Pursuit Of Personal Goals Research Articles

The dynamics of doubt: Short-term fluctuations and predictors of doubts in personal goal pursuit.

An action crisis denotes an intrapsychic conflict in which a person feels torn between holding on to and letting go of a personal goal. It is characterized by the experience of goal-related doubts. To extend the existing understanding of action crises, we investigated the dynamics of doubts in daily life and addressed two questions: (1) To what extent do doubts with respect to a personal goal fluctuate in daily life? (2) In which situations do individuals primarily have doubts? In an experience sampling study (N = 254), we assessed doubts about a personal goal five times a day over 10 days. Our findings indicate that the level of doubt varies between individuals but also fluctuates within persons. Doubts increase in response to negative goal-related events and decrease in response to positive goal-related events. Individuals with higher (vs. lower) levels of action crisis have particularly high levels of doubt during goal-related (vs. -unrelated) activity. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on goal disengagement and point to the relevance of studying motivational parameters from a dynamic perspective.

Mindfully motivated: Can a brief session of mindfulness meditation enhance motivation towards personal goals?

AbstractRecent research suggests that mindfulness meditation may impair motivation towards traditional laboratory tasks. The present research explored the effects of meditation on motivation towards personal goals and an anagram task. In Study 1 (n = 200), participants in the mindfulness condition reported greater goal motivation than those in a comparison podcast condition (due to a decrease in the podcast condition); this difference remained 10 min later. Exploratory analyses revealed no differences between conditions in post‐manipulation anagram motivation. In Study 2 (n = 120), participants in the mindfulness condition reported greater goal motivation than those in the podcast condition; this difference remained 20 min later. There were no differences between conditions in anagram motivation. Furthermore, goal motivation increased from before to after meditating, whereas anagram motivation remained the same. These findings oppose the notion that meditation impairs motivation and instead suggest that meditation may offer motivational benefits for personal goal pursuit.

Exploring the Importance of Strategic Thinking to Strategic Planning in the Strategic Management Process

The purpose of this paper was to explore the importance of strategic thinking to strategic planning in the strategic management process. It has been posited in this paper that, although the two concepts are interrelated, strategic thinking is different from strategic planning and each aspect makes a special contribution to the process of strategic management. Literature was reviewed to clarify the meaning of the two concepts as well as identify the importance of strategic thinking to strategic planning. Major findings revealed that strategic thinking is important in three different stages of the strategic planning: (1) before: Provides acumen, the raw material of strategic planning; (2) during: Prioritizes purposefully, makes trade-offs wisely and allocates limited resources intelligently; and (3) after: Determines key milestones so as to measure achievement. It is therefore critical for individuals as well as organizations to apply strategic thinking and strategic planning as two distinct but complementary concepts in order to benefit from specific inputs of each of them in the pursuit of personal or corporate goals.

The Futures We Want: How Goal-Directed Imagination Relates to Mental Health

Imagination is an adaptive ability that can be directed toward the pursuit of personal goals. Although there is a wealth of research on goals and on imagination, few studies lie at the intersection—little is known about individual differences in goal-directed imagination. In 153 adults, we examined how 28 aspects of goal setting, pursuit, and goal-directed imagination relate to mental health. Higher well-being and lower depressive symptoms were strongly linked (a) to having goals that were more attainable, under control, and expected to bring more joy and (b) to goal-directed imagination that was clearer, more detailed, more positive, and less negative. Importantly, the emotional valence of goal-directed imagination strongly predicted well-being at a 2-month follow-up even after controlling for mental health at baseline. These findings underscore the relevance of goal-directed imagination to well-being and depressive symptoms and highlight potential targets for goal- and imagery-based interventions to improve mental health.

Influence of Early Adolescents’ Mastery Goals on Inter- and Intra-Individual Relationships Between Metacognitive Monitoring and Academic Outcomes

We aimed to investigate the inter- and intra-individual relationships between early adolescents’ achievement goals, metacognitive monitoring, and academic outcomes. Korean sixth graders responded to achievement goal questionnaires, solved four quizzes, monitored their own confidence in these four quizzes, and took a final exam. Given the nested data structure, we conducted multi-level path modeling, which can distinguish between inter- and intra-individual effects in a single model. We found significant between-person indirect effects of mastery goals on the final exam score via individual’s average scores for the four calibrations and for the four quizzes. We also found a positive within-person relationship between the calibration and quiz scores. The students’ pursuit of personal mastery goals positively moderated this within-person relationship. These findings indicate that pursuing mastery goals can be more effective for metacognitive monitoring and knowledge acquisition, particularly for early adolescents.

