A primary challenge facing nutrition scientists is in understanding the sociobehavioral phenomena of eating behavior. Significant gaps remain both in the familiarity and application of sociobehavioral theory in nutrition research. The Laddering technique used in this study, is based on the Means-End Theory developed by Gutman. A sample of students participated in the pilot-test (n=26). The methodology used was a one-to-one interviewing technique during which, subjects were encouraged through a series of ‘why' questions to talk about the importance of their food choices. In a hierarchy of goals, this reveals how reasons/attributes of food choice are connected to consequences and to higher consequences, and values/goals. The resulting data were chains of sequences, linked by ‘means’, and ‘ends’. In total 26 subjects mentioned 116 different goals (lower and higher level). The total number of chains was 163, with an average of five chains per person. On the average four links were found within each chain, the longest chain of sequence having eight links. An example of a chain is as follows; ‘Seasonal’ (reason), to obtain ‘taste’, gives ‘satisfaction’, results in ‘personal happiness’. The most often mentioned higher level values/goals (or, “ends” as referred in the means-end theory) were; achievement, health & longevity, happiness, and friendship. The less abstract goals, or lower level goals (or, “means” as referred in the means-end theory) frequently mentioned were; satisfaction, mental alertness, avoid disease, physical appearance, sophistication, and avoid waste. The following were less often mentioned but interesting values found to motivate food choice; God, quality of life, world hunger, and independence. The uniqueness of this technique in the investigation of motivation, is that it allows the researcher to examine the relationship between goals and goal structures, and the direction and intensity of motivation. This technique may reveal culturally bound values and idiosyncrasies, and possible discrepancies between perceived and “true” consequence(s), related to motivation and food behavior. The potential for future use of this technique to investigate motivation in specific food-related behavior, may prove highly beneficial in understanding sociobehavioral phenomena. In addition, results of this study demonstrate the effectiveness of adapting behavioral science theories and techniques in nutrition research.