Week 3 PSY 220 Assignment: Goal Selection

Week 3 PSY 220 Assignment: Goal Selection

Week 3 PSY 220 Assignment: Goal Selection

CheckPoint Goal Selection

Using the information presented in Ch. 7, explain the matching hypothesis. Give an example of a well-matched and a poorly-matched goal that you have pursued in your own life. Discuss the relationship between goal selection and well-being.   Post a 200- to 300-word response.

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CHAPTER OUTLINE
Goals Connect “Having” and “Doing”
What are Personal Goals?
Defining Personal Goals
Goals and Related Motivational Concepts
Measuring Personal Goals
Goal Organization
The Search for Universal Human Motives
Goals and the Fulfillment of Basic Human Needs
Focus on Research: An Empirical Method for Assessing Universal Needs
Goals Expressing Fundamental Values
Personal Goals Across Cultures
Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Goals
Physical versus Self-Transcendent Goals
The Personalization of Goals in Self-Concept
What Goals Contribute Most to Well-Being?
Goal Progress, Achievement, and Importance
The Matching Hypothesis
What Explains the Matching Hypothesis?
Personal Goals and Self-Realization
Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Goals
Autonomous versus Controlled Motivation
Focus on Research: Happiness and Success in College
Materialism and Its Discontents
Why Are Materialists Unhappy?
The Content of Materialistic Goals
The What and Why of Materialistic Goals
Compensation for Insecurity
Why Do People Adopt Materialistic Values?
Consumer Culture
Psychological Insecurity
Materialism and Death
Affluence and Materialism
Are We All Materialists?
7
Personal Goals as Windows
to Well-Being
125
ISBN 1-256-51557-4
Positive Psychology, by Steve R. Baumgardner and Marie K. Crothers. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

126 Chapter 7 • Personal Goals as Windows to Well-Being
Goals are central to an understanding of human behavior because they energize
action and provide meaning, direction, and purpose to life activities. Goals help explain the “whys” of action—that is, what people are trying to accomplish. Nearly all behavior has a purpose, whether it’s washing dishes, having fun with friends, looking for a job, or planning a vacation.

Week 3 PSY 220 Assignment: Goal Selection

Goals explain and make sense of our actions by providing reasons for their occurrence. Whatever our behavior, if someone asks, “What are you doing?” we typically respond by describing the purpose of our actions in terms of a desired outcome (i.e., achieving a goal). Goals also make our lives coherent by establishing connections between specific
short-term and more general long-term purposes and desires. For example, if you are a college student reading this book for a class on positive psychology, your specific purpose is to understand the material in this chapter.

This specific goal is probably part of a larger goal of doing well in the class; which is a sub-goal of meeting the requirements to graduate from college; which relates to the more general goal of getting a good job; which may relate to an even more encompassing goal of having a satisfying life. In short, our behavior during a day, a week, a year, or a lifetime would not make much sense without an understanding of the goals
we are striving to achieve.

Robert Emmons (2003) describes personal goals as “the well-springs of a positive life” (p. 105). In other words, the goals we pursue are intimately connected to our happiness and well-being. The importance of goals is clearly evident in cases where people do not have reasonably clear, personally meaningful, and attainable goals.

Both goal conflict and unrealistic goals have consistently been linked to lower well-being and higher distress (Austin & Vancouver, 1996; Cantor & Sanderson, 1999; Emmons, 1999b; Karolyi, 1999; Lent, 2004). For example, Emmons and King (1988) found that conflict and ambivalence about personal goals were related to higher levels of negative affect, depressed mood, neuroticism, and physical illness.

Even though people spent a good deal of time ruminating about their conflicting goals, this did not lead to action aimed at resolution. Instead, conflict tended to immobilize
action and was associated with decreased subjective well-being (SWB).

A further example of the relation between goals and personal distress is shown in the link between unrealistic standards for self-evaluation and clinical depression. Perfectionists, for example, are at higher risk for both depression and suicide because
of the self-blame, low self-worth, and chronic sense of failure that result from their inability to meet unrealistic expectations (Baumeister, 1990; Blatt, 1995; Karolyi, 1999). These expectations may be self-imposed through a belief that one must be flawless,
or socially imposed through a belief that significant others have expectations and demands that are difficult or impossible to achieve.

Week 3 PSY 220 Assignment: Goal Selection

The chronic inability to satisfy individual standards for self-approval and to meet the perceived expectations of others to gain social approval can cause severe distress. Prolonged distress may lead to what Baumeister (1990) called the “escape from self”—namely, suicide.

On the positive side, attaining personally significant goals, pursuing meaningful aspirations, and involving oneself in valued activities all contribute to enhanced happiness and well-being (Cantor & Sanderson, 1999; Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999; Emmons, 1999b; Emmons & King, 1988; Lent, 2004).

Personal goals play a pivotal role in individual wellbeing because they are the basis for activities that bring happiness and meaning to life. Engagement in meaningful life tasks makes a significant and independent contribution to well-being. For example, in a study of over 600 older adults, involvement in social and community activities was related to
higher levels of life satisfaction, even after controlling for personal resources such as health, social support, congeniality, and prior levels of satisfaction (Harlow & Cantor, 1996). In other words, participation in social activities increased well-being above
and beyond the effects of personal resources.