Academic Ableism and Students with Intellectual/Development Disabilities: Rethinking Self-Advocacy as an Anti-Ableist Practice

Per laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, college students with intellectual/developmental disabilities (I/DD) in the United States are expected to be self-advocates and speak up for needed accommodations, regardless of diagnosis or condition. Students with I/DD in particular are frequently taught the dominant view of self-advocacy as a set of skills whereby they achieve self-determination. This view undersells the degree to which self-advocacy is a rhetorical enterprise, wherein students craft their speech to achieve immediate social purposes; and it elides the political history of self-advocacy in the U.S. and its ties to the adult self-advocacy movement. In light of these considerations, I seek to understand how ableism on college campuses gives shape to particular ideas about self-advocacy. Through five student interviews, I analyze how everyday talk about self-advocacy on a university campus is constructed through ableist discourses privileging mastery, concealment of bodily difference, and autonomy. Based on this analysis, I argue that it is necessary that educators reimagine self-advocacy as a collective responsibility engaging students, faculty, administrators, and staff in creating more accessible campus cultures, rather than as a hyper-individualized, self-directed pursuit of personal goals.

Supplemental Material for The Dynamics of Doubt: Short-Term Fluctuations and Predictors of Doubts in Personal Goal Pursuit

Supplemental Material for The Dynamics of Doubt: Short-Term Fluctuations and Predictors of Doubts in Personal Goal Pursuit

Emotion regulation during personal goal pursuit: Integration versus suppression of emotions.

Goal pursuit may involve setbacks likely to elicit negative emotions. To continue pursuing the goal, an individual may need to regulate those emotions. In this study, we compared the unique contributions of two emotion regulation styles, integrative emotion regulation (IER) and suppressive emotion regulation (SER), to goal pursuit processes. We tested the hypotheses that IER and SER would be differentially related to goal progress and goal-related effort and goal-related depressed mood would mediate those relations. 255 Israeli participants completed five web questionnaires at two-week intervals. We examined the mediation hypothesis using multilevel structural equation modeling. At the within-person level, increases in IER predicted increases in goal progress at a given time point through increases in goal-related effort, while increases in SER predicted decreases in goal progress through increases in goal-related depressed mood. At the between-persons level, participants with higher IER reported more goal progress; this effect was mediated by goal-related effort. Participants with higher SER reported lower goal progress; this effect was mediated by higher goal-related depressed mood. The findings held after controlling for such factors as participants' perceived goal competence, goal stress, sex, and age. IER promotes goal pursuit, but SER impedes it.

Integrating Models of Self-Regulation.

Self-regulation is a core aspect of human functioning that helps facilitate the successful pursuit of personal goals. There has been a proliferation of theories and models describing different aspects of self-regulation both within and outside of psychology. All of these models provide insights about self-regulation, but sometimes they talk past each other, make only shallow contributions, or make contributions that are underappreciated by scholars working in adjacent areas. The purpose of this article is to integrate across the many different models in order to refine the vast literature on self-regulation. To achieve this objective, we first review some of the more prominent models of self-regulation coming from social psychology, personality psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. We then integrate across these models based on four key elements-level of analysis, conflict, emotion, and cognitive functioning-specifically identifying points of convergence but also points of insufficient emphasis. We close with prescriptions for future research.

Passion and grit in the pursuit of long-term personal goals in college students

Passions are strong motivational forces that influence the direction, intensity, and quality of long-term goal-pursuit. Passionate individuals thus have the potential to display high levels of perseverance of effort and consistency toward their interests – that is, to be gritty – with regard to the personal goals they set for themselves. The present research investigated whether passion in students was related to perseverance of effort and maintenance of interests toward the personal goals that students had set for themselves at the beginning of an academic semester. This study also investigated if the facets of grit were related to progress on personal goals, as well as to changes in subjective well-being and symptoms of depression over the semester in a sample of university students (N = 425). Results showed that harmonious passion was only positively associated with the facet of perseverance of effort. In contrast, obsessive passion was negatively associated with both perseverance and consistency of interests facets of grit. In turn, only perseverance of effort was associated with progress on personal goals and with changes in well-being over the semester. The implications of these findings for long-term goal pursuit in an educational setting are discussed in light of the passion and grit literatures.

