Some goals just feel easier: Self-concordance leads to goal progress through subjective ease, not effort

Abstract

research examines the antecedents and underlying mechanisms that facilitate successful goal pursuit over time. Email: kaitlyn.werner@carleton.ca, address: Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Loeb 550, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1S 5B6.Werner, K. M., Milyavskaya, M., Foxen-Craft, E., & Koestner, R. (2016). Some goals just feel easier: Self-concordance leads to goal progress through subjective ease, not effort. Personality and Individual Differences, 96, 237-242. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.03.002The objective of the present study was to examine whether subjective ease of goal pursuit would mediate the relation between an individual's motivation for pursuing a goal and their subsequent goal progress. Toward the beginning of a university semester, participants (n=176) identified three goals they planned to pursue throughout the semester and reported their motivation for pursuing each of them. Participants then indicated, at two monthly follow-ups, how easy and natural it felt to pursue these goals and how much effort they were putting into attaining them. At the end of the semester, participants reported on their goal progress. Within-person analyses indicated that self-concordant goals were perceived as being easier to pursue relative to an individual's other goals. Using multilevel structural equation modelling, results indicated that subjective ease, but not effort, mediated the relation between motivation and goal progress, such that people were more likely to successfully accomplish self-concordant goals because pursuing those goals was perceived as being more effortless, and not because more effort was exerted.Discussion focuses on the implications and future directions for research on subjective effort and goal pursuit.

We May Not Know What We Want, But Do We Know What We Need? Examining the Ability to Forecast Need Satisfaction in Goal Pursuit

“…This sample size is consistent with previous longitudinal goal studies of this kind (e.g., Milyavskaya & Inzlicht, 2017;Werner, Milyavskaya, Foxen-Craft, & Koestner, 2016). While 288 participants completed the initial session (T1), we had a total of 196 undergraduate students who were successfully matched on both T1 and the follow-up one week later (T2) questionnaires.…”

Goal pursuit: Current state of affairs and directions for future research

“…Based on recent research using this updated nested approach, results consistently suggest that most of the variance in goal characteristics is at the within-person (goal) level. For example, studies asking about goal motivation find that approximately 60 to 80% of the variance is at the within-person level (Holding, Hope, Harvey, Marion Jetten, & Koestner, 2017;Milyavskaya, Inzlicht, Hope, & Koestner, 2015;Werner, Milyavskaya, Foxen-Craft, & Koestner, 2016).…”

“…Similarly, Nurmi and colleagues (2009) found that appraisals of personal goals on multiple dimensions (such as importance, commitment, meaning) vary predominantly within-persononly 5-24% of the variation in these appraisals is between individuals, whereas the overwhelming majority of variance is among goals within the same person. Importantly, research that examines progress across time also finds that approximately 80 to 95% of the variance in goal attainment is at the within-person level (Holding et al, 2017;Milyavskaya & Inzlicht, 2017;Milyavskaya et al, 2015;Werner et al, 2016). By aggregating across goals, researchers ignore this variability.…”

“…Effortless Self-Regulation. An alternative perspective on self-regulation and goal pursuit is that it can occur automatically (Fitzsimons & Bargh, 2004), effortlessly (Gillebaart & de Ridder, 2015;Werner et al, 2016), or habitually (Wood & Neal, 2007). That is, instead of consciously exerting effortful self-control to promote goal-directed behaviour, people frequently take steps toward their goals in an automatized manner, as a function of responding to situational cues.…”

“…Research has also GOAL PURSUIT 17 shown that people are more likely to set implementation intentions when a goal is autonomous (Koestner et al, 2002). Goal autonomy has also been linked with more effortless goal pursuit in a study contrasting effortful ("I tried really hard") and effortless ("it felt easy and natural to pursue this goal") goal pursuit, which found that effortless goal pursuit mediated the link between autonomy and progress (Werner et al, 2016). That is, autonomous goals are more likely to be attained precisely because conscious effort is not necessarily required.…”