Chapter 2
Effective self-regulation of goal attainment

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0883-0355(00)00046-XGet rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open archive

Abstract

Self-regulatory strategies of goal setting and goal striving are analyzed in three experiments. Experiment 1 uses fantasy realization theory (Oettingen, in: J. Brandstätter, R.M. Lerner (Eds.), Action and Self Development: Theory and Research through the Life Span, Sage Publications Inc, Thousand Oaks, CA, 1999, pp. 315–342) to analyze the self-regulatory processes of turning free fantasies about a desired future into binding goals. School children 8–12 years of age who had to mentally elaborate a desired academic future as well as present reality standing in its way, formed stronger goal commitments than participants solely indulging in the desired future or merely dwelling on present reality (Experiment 1). Effective implementation of set goals is addressed in the second and third experiments (Gollwitzer, Am. Psychol. 54 (1999) 493–503). Adolescents who had to furnish a set educational goal with relevant implementation intentions (specifying where, when, and how they would start goal pursuit) were comparatively more successful in meeting the goal (Experiment 2). Linking anticipated situations with goal-directed behaviors (i.e., if–then plans) rather than the mere thinking about good opportunities to act makes implementation intentions facilitate action initiation (Experiment 3).

Cited by (0)

Peter M. Gollwitzer holds the Social Psychology and Motivation Chair at the University of Konstanz (Germany). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin and headed the “Intention and Action” research group at the Max-Planck-Institute for Psychological Research in Munich from 1988 to 1992. His research interests include compensatory processes in the willful pursuit of identity, action phases and mind-sets, planning and the control of goal-directed behavior, and automatic goal pursuit.

Gaby Hönig received her M. S. in psychology from the Free University in Berlin in 1999. Her research interests center around motivation and learning. More specifically, she analyzes how cultural and societal factors influence the development of students’ expectations and fantasies.

Gabriele Oettingen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, New York University (USA). She received her Ph.D. from the Max-Planck-Institute for Behavioral Psychology, Seewiesen, and the Medical Research Council, Cambridge. Her research interests include the development of efficacy beliefs across educational and cultural contexts and the self-regulation of goal setting and goal disengagement.