GOALS CONNECT “HAVING” AND “DOING”
In addition to their independent contribution, goals may also determine the extent to which personal resources influence well-being. Cantor and Sanderson (1999) note that goals help connect the “having” side to the “doing” side of life (see also Cantor, 1990). This traditional distinction (first made by personality theorist Gordon Allport in 1937) captures the importance of “having” personal resources such as social skills, an optimistic attitude, and supportive friends, as well as the importance of “doing,”
in the form of developing meaningful goals and pursuing personally significant life activities. That is, ISBN 1-256-51557-4 Positive Psychology, by Steve R. Baumgardner and Marie K. Crothers. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Chapter 7 • Personal Goals as Windows to Well-Being 127 both resources (material and personal) and commitment to goals have an important connection to wellbeing. This connection is exemplified in a study of resources and personal strivings among college students (Diener & Fujita, 1995). These researchers found that the effect of resources on well-being depended on their congruence with personal goals.

Resources measured in the study included skills and abilities (like intelligence and social skills), personal traits (being energetic and outgoing), social support (close ties with family members and friends), and material resources (money and possessions). Goals were assessed through students’ descriptions of 15 personal strivings (defined as “the things they were typically trying to do in their everyday behavior”) (Diener & Fujita, p. 929).

Students rated the relevance of each resource to each personal striving, and also provided ratings on measures of global SWB and experience-sampling measures of
daily mood. The critical factor determining the effects of resources on SWB was the degree of congruence between resources and personal strivings. Having resources that facilitated achieving personal goals was related to higher SWB, while a lack of goalrelated resources was associated with relatively lower levels of well-being. That is, it did not matter how many resources a student had. What mattered was whether those resources supported the goals they were trying to accomplish.

Diener and Fujita describe two case studies to make this goal–resource relationship concrete.

One young woman in the study had strong personal resources in the area of intelligence and self-discipline for work. However, she rated these resources as largely unrelated to her goals. She perceived self-confidence and support from family members and friends as much more relevant.

Unfortunately, she was not strong in these areas. In short, her personal resources did not match and support her personal goals. Her level of well-being was extremely low—three standard deviations below the mean for students in the study. A second woman in the study had strong resources in the area of support from friends and family members, and rated these resources as highly relevant to her goals.

She was low in athleticism and money, but perceived these resources as unrelated to her goals. The good alignment of resources and goals for this young woman was associated with a very high level of well-being. Her level of SWB was one standard deviation above the sample mean.

The recent surge of interest in goal-related concepts within psychology is, in large measure, a result of their potential to explain how “having” and “doing” co-determine life outcomes and therefore well-being. As soon as we ask why “having” a particular
personal resource or life advantage leads to certain behaviors or outcomes, we move from the “having” to the “doing.” Because goals are intimately involved in the “doing,” they help clarify the effects of “having.” For example, an optimistic attitude toward life has consistently been documented to be related to higher levels of well-being. If we ask why optimists are happier than pessimists, the answer might seem obvious.

Week 3 PSY 220 Assignment: Goal Selection

An optimist sees the proverbial glass as being half full, while the pessimist sees the glass as being half empty. What else do we need to know? Yet, if you consider that optimists have happier marriages, are better workers, and enjoy better health, then you begin to think about what optimists do that pessimists do not do (Chang, 2002a). Much of the answer concerns differences in goals, planning, and perseverance in the face of difficulties.

In this chapter, we address a number of questions concerning why personal goals are important to well-being, happiness, and a meaningful life.
What are goals and how are they measured? What needs and purposes do goals fulfill? How are people’s multiple goals organized and structured? In terms of their impact on well-being and happiness, does it matter what goals people strive to achieve or why they strive to achieve them?

For positive psychologists, finding answers to these questions provides a revealing look at what people are trying to accomplish in their lives, and that, in turn, can be evaluated in terms its impact on well-being. For a student of positive psychology, goal research and theory offer a way to think about your own personal
goals in terms of their potential contribution to your individual happiness.

WHAT ARE PERSONAL GOALS?
Defining Personal Goals
In their review of goal constructs in psychology, Austin and Vancouver (1996, p. 338) define goals as “. . . internal representations of desired states, where states are broadly construed as outcomes, events or processes.” Graduating from college, meeting new friends, or losing weight would exemplify goals as outcomes, while planning a wedding
ISBN 1-256-51557-4

Positive Psychology, by Steve R. Baumgardner and Marie K. Crothers. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

128 Chapter 7 • Personal Goals as Windows to Well-Being or having the family over for Thanksgiving would be examples of goals as events. Goals as processes might include activities that are enjoyable in their own right, like reading, nature walks, spending time with friends, or working over time to develop particular skills or interests, such as woodworking, musical talents, or athletic abilities.

Desired states may range from fulfillment of biological needs such as hunger, to more complex and long-term desires involved in developing a successful career, to “ultimate concerns” (Emmons, 1999b) with transcendent life meanings expressed through religious and spiritual pursuits. Karolyi’s (1999) review of the goal literature notes that goals may be internally represented in a variety of ways.

People may have a specific image of a desired state. For example, many people who
live in the upper Midwest, like your textbook authors, start imagining a warm Florida beach in mid-February, after the cold and snow begin to get old. These and other images energize travel plans for many Midwestern university students, who head for Florida during spring break. Personal memories, stories, and if/then scenarios that people
use to think about the past, present, and future may also represent goals. A pleasurable or painful memory of a past event may create plans to repeat (or avoid repeating) certain actions and outcomes.

Goals in the form of achievements, aspirations, and fulfilled and unfulfilled dreams are a significant part of an individual’s life story and personal identity (McAdams, 1996). Many of our feelings about the past are related to our success or lack of success
in accomplishing personally important goals, and our future can be actively imagined through the use of if/then and action/outcome possibilities. For example: “If I get good grades, then I can get into graduate school.” “If I just accept who I am instead of always trying to please others, then I will be happier.”