sense of relatedness. Results show that daily downward and upward comparisons co-occurred with pride and shame, respectively, regardless of whether those comparisons were social or temporal. Importantly, daily downward temporal comparisons (unlike daily downward social comparisons) co-occurred with a desire for self-improvement over superiority as well as with a sense of relatedness. This desire for self-improvement over superiority partially mediated the association between downward temporal comparison and a sense of relatedness. Together, these findings underline the role of social and temporal comparisons in self-conscious emotions and goal pursuit and suggest that temporal comparisons-unlike social comparisons-may help adolescents strive for personal growth and build satisfying relationships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

In the present study, we reason that the ability to keep unwanted thoughts and intrusions at bay – thought control ability – might explain part of the relationship between trait self-control and positive psychological outcomes. We predict that the ability to keep unwanted thoughts at bay causes people high in trait self-control to report higher subjective well-being (Study 1), and makes them to be more likely to cope with stressful life events in an adaptive rather than maladaptive manner (Study 2). Two cross-sectional studies among healthy individuals were conducted (Study 1 n = 284; 70% female; Mage = 22.15 years; Study 2 n = 210, 65.7% female, Mage = 28.07) in which trait self-control, thought control ability, subjective well-being (study 1), and coping styles (study 2) were measured. Additionally, we investigated the mediating role of thought control ability and the conditional effect of gender on this mediation. The results of Study 1 indicate that trait self-control is positively related to subjective well-being. Moreover, thought control ability fully mediated the relationship between trait self-control and subjective well-being, and this effect was particularly strong for women. In Study 2, trait self-control was positively associated with adaptive forms of coping, but negatively with maladaptive coping. Moreover, thought control ability partially mediated the relationship between trait self-control and both types of coping, with stronger results for women than for men. These results suggest that trait self-control affects positive life outcomes in part through an ability to keep unwanted thoughts at bay, thereby facilitating a focus on goal pursuit.

Persistence in and timely disengagement from personal goals are core components of successful self-regulation and therefore relevant to well-being and performance. In the history of motivation psychology, there has been a clear emphasis on persistence. Only recently have researchers become interested in goal disengagement, as mirrored by the amount of pertinent research. In this review, we present an overview of the most influential motivational theories on persistence and disengagement that address situational and personal determinants, cognitive and affective mechanisms, and consequences for well-being, health, and performance. Some of these theories use a general approach, whereas others focus on individual differences. The theories presented incorporate classical expectancy-value constructs as well as contemporary volitional concepts of self-regulation. Many of the theoretical approaches have spread to applied fields (e.g., education, work, health). Despite numerous important insights into persistence and disengagement, we also identify several unresolved research questions. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 73 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Do the factors that help students attain desirable outcomes in university transfer to help them attain desirable outcomes upon work entry? The overarching goal of this dissertation is to examine the role of coping in helping university students and recent graduates maintain positive levels of achievement and psychological adjustment during the short- and long-term pursuit of their academic and career goals. Based on the extant literature on stress and coping, three studies document the achievement and psychological adjustment of young adults along theoretically relevant time points in their academic and career development. Study 1 builds on prior findings from Chamandy and Gaudreau (2019) by bridging the academic and career strivings of 550 university students across two examination periods to consider the domain specificity and changing nature of the coping process. We first examined the contemporaneous interplay between perceived control, coping, goal progress, and burnout in both the academic and career domains. We then examined if these patterns translated at the longitudinal level. Results indicated that earlier coping predicted change in goal progress, but not in burnout, in both domains. In the career domain, earlier goal progress also predicted change in task-oriented coping, thus revealing a bidirectional effect. No cross-domain effects were supported. Overall, the associations between coping, goal progress, and burnout differed both within and across time and contexts. Study 2 re-examined these associations among employees who had recently gone through the transition to work. In a two-wave longitudinal study, a sample of 153 recent graduates completed measures of appraisal, coping, goal progress, satisfaction, and burnout while retrospectively assessing their past experiences as university students and their current experiences at work. Results indicated that task-oriented coping in school was related to greater change in goal progress and satisfaction from school to work, whereas disengagement-oriented coping was related to greater change in burnout and to lower change in satisfaction. In turn, change in task-oriented coping was related to lower work burnout, whereas change in disengagement-oriented coping was related to greater change in work burnout and to lower change in work satisfaction. The findings also revealed bidirectional effects across school and work. Finally, graduation grades were shown to be useful but insufficient for our understanding of successful adaptation in the workplace, thus proving new insights on the psychological mechanisms involved in both the successful transition from university to work and the short-term adaptation of recent graduates at work. Study 3 takes a novel perspective on the experience of university students by testing a coping intervention involving hypothetic impediments to the pursuit of their career goals. In a two-wave randomized controlled study, 275 university students completed measures of transition-related controllability appraisals and school-related coping, satisfaction, burnout, and goal progress. The experimental condition elicited self-regulatory benefits by demonstrating group differences in the growth, decline, and follow-up levels, as well as in some of the associations between the intercepts and slopes of controllability appraisals, coping, satisfaction, and burnout. These findings indicate that a coping intervention can improve students’ perception of the transition to work and promote a more positive university experience. This thesis provided new knowledge on the role of coping in offering an advantage to university students on the job market beyond its role in facilitating goal progress and psychological adjustment. Our work opens the door to a long-term research agenda deemed necessary for practitioners and administrators with regards to the role of coping processes in the lives of university students during and beyond their post-secondary education. As a whole, the current dissertation makes theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions to the coping and transition literature in social, educational, and organizational psychology.

