Lecture 3 - The personal and interpersonal sides on goal pursuit Flashcards
Summary so far
How do we motivate ourselves?
-Goal= mental representation of something we want to attain or avoid
Why do we fail at our goals?
-Lack of standards (setting clear, realistic, specific goals), monitoring (measuring our progress) and/or self-control (capacity to override typical way of responding)
How can we overcome our self-control limitations to succeed at our personal goals?
Basics of Goal Pursuit
3 fundamental ingredients:
1. Standards
2. Monitoring
3. Self-control
Baumeister & Heatherton, 1996
Self-control : Capacity to over-ride shortterm considerations in the interest of more valued long-term concerns.
SMART Goals
Self-efficacy Boost = sense of being confident that you can accomplish something, is malleable
Implementation Plans = Self-control barrier, making something automatic/easier
(all explained in lecture 2)
Examples of 2020 NY goals: Winter Pentathlon. Healthy snacks.
Perspectives on Resolutions
CTV Report on New Year Resolutions
Personal goals in our everyday life
Summer
Semester
Yearly – New Years Resolutions?
Developmental – 3-5 years
Career
Weekly
Weekend
Goals come with a “universal action plan”
Self-determination theory as framework
Motivation is not a unitary thing, not much about the quantity
Quality and type
Intrinsic (ex: I do it because I like it, I want to help people) and extrinsic factors (ex: pressure from parents or peers, what expected to do…)
Why we do what we do?
(Ryan & Deci, 2017)
Distinguish quantity and quality of motivation
Focus on issue of volition : the faculty or power of using one’s will (does it feel true to you in some deep way)… intrinsic
Focus on satisfaction of Basic Psychological Needs (ARC)
-Autonomy : Needing to feel that one owns and agrees with one’s behavior.
-Relatedness: Needing to feel meaningfully connected to at least some other people.
-Competence: Needing to feel that one can do things well or at least improve in one’s abilities.
The Personal Goal Paradigm
1.Select a start point – new year, new semester, start of therapy..
-Usually university students, September-May
-Community adults, new year start
-Patients in treatment, before, during, after.
2. Assess (3) personal goals using Emmons Personal Striving Method
3. Assess goal progress across waves
-Self, peer, therapist, objective
4. Assess goal motivation and goal support across waves.
Personal Strivings (see description)
(Ken Sheldon, 1996)
Examples of Personal Goals:
University Students and Community Adults
Uni students:
I want to maintain straight A’s
I want to feel financially secure
I want to lose weight on my thighs
I want to Skype my close friends and family
at least once every two weeks.
I want to procrastinate less and get
assignments and tasks done early.
I want to put myself out there and be more
confident in organizing social gatherings
with new friends.
I want to get a high GPA this semester
Find new bars or clubs or restaurants in
Montreal
Plan a road trip across Canada
Adults:
I want to lose 10 lbs
I want to get a promotion at work
I want to put more into my kids’ college
funds
I want to get back into my routine of running
every morning
I want to start a new career.
I want to lose 20 pounds.
I want to complete my portfolio
I want to expand my professional network
Are our personal goals truly “personal”? (According to Ken Sheldon)
Question 1
Are our personal goals truly “personal”? (According to Ken Sheldon)
-“belonging to a particular person rather than something or
someone else”
-Despite being self-generated and self-initiated, in a nominal sense, our personal goals are often not
self-endorsed.
Almost never, friends and family often know about our goals and often want to involve themselves
Phase 1, Goal Selection:
Why are you pursuing the goal?
Autonomous Reasons:
“because of the fun and enjoyment the goal offers.”
“because I really believe its an important goal to have.”
“because it represents who I am and what I value most in
life.”
Controlled Reasons:
“because somebody else wants me to.”
“because I would feel guilty if I didn’t.”
Autonomy: Sense of
ownership and
personal endorsement.
-Autonomy is sometimes
called self-concordane
The extent to which a
goal reflects your
developing interests
and core values
(versus something you
feel pressured to do).
