Beyond goal commitment: How expectancy shapes means evaluation (original) (raw)
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From One to Many: Toward an Understanding of Multiple Means and Multiple Goals
2013
Consumers often use products, services, and behaviors to help them pursue their multiple goals. They eat fresh produce to be healthy, buy suits to look professional at work, and buy movie tickets to relax and have fun. These goal-related products and services are collectively referred to as "means" to goal attainment (Kruglanski et al. 2002). Prior research to-date has primarily focused on the use of a single means to pursue a single goal. This one-to-one relationship between a single means and a single goal, however, is an overly simplistic perspective. Consumers typically utilize multiple means for goal pursuit, and have multiple goals they wish to pursue at the same time. My dissertation adopts this more realistic framework for understanding how consumers use means to pursue their goals. In three essays I explore how relationships among multiple means and multiple goals, which I define in terms of variety, impact consumer motivation.
Further evidence on the relationship between goal setting and expectancy theories
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 1991
ABSTRACT This investigation sought to clarify the relationship between goal setting and expectancy theories. Toward this end, (a) previous theoretical and empirical efforts at integrating these two theories are reviewed, (b) issues of causal ordering, measurement, and the meanings of those measures are examined, and (c) the results of an empirical study using a sample of 344 college students and an academic task are presented. Results illustrate how different operationalizations of expectancy and attractiveness ratings result in the measurement of different constructs and influence the significance and direction of empirical findings. For almost all operationalizations, however, significant relationships were evident between expectancy theory constructs and goal choice, goal commitment, and performance. Causal analyses using cross-lag correlations were inconclusive, but mediation and path analyses provided some evidence that goals mediate the effects of expectancy theory constructs on performance.
Goal choices and planning: Distinct expectancy and value effects in two goal processes
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2014
Expectancy and value have emerged as two major determinants of motivation. However, the exact nature of their functioning is less clear given that previous research failed to test adequately different goal processes. Based on the recent nonmonotonic, discontinuous model of expectancy elaborated by Vancouver, More, and Yoder , two studies were conducted and found that expectancy and value functions in different forms during the goal choice versus goal planning processes. Specifically, the two constructs positively and jointly predicted one's goal choice, whereas they played independent and opposite roles in affecting the allocation of effort during the goal-planning process. These findings address gaps in theories of motivation, allow for more precise specifications of the roles for expectancy and value within such models, and further efforts toward integrating theories of motivation within a goal-centered, selfregulation framework.
Studia Psychologica
Expected positive consequences are predictors of effort expenditure in goal pursuit (Sheldon & Elliot, 1999). However, there are indications that this relationship is moderated (Locke & Latham, 1990) or mediated by commitment. A sample of 388 university students was administrated questionnaires in order to measure goal commitment, effort and positive expected goal attainment consequences. The results suggest that goal commitment is not a moderator of the relationship between positive expected goal attainment consequences and exerted effort but rather mediates the relationship. The findings outline that expected consequences in terms of cost-benefit analysis as another type of expectations are associated with effort, too.
Means of goal attainment are said to be multifinal when they are capable of attaining more than 1 goal at the same time. Such means have an advantage over unifinal means because they have the potential to attain greater overall value. However, they have the disadvantage (relative to unifinal means) of diluting the association between the means and each of the goals . In turn, diluted association strength is often interpreted as reduced means' instrumentality. Given these tradeoffs between value (favoring a multifinal option) and instrumentality (favoring the unifinal option), the question is under what conditions 1 or the other would be selected. Based on regulatory mode theory , we predicted and found in 5 experiments that individuals operating in a locomotion self-regulatory mode prefer a unifinal to multifinal means, whereas individuals operating in an assessment mode prefer multifinal to unifinal means. Implications of these findings for self-regulatory phenomena are discussed.
Means of goal attainment are said to be multifinal when they are capable of attaining more than 1 goal at the same time. Such means have an advantage over unifinal means because they have the potential to attain greater overall value. However, they have the disadvantage (relative to unifinal means) of diluting the association between the means and each of the goals (Zhang, Fishbach, & Kruglanski, 2007). In turn, diluted association strength is often interpreted as reduced means’ instrumentality. Given these tradeoffs between value (favoring a multifinal option) and instrumentality (favoring the unifinal option), the question is under what conditions 1 or the other would be selected. Based on regulatory mode theory (Higgins, Kruglanski, & Pierro, 2003; Kruglanski et al., 2000), we predicted and found in 5 experiments that individuals operating in a locomotion self-regulatory mode prefer a unifinal to multifinal means, whereas individuals operating in an assessment mode prefer multifinal to unifinal means. Implications of these findings for self-regulatory phenomena are discussed.
Making goal pursuit effective: Expectancy-dependent goal setting and planned goal striving
2009
The present chapter discusses the self-regulation of goal pursuit. Research on goal pursuit has commonly focused on two separate issues: the setting of appropriate goals and the effective striving for goal attainment (Gollwitzer & Moskowitz, 1996; Oettingen & Gollwitzer, 2001). Research on goal setting observed that mentally contrasting a desired future outcome with obstacles of present reality leads to goal commitments to reach this outcome in line with one's expectations of success (Oettingen, 2000). Given that expectancies of success are high, strong goal commitments emerge as reflected in cognitive, affective, and behavioral indicators. Research on goal striving observed that spelling out goal implementation in advance by simple if-then plans linking an instrumental goal-directed behavior (then-component) to anticipated situational cues (ifcomponent) manages to automate goal striving, thus facilitating getting started on one's goals and shielding them from disruptions (Gollwitzer, 1993, 1999). The goal setting strategy of mental contrasting (MC) has recently be combined with the goal striving strategy of making if-then plans (i.e., implementation intentions; II) into a joint strategy (MCII) to be taught in interventions geared at enhancing the self-regulation of goal pursuit. Various intervention studies entailing different samples (e.g., high school students, college students, female professionals) and various types of goals (e.g., academic, lifestyle , health) attest to the effectiveness of the MCII strategy. It can be taught as a meta-cognitive strategy that is then applied by the trainees to their own individual concerns; effects on goal attainment are both immediate and long-lasting, and broader outcome variables such as self-discipline and self-esteem are also positively