Well-being has been associated with autonomous goal regulation and need satisfaction. The present work will examine the factor structure of an adapted questionnaire assessing emerging adults’ (1) autonomous goal regulation and (2) fulfillment of psychological needs on a daily level. Additionally, within-person and between-person links between autonomous goal regulation, need-fulfillment and well-being in emerging adults on the day-to-day level will be examined. A sample of emerging adults who (1) are between 16 and 30 years old and (2) own an Internet-enabled smartphone with Android or iOS operating system were recruited.

This is a preregistration of the analysis plan for this project.

Author(s): Sherman, Jeffrey; Rees, Heather; Fujita, Kentaro; Han, H Anna; Sklar, Asael Y | Abstract: Previous research has found that construal level—how abstractly or concretely people represent events—can impact implicit evaluations. Abstract high-level construal (vs. concrete low-level construal) promotes evaluative responses consistent with global (strongly held, long-term) rather than local (short-term, situational) goals. It remains unclear by what cognitive process(es) this occurs. In this paper, we examine two possibilities. High-level construal might enhance the unintended influence of activated evaluative associations or facilitate the detection and implementation of intentional responses. To examine these possibilities, the current study applies a multinomial processing tree model to data from Fujita and Han (2009). Results suggest that high-level construal facilitates goal-consistent evaluations by increasing both the unintentional influence of activated goal-consistent positive associations and the intentional detection of and implementation of accurate responding to goal-relevant stimuli. These findings extend our understanding of how construal level promotes goal consistent evaluations.

Herter, M. M., Borges, A., Pinto, D. C., Ferreira, M. B., & Mattila, A. S. (2022). Using Mindsets to Boost Health: How Construal Level and Goal Pursuit Shape Health Message Effectiveness on Cessation Behaviors. European Journal Of Marketing, 56(12), 3197-3226. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-04-2020-0290. Funding: This paper received partial support from the Management of Information Research Center (MagIC), project UIDB/04152/2020. ABSTRACT Purpose: The current research examines how construal level shapes the effectiveness of rational (vs. emotional) messages for inducing cessation behaviors. Concrete mindsets foster self-improvement goals, while abstract mindsets boost self-relevance goals. Design/methodology/approach: In four studies, this research examines the moderating role of construal level on health messages and the underlying mechanism of goal pursuit. Findings: Results demonstrate that concrete (vs. abstract) mindsets increase consumers’ intent to engage in cessation behaviors when exposed to rational (vs. emotional) messages. Consistent with our theorizing, we found that self-improvement goals underlie the effects for concrete mindsets, while self-relevance goals mediate the effects for abstract mindsets. Research limitations/implications: The reported effects are limited to health messages focusing on cessation behaviors. Practical implications: This research can help public policymakers to design more effective health messages to foster specific cessation behaviors – quitting smoking and reducing drinking – focusing on concrete (vs. abstract) mindsets and rational (vs. emotional) messages. Originality/value: Our investigation highlights construal level as an important moderator for message appeals (rational vs. emotional) on cessation behaviors, along with the underlying mechanism of goal pursuit, thus contributing to health marketing literature. authorsversion published