Women's Self-Relevant Goal Pursuit in the Presence of Physical Pain: An Intraindividual Variability Approach.

Pursuing personal goals that are relevant to one's sense of self is important for adjusting to age-related changes. Experiences of physical pain, however, are thought to threaten both people's sense of self and their pursuit of personal goals. Although a majority of older women experience physical pain, little is known about their day-to-day regulation of their self-relevant goals in the presence of physical pain. The objectives of this study were to explore associations between physical pain and health goal pursuit on a daily basis for women who identified health as a part of their possible selves. We took an intraindividual variability approach to analyze whether there were within- and between-person differences in associations between daily pain and daily health goal progress among 62 women who provided data over the course of 100 days, yielding 4,150 occasions of data. At the between-person level, women with higher pain on average had lower health goal pursuit on average. At the within-person level, days of higher-than-average pain were associated with lower same-day health goal progress. Our results suggest that pain interrupts regulation of a self-relevant goal at a within-person-not just between-person-daily level. Future work should consider how these daily, within-person, disruptions affect broader identity processes and overall well-being.

Spaceship Earth Revisited: The Co-Benefits of Overcoming Biological Extinction of Experience at the Level of Person, Place and Planet.

Extensive research underscores that we interpret the world through metaphors; moreover, common metaphors are a useful means to enhance the pursuit of personal and collective goals. In the context of planetary health—defined as the interdependent vitality of all natural and anthropogenic ecosystems (social, political and otherwise)—one enduring metaphor can be found in the concept of “Spaceship Earth”. Although not without criticism, the term “Spaceship Earth” has been useful to highlight both resource limitations and the beauty and fragility of delicate ecosystems that sustain life. Rene Dubos, who helped popularize the term, underscored the need for an exposome perspective, one that examines the total accumulated environmental exposures (both detrimental and beneficial) that predict the biological responses of the “total organism to the total environment” over time. In other words, how large-scale environmental changes affect us all personally, albeit in individualized ways. This commentary focuses the ways in which microbes, as an essential part of all ecosystems, provide a vital link between personal and planetary systems, and mediate the biopsychosocial aspects of our individualized experience—and thus health—over our life course journey. A more fine-grained understanding of these dynamics and our power to change them, personally and collectively, lies at the core of restoring “ecosystems balance” for person, place and planet. In particular, restoring human connectedness to the natural world, sense of community and shared purpose must occur in tandem with technological solutions, and will enhance individual empowerment for personal well-being, as well as our collective potential to overcome our grand challenges. Such knowledge can help shape the use of metaphor and re-imagine solutions and novel ways for restoration or rewilding of ecosystems, and the values, behaviors and attitudes to light the path toward exiting the Anthropocene.

Neural signatures of promotion versus prevention goal priming: fMRI evidence for distinct cognitive-motivational systems.

Regulatory focus theory (RFT) postulates two cognitive-motivational systems for personal goal pursuit: the promotion system, which is associated with ideal goals (an individual's hopes, dreams, and aspirations), and the prevention system, which is associated with ought goals (an individual's duties, responsibilities, and obligations). The two systems have been studied extensively in behavioral research with reference to differences between promotion and prevention goal pursuit as well as the consequences of perceived attainment versus nonattainment within each system. However, no study has examined the neural correlates of each combination of goal domain and goal attainment status. We used a rapid masked idiographic goal priming paradigm and functional magnetic resonance imaging to present individually selected promotion and prevention goals, which participants had reported previously that they were close to attaining ("match") or far from attaining ("mismatch"). Across the four priming conditions, significant activations were observed in bilateral insula (Brodmann area (BA) 13) and visual association cortex (BA 18/19). Promotion priming discriminantly engaged left prefrontal cortex (BA 9), whereas prevention priming discriminantly engaged right prefrontal cortex (BA 8/9). Activation in response to promotion goal priming was also correlated with an individual difference measure of perceived success in promotion goal attainment. Our findings extend the construct validity of RFT by showing that the two systems postulated by RFT, under conditions of both attainment and nonattainment, have shared and distinct neural correlates that interface logically with established network models of self-regulatory cognition.

A longitudinal investigation of trait-goal concordance on goal progress: The mediating role of autonomous goal motivation.

