Goal Setting (11) Flashcards
Goal
A goal is a cognitive representation of a future outcome that the individual is committed to approach or avoid
important aspects of goals
- Cognitive representation
- Future focused
- Commitment
- Approach or Avoidance
Why do goals improve performance?
- Impact on attention -> Goals direct attention toward goal-relevant information)
- Psychological benefits -> Setting goals leads to greater positive psychological
Reasons for adopting a goal
- Need (internal cause)
- Demands (external cause)
- Cultures (external cause)
a goal hierarchy
the way goals are organized from broad, abstract goals to specific goal actions (three levels)
Goal system theory
goals are often interconnected within a larger system
-> people often pursue multiple goals
Equifinality
The distinction that goals vary in the number of different ways that they can be attained (i.e., their number of means)
-> goals high in equifinality are more flexible
Multifinality
The distinction that means vary in the number of different goals that they serve
-> poeple pursuing multiple goals simultaneously will prefer means that are high in multifinality
Goal features
- Expectancy and Value
- Difficulty
- Specificity
- Difficulty x Specificity
- Identity
- Proximity
- Approach vs. Avoidance
Expectancy-Value theory
Expectancy-Value theory asserts that behavior results from the joint function of two factors
(Behavior = Expectancy x Value)
1. both need to be high
2. both are subjective assesments
Factors affecting expectancy estimates (Expectancy and Value theory)
- Self-efficacy (Perceived capability to perform goal-directed behaviors)
- Outcome expectancies (Belief that these baéhaviors will result in goal acievement)
Factors affecting value estimates
when the benefits of achieving a goal outweigh the cost of pursuing the goal, the value is judged to be high
Goal difficulty
refers to the level of knowledge and skill required to achieve a goal
Are people more liekly to achieve eaqsy goals or hard goals?
- Difficult goals are generally associtaed with better performance
- the more difficult the goal, the more energy and effort people will invest in their goal pursuit (due to assumption difficult goals -> greater benefits)
Goal specificity
How precisely people define a goal
-> Students with specific goal spent more time planning and exerted more effort on the task
Why specific goals facilitate goal achievement?
- Attention
- Reduce ambiguity
- Measure progress,
- define end point
The combination of goal difficulty and specificity
the interaction creates a powerful force that significantly increases the likelihood of goal achievement (increase output quantity and quality)
Self-completion theory
people aspire to attain and maintain long-term goals related to identities
-> striving for identity goals takes the form of accumulating indicators of succesful goal attainment (symbols) -> tangible/intangible
Self-symbolizing
The process of acquiring identity symbols
- > when we want to compensate for identity goal incompleteness, we intensify our self-symbolizing efforts
- > principle assumes that people can continue to strive for their identity goals in the case of setbacks
Goal proximity
Goals can be achieved either in the near future or in the distant future
(Distal goals vs- Proximal goals)
Clark L. Hull -> Goal proximity
The more proximal the goal is, the more motivated we are to achieve it
-> Goal-gradient hypothesis
Goal-gradient hypothesis (Hull)
The tendency for organisms to increase effort as the goal becomes more proximal
Construal level theory (Trope and Liberman)
Distal goals are often thought of in abstract, intangible terms whereas proximal goals are thought of in concrete, observable terms
approach goals
- Narrow people’s focus on the goal means that directly lead to the desired outcome
- Promote behaviors that move individuals closer to the goal