This is an addendum to the following preregistration: https://osf.io/ej8zb

Research on goal pursuit has identified that goal-striving individuals repeatedly fail to initiate goal-related behaviors once goal intentions are formed (Stamm & Golwitzer, 2009). This gap between intention and goal action is further widened by anxiety, due to the fear of making decisions and high anticipation of threats (Gaillot et al., 2006; Haddad et al., 2015). Planning out how to reach one’s goals can alleviate initiation issues (Parks-Stamm & Golwizter, 2009). Implementation intentions are specific goal-pursuit techniques that are effective for bridging the gap between intention and meaningful action in the average person (Golwitzer, 1999). Yet, despite the abundance of support for implementation intentions as an effective technique for initiating action in the average person, as well as existing work showing its utility for promoting productive self-regulatory behavior in anxious populations, research on the efficacy of implementation intentions in anxious populations with respect to goal pursuit progress and achievement is lacking. Consequentially, the proposed studies will examine the efficacy of implementation intentions on anxiety reduction in young adults with various anxiety levels over the course of two weeks. In Study 1 (already completed), we explored this by manipulating the use of implementation intentions toward the goal of reducing one’s overall anxiety levels. Study 2 (this pre-registration) will replicate and extend Study 1, following the same procedures, however, it will include groups randomly assigned to one of three conditions (1) the WOOP Exercise to reduce their anxiety (experimental), (2) the goal of reducing their anxiety without the WOOP Exercise (active control), and (3) no manipulation (true control). This will enable us to compare the effect of implementation intentions in a more rigorous manner while examining the natural trajectory of anxiety over the course of the goal period for study participants.

Interdependence theory demonstrates the robust influence relationship partners have on each other’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. However, the “orgasm gap”—the overwhelming difference in men and women’s orgasm frequency in partnered (hetero)sex—has historically been attributed to women’s psychological and biological “dysfunctions,” despite strong evidence of the fundamentally dyadic and socio-cultural influences at play. Incorporating theories of interdependence, goal pursuit, and intimate justice, this research tests a novel framework of interdependent orgasm goal pursuit to explain the orgasm gap and expose a potential path to pleasure equity. With a 21-day online diary study of 100 heterosexually partnered individuals (aged 18-40), we: 1) pilot a novel measure of interdependent event-level orgasm goal pursuit—comprised of personal orgasm pursuit, partner orgasm pursuit, and perceived partner orgasm pursuit—and 2) test the theory that symmetric orgasm pursuit (i.e., partners equitably pursing and collaborating on each other’s orgasm) is required, but often missing, for orgasm equity in dominant heterosexual scripts.

Employee sleep matters for organizations, but it is less clear what organizations can do to promote sleep health. One potential leverage point is leaders. At present, we know relatively little about the ways leaders might support employees’ sleep health. The current research builds and tests theory suggesting that when organizational leaders display sleep-specific consideration behaviors (which the literature terms “sleep leadership”), employees exhibit positive, subsequent changes in sleep at home as well as goal pursuit and impulse control (loosely indicative of self-regulation) at work. A time-lagged, field-based study of U.S. Army soldiers supports this prediction and shows that sleep health mediates the link between sleep leadership and the two outcomes indicative of self-regulation. These findings suggest that leaders who demonstrate concern about employee sleep may initiate a positive feedback loop spanning work and home, benefiting the employee and organization.

