The Effects of Goal Progress and Means Variability on Goal Pursuit

Undergraduate: Ellie Scialabba

Faculty Advisor: Steven Buzinski
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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This research considers how goal progress and means set variability affect subsequent goal-congruent actions. People who have made little progress toward a goal are in a different psychological state than those who have made significant progress, causing different impacts of perceived means of goal attainment on goal pursuit. Therefore, we hypothesized that people with little goal progress would be motivated by a larger, more flexible array of means which should provide multiple opportunities for attainment. Conversely, people perceiving significant goal progress would be motivated by a smaller, more specific array of means which should provide minimal choice in order to continue successfully pursuing their goal. We investigated this hypothesis across 3 studies. Study 1 demonstrated that when in a goal progress mindset, participants indicated intention to pursue a goal when they had a larger means set available than a smaller means set. In Study 2, we manipulated perceptions of goal progress and found that though there was no difference in intention to pursue a goal with either a small or large means set in a low goal progress mindset, there was a significant difference when participants perceived significant progress. Perceptions of significant goal progress led to a preference for the smaller means set over the larger one. Study 3 replicated these findings on multiple dimensions of means variability (size and composition). Implications for self-regulation are discussed.