The present study investigated the benefits of matching personality traits with goal type (i.e., agentic or communal) for goal progress. Autonomous motivation was examined as a mediator. A multi-wave prospective longitudinal design was employed to track the progress that 935 university students made in their personal goal pursuits over an academic year. Participants set three personal goals at baseline and completed measures of personality and goal motivation. Participants' goals were coded as being either agentic or communal. Goal progress was assessed mid-year (T2) and at the end of the academic year (T3). Goal motivation was reassessed mid-year (T2). Conscientiousness was significantly related to making better progress on agentic, but not communal, goals. Conversely, Extraversion was related to making communal, but not agentic, goal progress. These trait-goal matching effects on progress were partially mediated by goal-specific motivation, suggesting that the selection of goals that matched one's traits resulted in higher autonomous motivation at the start of the academic year. The selection of trait concordant personal goals is associated with autonomous goal motivation and greater goal progress. This research integrates Self-Determination Theory with trait theories of personality to enhance our understanding of variations in goal success.

Factors influencing the pursuit of personal learning goals in MOOCs

ABSTRACTMOOCs are promising opportunities for lifelong learning, but as promising as these learning opportunities seem, many learners do not succeed in pursuing their personal learning goals. Barriers to learning are the main reason for not finishing the intended (parts of the) MOOCs. This study addressed the question whether the factors age, gender, educational level, and online learning experience affect barriers faced while learning in MOOCs. The results show that it is challenging to combine work and family life with lifelong (online) learning activities, especially for learners in their early adulthood and mid-life. However, more experience with online learning positively affects individuals’ ability to cope with these challenges. Also, learners with a lower educational level may experience a lack of knowledge or difficulties with the course content. These findings may serve as input to inform potentially vulnerable learners about these issues and support them in successfully achieving their personal learning goals.

Commitment is Not Enough: A Longitudinal Investigation of Goal Commitment, Confidence, and Depressive Symptoms in Personal Goal Pursuit

Introduction: Symptoms of depression are associated with difficulty achieving personal goals. Empirical investigations suggest that depressed individuals do not differ from healthy controls in their commitment to personal goals (i.e., goal commitment), though they express less confidence in their abilities to achieve goals (i.e., goal-related confidence). Despite the relevance of motivational constructs, including goal commitment and confidence, to both depression and goal striving, there is a dearth of research examining these variables as they relate to depressive symptoms and goal progress across time.Method: To address this gap, we tracked the goal pursuits of 139 undergraduate participants oversampled for elevated symptoms of depression at a large, Midwestern university at three time-points. Participants completed a baseline assessment that included The Center for Epidemiologic Studies—Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977) and a free-response goal-setting activity. They were asked to report goal progress and re-rate commitment and confidence for any not-yet-attained goals 2 weeks later and, finally, to report on goal attainment at a 2-month follow-up.Results: As predicted, the association between depressive symptoms and concurrently-reported goal commitment was not significant. However, less goal progress and early decreases in goal commitment and confidence reported at 2-week follow-up acted as indirect paths through which baseline depressive symptoms predicted poor longer-term goal outcomes.Discussion: Future investigators could experimentally test the associations between these variables to better understand the ways in which manipulating one aspect of goal striving might causally influence the others.

To tell science. Risks, opportunities and new tools of communication.

The New York Times recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of its historic "Science section" with a special issue. An opportunity to reflect on the state of the art of scientific journalism. After having seen the inserts dedicated to science flourish in the '70s and '80s, in recent times the major Italian weekly and several newspapers have decided - with rare exceptions - to eliminate them. Most health inserts remain. How can we explain the reason for this trend? Science continues to permeate our culture, from cinema, to books, to advertising, to television. And there are numerous masters and university courses in Italy that prepare young graduates for science communication. Yet, paradoxically, in the newsrooms the presence of scientific journalists has been gradually reduced to nothing, and quite often those who write about science are "generalist" journalists. Fault of the crisis that publishers live and of the entry into the mass information circuit of internet? Certainly the interaction between the protagonists of scientific information (public, journalists, researchers) has become more and more complex and problematic. Since the '80s the boundary between academic institutions and business has gradually faded, coinciding with the birth of the so-called entrepreneurial science. Scientific research becomes instrumental to the pursuit of personal and commercial goals, and the conflict of interests more pervasive: because the dividing line between science and business is increasingly blurred. The anxiety to communicate on the part of scientists, to make public what research is discovering, is pressing and an integral part of their "work". There are scientists whose career is integrated with the media system. Stories of unbridled competition (just think of the war between France/USA to grab the royalties of the blood test for AIDS) and stories of fraud (in the last ten years the number of articles retracted by scientific journals has increased tenfold compared to the previous ten years and fraud covers 60 percent of these retractions) have come to have a corrosive effect on the untouchable image of science. Making good scientific journalism, which takes into account the context in which research is moving today, requires awareness (going deep into the issues to be addressed) and ethical rigor. This applies to all modes of expression, from print media to online communication. And should be a must not only for "science writers", but for all those who produce information.