This article introduces the consumer job journey as a more holistic perspective by which to understand consumption journeys undertaken to acquire and use goods and services. It aids scholars and managers by helping make evident some key consumer decisions and behaviors that otherwise would be invisible. Four tenets lay the foundation for the concept of a consumer job journey, establishing some key differences relative to a traditional perspective on consumption journeys. A consumer job journey involves a sequence of goal-directed steps (and associated evaluative criteria) in pursuit of an overall job and the consumer actions directed by these steps to acquire, assemble, and integrate market and nonmarket resources. Propositions highlight the consumer’s role as an active project manager who continually adapts their resource configuration given job journey goal priorities, psychological tensions, and disruptions. In combination, the tenets and propositions highlight both research gaps and unique managerial implications.

Important empirically informed proposals of virtue cultivation invoke techniques of goal pursuit. This paper argues that these techniques are effective in changing behavior due to the attention nar...

Many theorists have stressed the benefits of goal-conducive habits. However, past research has not yet demonstrated that habits benefit goal-pursuit in daily life independently of more effortful forms of goal-pursuit. Additionally, it is unclear if habits are triggered independently of conscious self-regulatory processes. To address these issues, we conducted three intensive experience sampling studies. We found that habitual behaviours facilitated goal-progress independently of effortful goal-directed behaviours. Additionally, we evaluated three sets of predictions regarding the relationship between habits and other effortful self-regulatory processes. The goal-independent account suggests that habits function independently of planning and testing processes. The goal-dependent account suggests that habits are influenced by these processes, and the hybrid account suggests that these processes indirectly influence habits through their association with contextual cue exposure. The results were consistent with the hybrid account, in that planning and testing were associated with habit enactment, but this association was mediated by contextual cue exposure. Collectively, our results suggest that one must consider both conscious self-regulatory processes and automatic cue-response associations to understand how the benefits of goal-conducive habits are realized in daily life.

A pre-registration for a longitudinal daily diary study on fertility probability and assertiveness-related psychological phenomena, comparing naturally cycling women and hormonal birth control users.

A pre-registration for a longitudinal daily diary study on fertility probability and assertiveness-related psychological phenomena, comparing naturally cycling women and hormonal birth control users.

We are conducting wo systematic reviews, examining factors predicting goal progress over time, and predicting daily goal progress.

Two online goal-setting courses are developed: A SMART goal-setting coures and a course that goes beyond SMART goal-setting and takes concepts like goal conflicts, goal types, and more into account. Participants are randomly assigned to one of the courses and the effect of the courses on self-efficcy, procrastination, goal achievement, well-being, commitment, and self-concordance are assessed.

Two previous studies we conducted reveal that emotional experiences people expect or recall during successful goal process differ across cultures. People in North American cultures reported more positive and less negative emotion compared to people in East Asian cultures. These different patterns were mediated by different values people hold on positive and negative emotion across cultures (i.e., dialectical views of emotion). Building on these results, we will examine if experiencing culturally valued emotions leads to better goal achievement.

What makes people condemn certain behaviors more than others? We hypothesize that motivational relevance contributes to these differences in moral judgment. Specifically, the present study aims to establish whether motivational relevance causally influences moral judgment intensity. To test this question, we will induce a motivational concern (Prevention-Control, Prevention-Truth, Promotion-Control, or Promotion-Truth) in participants using an essay-writing induction, thus increasing the relevance of activities congruent with that motive. Then, participants will encounter and rate the degree to which scenarios involving activities associated with each of these motivational concerns are perceived as intentional and are morally wrong. Moreover, the present study aims to replicate prior research in which we found (a) that failures to engage in promised control (vs. truth) activities were judged as more morally wrong and (b) that perceived intentionality partially mediates the relation between motivational concern (control vs. truth) and moral judgments. Specifically, failures to maintain promises related to control (vs. truth) activities were perceived as more intentional and were judged as more morally wrong. This research will make an important contribution to the motivation and moral psychology literatures as it will help to establish the motivational determinants of moral judgments.

