So near and yet so far: The mental representation of goal progress.

Abstract

In the present article, we explore whether people's mental representation of progress level can function as a self-regulation mechanism that helps motivate continued effort in the pursuit. We propose that when individuals have just started pursuing a goal and have accumulated only limited progress, they exaggerate the achieved progress level in their mental representation to signal a higher chance of eventual goal attainment and thus elicit greater effort. In contrast, when people have made substantial progress and are approaching the goal attainment, they downplay the achieved progress in their mental representation to create greater perceived discrepancy, hence eliciting greater effort. Empirical evidence from 4 studies supported the hypothesis.

Doing It the Hard Way: How Low Control Drives Preferences for High-Effort Products and Services

“…A vast body of literature on self-regulation and goal pursuit suggests that when individuals perceive a discrepancy between their desired state and their current state, they are motivated to reduce the discrepancy (e.g., Carver and Scheier 2001;Duval and Wicklund 1972;Locke and Latham 2002) and continuously assess their progress toward this end state until they either arrive at the end state or abandon these goals (e.g., Atkinson and Birch 1970;Fishbach, Dhar, and Zhang 2006;Huang, Zhang, and Broniarczyk 2012). Thus, when individuals' feelings of control are low, they desire to reduce the discrepancy between their current and desired levels of control.…”

“…When individuals recognize a discrepancy between their current and ideal states, they assess their likelihood of reducing the discrepancy (Bandura 1977;Lazarus 1966) and determine whether or not it makes sense to pursue their goals (Carver and Scheier 2001). Various factors can lead people to disengage from goal pursuit, including perceptions that they are too far from the goal (e.g., Huang et al 2012;Kivetz, Urminsky, and Zheng 2006;Liberman and Förster 2008), that their rate of progress is too slow, or that the ultimate likelihood of achieving the goal seems too low (e.g., Huang and Zhang 2011;Hull 1932). Individuals feeling a lack of control over their outcomes should readily face such discouraging perceptions, whether in a laboratory setting where there are no clear signs of progress on an unsolvable puzzle, or in real life where they see no signs of improvement in their academic achievements, health, or income.…”

The importance of achieving what you value: a career goal framework of professional fulfillment

“…Within contexts as diverse as the workplace (e.g., Locke & Latham, 2002), sports (e.g., Smith, Ntoumanis, Duda, & Vansteenkiste, 2011), eating disorders (e.g., Verstuyf, Patrick, Vansteenkiste, & Teixeira, 2012), and education (e.g., Huang, Zhang, & Broniarczyk, 2012;Lens & Vansteenkiste, 2008), the importance of goals is clear.…”

“…People tend to exaggerate progress levels in their mental representations to signal a higher chance of eventual goal attainment, which in turn helps to elicit greater motivation, for example (Huang et al, 2012). Therefore, goal progress dimension of PFS could be improved.…”

“…Some authors propose that the direction of bias in mental representation depends on a person's stage of goal pursuit (Fishbach, Zhang, & Koo, 2009;Koo & Fishbach, 2008). That is, depending on whether people have just started to pursue a goal or have made substantial progress and are approaching the end point, they either exaggerate or downplay, respectively, their specific progress level in their mental representations, so their motivation for subsequent pursuit remains high (Huang et al, 2012). Considering these issues, professional fulfillment further studies should investigate how goal progress evaluation might be altered by personal bias or contextual factors.…”