Goal Motives, Approach/Avoidance Appraisals, Psychological Needs, and Well-Being: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

The self-concordance model (SCM) examines the entire sequence from goal inception to attainment, and presents a framework for how goal-regulatory strategies (e.g., goal effort) and outcomes (e.g., psychological well-being) vary based on the quality of motivation for goal striving. The first aim of this meta-analysis was to compile a rich literature on this topic spanning over 20 years and present a cohesive picture of the associations among the SCM constructs (Model 1). The second goal was to test alternative formulations of the model in which we (a) decomposed the self-concordance index into autonomous and controlled goal motives; (b) included situational antecedents (e.g., autonomy support and control) and psychological need frustration (Model 2); and (c) modeled psychological need satisfaction as a predictor of goal motives (Model 3). Guided by the PRISMA criteria, we conducted a systematic review and multilevel meta-analytic structural equation modeling. We extracted a total of 1,032 effect sizes (N = 10,501 for Model 1; N = 38,608 for Models 2 and 3). For Model 1, the results showed associations of at least medium effect size (r’s > .20) between the model constructs. In Models 2 and 3, theoretically expected relations of at least medium effect size were found among all model constructs. The core assertions of the SCM that pursuing self-concordant goals is associated with increased goal effort and attainment, psychological need satisfaction, and well-being were supported. Furthermore, the alternative models added value by showing the original SCM model can be broadened to integrate additional factors.

Goal motives, mental contrasting with implementation intentions, and the self-regulation of saving goals: A longitudinal investigation.

“…We derived informative priors for the effect sizes of goal motives on coping strategies, goal progress, need satisfaction, and need frustration in the SCM (Sezer et al, 2023, ). We derived priors for typical effect sizes of MCII interventions from a meta-analysis on the effectiveness of MCII interventions ( k = 24, N = 15,907; G.…”

“…We made two departures from the preregistration due to insights gained after the registration. First, we adopted a Bayesian analytic framework (as opposed to a frequentist approach) to integrate recent meta-analytic evidence detailing the relevance of goal motives for goal progress, self-regulation, attainment, and need satisfaction (Sezer et al, 2023), and the influence of MCII on goal progress (G. . These meta-analyses provide robust prior knowledge about several key relations addressed here.…”

“…Conversely, striving for goals with controlled motives can contribute to frustration of these needs (Vansteenkiste et al, 2020). There are well-established links among autonomous motives, adaptive self-regulatory mechanisms, and need satisfaction (Hope et al, 2019), but the proposed associations among controlled motives, maladaptive regulation, and psychological need frustration have received less attention (Sezer et al, 2023; Vansteenkiste et al, 2020).…”