The behavior of goal pursuit not only occurs and proceeds in a conscious state, but also in an unconscious process. The process of goal pursuit unconsciously can be automatically activated by situational features, which triggers the unconscious process. Significant others exist as an essential part of athletes’ personal development, and the interpersonal goals between significant others and athletes could be a critical component feature triggering the goal pursuit unconsciously. In this research, it presents three separated studied to explore how the different priming methods (supraliminal and subliminal in study 1 and study 2, respectively) impact the pursuit of unconscious goals in collegiate athlete group; in study 3, we further explore how the different types of significant others (specifically coach) of athletes affect the goal pursuit, and how the approach motivation work during this process.

In this study, we will apply day reconstruction method to examine whether, how, and why trait grit relates to perseverance and passion for daily activities.

Supplemental materials (open methods, results details) to the manuscript "How Self-Awareness is Connected to Less Experience of Action Crises in Personal Goal Pursuit" by Kreibich, Wolf, Bettschart, Ghassemi, Herrmann, & Brandstätter

When people pursue a goal, they do this with an action plan. Some people do not only start with one plan of how to achieve their goal, but develop a backup plan as an alternative to their plan A, or in case plan A does not work as intended. Having a backup plan in mind may serve as a safety net in the course of goal pursuit (Napolitano & Freund, 2016). However, recent studies showed that backup planning can be associated with motivational and performance-related costs (Napolitano & Freund, 2017; Shin & Milkman, 2016). As a consequence, keeping a backup plan does not always support successful goal pursuit (Napolitano & Freund, 2017). As of yet, psychological and motivational processes that underlie the process of developing a backup plan are not well understood. It remains open: (1) under which circumstances which individuals are more likely to develop a backup plan, (2) and what consequences backup planning has in regard to goal pursuit and achievement. The aim of this longitudinal field study is to investigate if interindividual differences in achievement motivation (fear of failure / hope for success), self-efficacy, and goal focus contribute to the development of backup plans. And what consequences backup planning has on goal pursuit, progress and performance. To investigate these aims in this longitudinal field study, we will repeatedly assess students’ motivation, study behavior, and backup planning during their first semester.

What makes people condemn certain behaviors more than others? When a person breaks a promise to engage in a control- (vs. truth-) oriented activity, we predict intensified judgments of immorality. Furthermore, we hypothesize that perceptions of the actor's intentionality will mediate the relation between the activity's motive domain (control vs. truth) and moral judgment intensity.

The study is supposed to analyze the impact of goals, which are defined as numbers, on the personal feeling of satisfaction. The focus is going to be on the comparison of round and non-round numbers which end with the number 9. The study’s focus is based on the finding that people evaluate goals that are defined through round numbers with a higher feeling of ‘accomplishment’ (Gunasti & Ozcan, 2019). Additionally there are studies that show people’s natural preference to define goals in round numbers compared to non-round goals (Rosch, 1975).

The current pre-registration aims to register our hypothesis, study methods, procedure and data analysis plan prior to conducting data collection.

Is autonomous motivation for voting and/or individual differences in autonomous functioning positively associated with voting-related intentions, attitudes, and behaviors and/or actual voting behavior?

What makes people condemn certain behaviors more than others? We hypothesize that motivational relevance contributes to these differences in moral judgment. When a person breaks a promise to engage in an activity that is highly relevant to an individual, we predict intensified judgments of immorality. Conversely, when a broken promise involves an activity low in relevance, we predict less intense judgments of immorality. This initial study is intended to pilot test scenarios to be used in subsequent research to ensure that, without a motive induction, they do not vary in moral judgment intensity across all participants.

Most people want to feel happy; however, some evidence suggests that the more people value happiness, the less happy they are. To make sense of this paradox, we leverage existing models of goal pursuit to identify core components of the process of pursuing happiness, highlighting how each of these components may go awry. Then, we introduce two fundamental traits that put pressure on the core components of the process and in turn further influence the outcome of pursuing happiness. Together, this nuanced approach to the pursuit of happiness across levels of analysis helps us organize existing literature and make better predictions about when, why, and for whom the pursuit of happiness may backfire and when it is likely to succeed.