Compromises of integration, specificity and emotional content of self-defining memories in patients with opioid-use disorder

ABSTRACTAutobiographical memory plays a major role in the construction of identity. A particular type of memory has been described as more relevant in pursuit of personal goals: self-defining memory (SDM). In patients with opioid-use disorder (OUD), SDM recall has not yet been investigated despite deficits in the retrieval of autobiographical memories. This study aims to characterise SDM recall in OUD patients. Patients (N = 25) and non-dependent individuals (N = 25) were told to recall five SDM and to rate the emotion (valence and arousal) triggered during the retrieval. Specificity, valence, theme, integration and distance in time of the SDM were analysed while controlling for anxiety and depression levels. The SDM construction of the OUD patients was characterised by a lower specificity, more neutral memories and a lower integration, while emotions triggered during retrieval did not differ between the two groups. This may reflect an unsuccessful attempt to disconnect from one’s own emotions in the OUD patients. This emotional disconnection and the difficulty of addressing meaning of past events may be due to substance use history coupled with the use of emotional strategies of avoidance. The implications for substance abuse relapse are discussed.

In good time: A longitudinal investigation of trait self-control in determining changes in motivation quality

The positive role of autonomous motivation in personal goal pursuit has been robustly established in Self-Determination Theory research. Recent work has linked individual differences in trait selfcontrol to motivation quality, showing that higher self-control is associated with greater autonomous motivation (Converse, Juarez & Hennecke, 2018). The present investigation built on this research to test the association longitudinally in the context of long-term personal goal pursuit. In a prospective longitudinal study with college students, we tested whether trait self-control predicts increased autonomous goal motivation and decreased controlled motivation over time. Participants set three personal goals they planned to pursue for the duration of the academic year and reported on their goal motivation, self-control and Big Five personality traits. Results showed that trait self-control predicted increased autonomous motivation and decreased controlled motivation over the academic year, even after controlling for the Big Five. These findings contribute to the emerging understanding of the role of personality factors in determining motivation.

Relations Between Student Procrastination and Teaching Styles: Autonomy-Supportive and Controlling.

Procrastination is a complex problem that can be defined as delaying an intended course of action (despite anticipating adverse consequences). Even when some students have equivalent motivation and skill levels, they tend to procrastinate more frequently than others. Approaches that analyze whether contextual influences may prevent or promote dysregulation processes associated with procrastination are scarce. According to Self-Determination Theory, contextual influences can facilitate self-regulated motivation (e.g., autonomous pursuit of interests or personal goals), if teaching style is autonomy-supportive and guarantees the satisfaction of students’ basic psychological needs for perceived competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Contrariwise, school context can also impede the development of autonomous motivation if teachers frustrate the satisfaction of their students’ psychological needs by recurring to controlling teaching behaviors, such as controlling use of rewards, negative conditional regard, excessive personal control, or intimidation. The goal of the present study was to assess the relations between controlling and autonomy-supportive teaching behaviors, psychological needs satisfaction (of the needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness), and four distinct measures of procrastination: general procrastination, decisional procrastination, procrastination linked to task avoidance, and pure procrastination. Data based on public university undergraduate students (N = 672) shows that controlling teaching behaviors are associated negatively with psychological needs satisfaction and positively with procrastination. Contrariwise, autonomy-supportive teaching behaviors are positively associated with psychological needs satisfaction and negatively with procrastination. The data obtained is useful for suggesting new lines of research to study the link between contextual influences and the prevention of academic procrastination in view of Self-Determination Theory. Also, our results suggest new pedagogical approaches where teachers can create contextual conditions that help to prevent or reduce procrastinating tendencies.