Phenomenology
“want to” versus “have to”
“get to” vs “got to”
“whole-hearted” vs “halfhearted
Sixth Graders’ Resolutions in 1964
Do my homework on
time
Don’t tease my sister
Eat less candy
Brush my teeth
Improve my posture
Be a loyal citizen
Help the United States
Clearly, they were not very autonomous, more controlled.
Koestner study
Autonomy & Goal Progress
Highly autonomous goals are
associated with significantly
greater success rates both across
people and across goals.
Effect size, across 3 dozen
studies, Pearson r = 23.
Why do autonomous goals help?
Consider the problems that arise after we have selected the goal and we begin to strive to reach it.
-Limits of self-control… easier when goals that are meaningful to you, goals won’t be in conflict with each other… need to use less self-control
-Distractions and temptations
-Action crises
Use an example of teaching last summer.
-Wanted to learn names and make it more interactive.
Ease of subjective effort… feels effortless when autonomous goal
Goal shielding
- Daily experience study of temptations
- Milyavskaya et al 2015.
Frequency and strength of desires that conflict with personal goals
Action crises
- Torn between continued goal engagement and disengagement
- Holding et al., 2017 J of P
-more autonomous, less like likely to have action crises
Key additional point
Used multilevel analyses to show that all of the above effects for autonomous goal
motivation, and its related mediators, were confirmed at both the within person and
between person levels.
Examine your resolutions (Dr. Koestner)
Failed:
Watch only 1 hr of TV per day
Learn French
Go to church on Sundays
Write 1 hr per day
Succeeded:
Exercise 5 times week
Do triathlon
Do spin classes (weekend
AM)
Watch Downton Abbey w
Helen (Fri & Sun evenings)
Those that were more autonomous succeeded!!
Key Questions to Consider:
- Have I reflected on why I am pursuing this goal?
2. Is this goal in tune with my self?
3. Can I make it in tune with my self?
“want to” vs
“have to”
“get to” vs “get
to”
Question 2:
Are personal goals exclusively personal?
Personal goals are also “interpersonal.”
We rely on others to show interest in and provide support for our goal pursuits.
We have to outsource the self-control demands
Fitzsimmons & Finkel 2011
Distinguishing Types of Interpersonal Goal Support
Directive support – provision of positive guidance and encouragement….. Nul result (nor good or bad)
Autonomy support – support framed as empathic, perspective-taking… more invisible
Items for Goal Support
Directive-Support
helps me problem solve about my goals.
reminds me of my goals.
emphasizes the importance of reaching my goals
makes sure that I really understand the importance of reaching my goals without pressuring me to do so.
Autonomy-Support
listens to how I would like to do things regarding my goals.
understands how I see things with respect to my goals.
conveys confidence in my ability to make changes towards my goals
accepts me whether or not I reach my goals
Key Results Across 12 studies:
Autonomy support (but not directive support) results
in…
Greater goal progress over time
Greater well being
Better relationship satisfaction
Koestner et al, 2012, 2015, 2018. PSPB, JofP, JofP
Chua, et al 2014, JSPR
Gorin et al, 2014, 2017, Health Psych
Powers et al., 2008, 2015 FS&H, JSCP
Sadikaj et al., 2015 JPSP
Example: prof’s wife’s running goal… he was doing more directive support… but autonomy support would’ve been better
Romantic Dyads over 3 months
Well being and relationship quality analyses control for time 1 levels of these variables.
Analyses control for the non-independence of the dyads
(see table)
Basically, autonomy support was way more correlated with goal progress, well-being and relationship quality
Mediation:
See graph
Summary so far
Successful goal setting depends on …
Selecting autonomous goals.
Receiving goal support that is autonomy-supportive.
How does this relate to the current emphasis on accountability buddies?
Why you need an accountability buddy https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=0nJOYSuqbQU
“They can be used to help a person to get fitter or achieve career and personal goals, for example. Indeed, one US study found that you have a 65% chance of completing a goal if you tell someone else you’re committing to doing it………………… not necessarily the most real statistics…
Key, according to prof, is that they are more autonomy supportive rather than controlling