In both personal and professional spheres, consumers decide when to initiate action on important tasks. Often, for important yet seemingly less-pressing tasks (e.g., saving for retirement), action initiation begins too late. This research is based on the novel insight that for purportedly non-pressing tasks, increasing perceived task complexity acts as a signal of urgency and prompts action, especially for novices. Studies 1 and 2 use a retirement savings context to demonstrate that, for novice investors (millennials, new job-market entrants, individuals with low financial literacy) who perceive retirement saving as non-pressing, framing the task as complex (versus simple) signals urgency and increases likelihood of action. In two additional studies, we replicate these effects to nudge individuals to take immediate online action (pilot) and protect online security (study 3). We discuss implications for corporations, policy makers, and consumers.

Many people have goals to increase their physical activity levels through engaging in exercise, but have difficulty establishing and maintaining an exercise routine. Research shows that people are more successful at exercising if they do so together with their romantic partner. In this study, we examined how exercising with a romantic partner may influence the experience of exercise itself, as well as people’s daily experiences. Specifically, we examined how joint exercise influences daily and exercise affect, daily relationship satisfaction, and amount of daily exercise. Young adults who were currently involved in a romantic relationship (N = 95) completed intake questionnaires and 14 daily reports of their exercise behavior, exercise and daily affect, and daily relationship satisfaction. Multilevel models showed that on days when people exercised with their romantic partner, they experienced higher positive affect during exercise, higher daily positive affect, and were more satisfied with their relationship compared to days when they exercised without their partner. No effects were found on daily and exercise negative affect, or amount of exercise. This study illustrates how exercising with a romantic partner may improve people’s experience of both exercising and their daily experiences, and may help provide a reason why people might be more successful at maintaining their exercise routine when they exercise together with their romantic partner.

The action crisis is a critical phase in goal striving during which the goal pursuer feels conflicted about persevering with the goal or initiating disengagement. Recent research suggests that goal motivation, specifically controlled motivation (i.e., pursuing a goal out of obligation and pressure), increases the likelihood of experiencing action crises. In turn, action crises in goal pursuit have been linked to increases in depression symptoms and cortisol. In the present 8-month longitudinal study, we tracked university students’ personal goals to examine whether the pursuit of controlled goals and the experience of action crises was associated with increasing levels of hair cortisol, perceived stress, poor health, and depression symptoms ( N = 156). Structural equation modeling suggested that experiencing action crises in goal pursuit was associated with increases in markers of stress, depression, and ill-being. This effect was partially explained by controlled goal motivation. The clinical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Although regular physical activity is associated with numerous health benefits, many people are not sufficiently active. Interventions that aim to increase physical activity rely mainly on concrete, “subordinate” goals. Based on a goal-theoretical perspective, we argue that combining goals at different levels of abstraction may foster successful goal pursuit, particularly in the long run. In the present study, all participants committed to the subordinate goal of exercising three times per week for three weeks. We used a 2 × 2 between-subjects design to assign participants to an additional superordinate goal, concrete action steps, or both; a control group focused solely on the subordinate goal. The main outcome was exercise frequency, which was measured (a) in the short term, i.e., during the three-week intervention period, using self-reports and electronic data; and (b) in the long term, i.e., during a six-month follow-up period, using electronic data. For the self-reported frequency in the short term, the results show an interaction between a superordinate goal and action steps: In the absence of action steps, a superordinate goal had a negative effect, but this negative effect dissolved when action steps were present. Similarly, action steps exerted a positive effect in the presence of a superordinate goal, but this effect dissolved in the absence of a superordinate goal. Goal manipulation had no significant influence either in the short or long term for electronically measured exercise frequency. Possible explanations for the observed effects and the differences between self-reported and electronically measured exercise frequencies are discussed.

