GOAL SETTING
E. H. Butler Library Leadership Series

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ARTICLES

King, L. A., Richards, J. H. & Stemmerich, E. (1998, Oct.). Daily goals, life goals, and worst fears: Means, ends, and subjective well-being. Journal of Personality, 66, (5), 713. (32 pages). EA, PR

This study addresses the relations among personal strivings (daily goals) and future life goals and worst fears. Eighty undergraduate participants (62 women, 18 men) listed their daily goals, their ultimate life goals, and their worst fears, and completed questionnaire measures of subjective well-being. Daily goals were content-analyzed for relevance to attaining life goals or avoiding worst fears. Daily goals that were instrumental to life goals or that avoided worst fears were rated as more important but also more difficult by participants. Working on daily goals avoiding one's worst fears was negatively related to measures of subjective well-being, controlling for daily goal progress, difficulty, ambivalence, and importance. Working on daily goals that were instrumental to one's life goals only weakly predicted well-being. The avoidance of worst fears interacted with daily goal appraisals such that individuals who experienced little progress at daily goals that served to avoid their "worst case scenario" experienced the lowest levels of subjective well-being.

Niles, S. (1998, Sept.). Achievement goals and means; a cultural comparison. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 29, (5), 656 (12 pages). EA, PR

Recent research suggests that achievement-related behavior is culture specific and multifaceted. It is argued that achievement goals as well as means of achievement are oriented predominantly toward the individual in some cultures and toward the collective in others. A study was designed to examine achievement goals and means in two different cultures; one identified as individualist (consisting of a sample of 259 Anglo-Australians aged between 19 and 63) and the other identified as collectivist (consisting of 300 Sri Lankans ranging in age between 19 and 49). The results reflect an individualist orientation in preferred achievement goals among Australians, although a narrowly defined social concern is present. Sri Lankans, although predominantly more family and group oriented, also have important individual goals.

Sheldon, K. M. & Kasser, T. (1998, Dec.). Pursuing personal goals: Skills enable progress, but not all progress is beneficial. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, (12), 1319 (1 page). EA, PR

Although goal theorists have speculated about the causes and consequences of making progress at personal goals, little longitudinal research has examined these issues. In the current prospective study, participants with stronger social and self regulatory skills made more progress in their goals over the course of a semester. In turn, goal progress predicted increases in psychological well-being, both in short-term (5-day) increments and across the whole semester. That is, participants benefited most from goal attainment when the goals that they pursued were consistent with inherent psychological needs.

BOOKS

Beihl, B. (1995). Stop setting goals if you would rather solve problems. Nashville, Tenn.: Moorings, 1995.

HD30.29 .B5 1995

Ogilvy, J. A. (1995). Living without a goal: Finding the freedom to live a creative and innovative life. New York: Currency Doubleday.

BD435 .O34 1995

Pintrich, P. R. (Ed.) (1995). Understanding self-regulated learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

LB1065 .N473 1995

Schmoker, M. J. (1996). Results: The key to continuous school improvement. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

LB2822.82 .S35 1996

B. Barone
Buffalo State College (SUNY)