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Historically, the study of multiple goals has focused on the dynamics between two goals as the prototypical example of multiple goals. This focus on dyadic relations means that many issues central to the psychology of more than two goals are still unexplored. We argue that a deeper understanding of multiple-goal issues involves moving beyond two goals. Doing so not only reveals new insights about goal relations (e.g., how one dyadic relation affects another) but also introduces goal structure (how goals and goal relations are positioned relative to each other) as a variable in its own right worthy of study. In our review, we discuss current knowledge gaps, review methodologies both in terms of existing techniques and novel techniques we propose, and highlight new directions from moving beyond two goals-what new questions emerge and what dynamics, including intersectional issues (e.g., between goal properties and goal structure), become possible to explore.

Giving effective negative feedback is not only important but also challenging. Often people struggle as to how; and perhaps even more so when the feedback receiver comes from a different culture . Building on the regulatory fit theory, the current research examined how negative feedback framing (gain- vs. loss framed) would affect feedback receivers’ motivation as a function of their regulatory focus. We found that European Americans were in general more promotion-focused than Chinese (Study 1) and Indians (Study 2), such that promotion-focused (vs. prevention-focused) participants showed higher motivation after receiving gain-framed (vs. loss-framed) negative feedback. Across two studies, with student and work samples, our findings answered the question of how to give more effective negative feedback and suggested that regulatory fit can be a universal strategy for increasing motivation across the East and West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]