Affect has been considered an important factor of risk decision making. However, previous work has focused on the valence of affect and disregarded its motivational relevance. We present two studies investigating people’s likelihood to drink and drive as a function of negative affect related to drinking and driving that was inconsistent, or threatening people’s goal pursuit (Study 1) or did not threaten participants’ goal pursuit (Study 2) as well as participants’ motivation to draw conclusions quickly and efficiently (i.e. need for closure, NFC). Negative affect resulted in higher self-reported likelihood to drink and drive, particularly among high NFC individuals, but only when it was inconsistent with participants’ goals. When negative affect was not inconsistent with participants’ goals, it resulted in lower self-reported likelihood to drink and drive among high NFC individuals. The present work points to the importance of the motivational relevance of negative affect in the decision-making process to engage in risk behavior.

The frequency, effectiveness, and impact of personality change goal (PCG) pursuit was explored using a longitudinal goal-setting paradigm within two multi-wave prospective longitudinal studies employing both a university student (study 1; n = 1468) and community adult (study 2; n = 248) sample. Self-determination theory (SDT) was incorporated to explore the extent to which PCGs reflect autonomous processes. Five major findings were revealed in study 1: (1) 20% of participants generated a PCG as one of their three yearly goals; (2) participants reported more progress on their PCGs than on other goals; (3) PCGs were more autonomous relative to other personal goals; (4) Autonomous motivation for goal pursuit was more strongly associated with PCG progress, relative to other goals; and (5) PCG progress resulted in improved psychological well-being over time. Study 2 replicated the motivational findings of study 1 within a community adult sample, and found evidence supporting the validity of the proposed longitidunal goal-setting paradigm. The present studies contribute to current PCG literature by using an alternate goal-assessment method that distinguishes desires to change from meaningful goal intentions and integrated SDT to enhance our understanding of volitional personality change.

Pain catastrophizing and pain acceptance have been associated with functioning in fibromyalgia. In relation to activity patterns, pacing has been defined as a helpful pattern to regulate activities in the context of value-based goals, but results regarding whether it is adaptive or not are controversial. This study analyzes the moderating role of pain acceptance between pain catastrophizing and pacing in 231 women with fibromyalgia. Moderation analyses were conducted with model 1 from the PROCESS Macro version 3.4. The results showed a clear moderating effect of pain acceptance. At low levels of pain acceptance, catastrophizing and pacing patterns maintained significant and positive associations. However, at high levels of pain acceptance, pacing was independent of catastrophizing. Far from considering pacing patterns as functional or dysfunctional per se, our results suggest that women with low pain acceptance carry out pacing influenced by catastrophizing independently of their goal pursuit, while patients who accept their pain may use pacing as a regulatory mechanism according to their goals.

This study is part of an undergraduate thesis aiming to explore differences in intimacy goals between cis* heterosexual people and LSBT* people, as well as associations between minority stress and the pursuit of intimacy goals.

Using a person-centered approach, the aim of this study was to examine how student-athletes’ motives for multiple-goal pursuit relate to indices of well- and ill-being. Student-athletes (N = 362) from British universities identified the most important sporting and academic goals that they were pursuing over the academic year. The participants rated their extrinsic, introjected, identified, and intrinsic goal motives for each goal and completed measures of well- and ill-being. Latent profile analysis revealed six distinct profiles of goal motives, with variations in both the strength of motives and the motivational quality. Follow-up analyses revealed between-profile differences for well- and ill-being; students with more optimal goal motive profiles reported higher and lower well- and ill-being, respectively, than those with less optimal goal motives. To experience well-being benefits when pursuing multiple goals, student-athletes should strive for their academic and sporting goals with high autonomous and low controlled goal motives.

Executive functions (EF) are cognitive processes that support flexible goal pursuit. Healthy development of EFs during childhood is critical for later life outcomes including health, wealth and educational attainment. As such it is crucial to understand how EFs can be supported and protected against insult. Here we examine whether there are sensitive periods in the development of EFs, by drawing on deprivation and enrichment studies in humans. While there is suggestive evidence that pre-6 months of age constitutes a sensitive period for EF development, given the higher-order nature of EF, we argue for the possibility of multiple sensitive periods of constituent processes. We identify relevant future questions and outline a research agenda to systematically test for sensitive period in EF development.

OBJECTIVE Symptoms of general psychological distress disrupt goal pursuit; however, not everyone is equally impacted by distress when pursuing goals. We tested whether hope, self-efficacy, and/or grit buffered the impact of symptoms of general psychological distress on longitudinal goal progress. METHOD Undergraduate students reported on these constructs and, 2 months later, their progress toward five personal goals (N = 117). RESULTS Although greater levels of baseline psychological distress predicted less goal progress, the impact of psychological distress on goal progress was moderated by hope, β = .20, SE = 0.07, p

Temporal landmarks, especially those that signal new beginnings, have been shown to spur goal initiation. We draw attention to a dark side of temporal landmarks by examining the effects of anticipated temporal landmarks on motivation to persist in an ongoing goal. Across an archival study and four experiments, we find that when an upcoming temporal landmark becomes salient and signals a new beginning, individuals perceive their current and future selves as two separate agents and optimistically believe that their future self will take the responsibility, which licenses them to exert less effort toward their ongoing goals in the present. However, individuals who reduce effort in anticipation of a temporal landmark may not work harder to compensate for the lost progress after the landmark. This detrimental effect of anticipated temporal landmarks is mitigated when individuals are reminded of everyday activities they consistently do to meet their goal.

The interaction between goals and affect in decision making is not well understood. We test the affective-motivational route theory (AMR: Aarts et al. 2008b) which predicts that positive affect primed along with a goal leads to goal pursuit, whereas negative affect primed along with a goal does not lead to less goal pursuit. In the current study, we test AMR using a process tracing paradigm where individuals are primed with goals (accuracy or speed) and affect (positive or negative). Participants then performed a decision search task where decision relevant information must be actively searched. Results indicate participants primed with negative affect showed search behavior consistent with the primed goals of accuracy or speed. Conversely, participants primed with positive affect showed search behavior inconsistent with the primed goals of accuracy or speed. These results are in the opposite direction of AMR but are consistent with self-regulatory theories.

An athlete’s 4-year Olympic preparation cycle requires systematic planning involving the use of short- and long-term goals. These goals provide athletes with increased motivation, persistence, effort and direction in their goal pursuit. Short-term goals can be viewed as steppingstones towards the long-term goals. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the use of short- and long-term goals by Olympic athletes. A qualitative design was used, with semi-structured interviews as the major data source. Participants were purposefully sampled from a typically understudied sports population. Four male Olympians, representing swimming and athletics, shared their experiences about how and why they set and used short- and long-term goals. The athletes spent an average of 11.3 years training and competing at the elite level. Findings revealed that winning a national championship and competing at the Olympic Games were their major long-term goals. Furthermore, these goals did not change during their athletic career. Short-term goals were primarily set to learn, develop and improve their skills/techniques that would allow them to reach their ultimate goals. Major competitive events (e.g. national championships, Pan Am Games, Olympic Games) dictated how they planned these goals. The findings also support previous research suggesting the use of both short and long-term goals. Coaches and young athletes can use the information provided to plan their sports goals. Future research should investigate the goal setting practices of team versus individual sport Olympic athletes.

Abstract. Adjusting strategies to manage daily goal pursuit with new functional limitations may impact not only the affect of patients, but also that of their partners. Associations between patients’ control strategies and both partners’ affect were examined at the onset of patients’ incontinence following prostatectomy. Eight-day diary data from 180 heterosexual couples were used to fit two-level models. In patients, investing personal resources to keep up goal pursuit despite incontinence (selective primary control) was associated with better affect, particularly when incontinence was pronounced. Yet, partners’ decreased negative affect coincided with patients’ asking for help and using technical aids (compensatory primary control) when the incontinence was severe. Patients and partners may benefit from different control strategies used by patients, especially when their functional limitations are pronounced.