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PubMed1978

Goal clarity as a component of assertive behavior and a result of assertion training.

Eighty Ss were given the Rathus assertion schedule and a separate test in which their clarity of goals in various interpersonal situation was assessed. It was found that there was a direct relationship between assertion and goal clarity scores; more assertive Ss had greater goal clarity. The Rathus assertion schedule and half of the goal clarity test were administered to 24 Ss, who then were assigned randomly to 10 sessions of either an assertion training group or an insight therapy group. After treatment, the Rathus assertion schedule and the other half of the goal clarity test were administered to the 24 Ss. While there was no difference between the two groups prior to treatment, after treatment the assertion group demonstrated significantly greater goal clarity and significantly greater change on the Rathus assertion schedule than did the insight group.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Exercise-related goals and self-efficacy as correlates of aquatic exercise in individuals with arthritis.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether aquatic exercise-related goals, task self-efficacy, and scheduling self-efficacy are predictive of aquatic exercise attendance in individuals with arthritis. A secondary objective was to determine whether high attendees differed from low attendees on goals and self-efficacy. METHODS: The sample comprised 216 adults with arthritis (mean age 69.21 years). Measures included exercise-related goal difficulty and specificity, task and scheduling self-efficacy, and 8-week aquatic exercise attendance. RESULTS: Results of a multiple hierarchical regression analysis were significant (P < 0.01). Goal difficulty, specificity, and task self-efficacy were independent predictors of attendance (P < 0.05). A significant multivariate analysis of variance (P < 0.01) indicated that high attendees had higher task and scheduling self-efficacy and lower goal difficulty than did low attendees (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Support for the importance of exercise-related goal setting and self-efficacy was demonstrated. Implications pertain to the design of interventions to impact aquatic exercise.

Absenteeism↗

PubMed1996

What they want and what they get: the social goals of boys with ADHD and comparison boys.

Twenty-seven boys diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 18 comparison boys participated in a competitive tetradic interaction task. Boys were individually interviewed before the game about their goals for the interaction, and adult observers inferred boys' social goals from videotapes of the interaction. Social acceptance was determined by combining positive and negative sociometric nominations collected through individual interviews at the end of the summer research program in which the interaction was held. In their self-reports, ADHD-high aggressive boys prioritized trouble-seeking and fun at the expense of rules to a greater extent than did both ADHD-low aggressive and comparison boys. Observers judged ADHD-high aggressive boys to seek attention more strongly and seek fairness less strongly than of the other two groups. Self-reported goals of defiance and cooperation predicted boys' end-of-program social standing, even with interactional behaviors and subgroup status controlled statistically. Observer-inferred goals were differentially associated with social acceptance for ADHD and comparison boys, suggesting discontinuities in peer interaction processes. Differentiation of goals from behavior and the integral role of children's goals in peer acceptance are discussed.

Aggression↗

PubMed2006

Do provocateurs' emotion displays influence children's social goals and problem solving?

The social goals and social problem-solving of children who varied in social adjustment were examined in the context of hypothetical ambiguous provocation situations in which provocateurs' emotion displays were systematically manipulated. Children rated the importance of six different social goals and explained how they would solve the problems. Social adjustment was measured with rating and nomination sociometric procedures. Rejected-aggressive, rejected-nonaggressive, average-nonaggressive, and popular-nonaggressive children showed both commonalities and differences in rating the six social goals, the relative importance of the six social goals, and social problem-solving depending on the provocateur's emotion display. When provocateurs were happy, there were few group differences, but when provocateurs were angry or sad, rejected-aggressive children: a) rated hostile/instrumental goals more positively; b) rated prosocial goals less positively; and c) made problem-solving responses that were less friendly than those of other children. Results are discussed in relation to Lemerise and Arsenio's (2000) model of emotion and social information processing.

Child↗

PubMed2006

Goals and intentions mediate efficacy beliefs and declining physical activity in high school girls.

BACKGROUND: According to theory, girls who set goals about increasing their physical activity and who are dissatisfied with their current activity level are likely to form intentions to be active and to carry out those intentions, especially if they have high efficacy and control beliefs about being physically active. We tested those ideas while observing naturally occurring change during high school. METHODS: A cohort of 431 black and white girls was tested at the end of their 9th- and 12th-grade academic years. Confirmatory factor analysis established the structural invariance of the measures across the 3-year study period. Structural equation modeling and panel analysis were used to determine whether changes in goal setting and satisfaction would mediate relations of self-efficacy and perceived behavioral control with changes in intention and physical activity. Testing occurred between February and May in 1999 and 2004. Data were analyzed in 2006. RESULTS: Goal setting and intention mediated the indirect relation between self-efficacy and change in physical activity. Perceived behavioral control and physical activity change were related directly and also indirectly by a path mediated through satisfaction and intention. Black girls had lower self-efficacy, but changes in other variables were unrelated to race. CONCLUSIONS: These observations of longitudinal relations elaborate application of self-efficacy theory and the theory of planned behavior to physical activity by showing that goal setting and satisfaction mediate the relations of self-efficacy and perceived behavioral control with changes in intention and physical activity. The results encourage additional research to identify the sources and development of physical activity goals, and their attainment, among girls, and whether experimental manipulation of goals and intentions can mitigate the decline in girls' physical activity during high school.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Representation of spatial goals in rat orbitofrontal cortex.

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is thought to participate in making and evaluating goal-directed decisions. In rodents, spatial navigation is a major mode of goal-directed behavior, and anatomical and lesion studies implicate the OFC in spatial processing, but there is little direct evidence for coding of spatial or motor variables. Here, we recorded from ventrolateral and lateral OFC in an odor-cued two-alternative choice task requiring orientation and approach to spatial goal ports. In this context, over half of OFC neurons encoded choice direction or goal port location. A subset of neurons was jointly selective for the trial outcome and port location, information useful for the selection or evaluation of spatial goals. These observations show that the rodent OFC not only encodes information relating to general motivational significance, as shown previously, but also encodes spatiomotor variables needed to define specific behavioral goals and the locomotor actions required to attain them.

Action Potentials↗

PubMed2002

The professional development portfolio process: setting goals for credentialing.

Professional Development Portfolio (PDP), the new credentialing system for dietetics professionals, places the responsibility for learning, professional development, and career direction on the individual practitioner. This study used questionnaires and focus group interviews to determine whether dietitians engage in reflection, self-assessment, and goal setting, the critical components of PDP recertification. Volunteers (n = 132) participated in 16 focus groups held during 8 state dietetic association meetings. Content analysis was conducted. Some subjects reflected using an informal non-structured process (42 text units), almost half (41%) performed annual self-assessments, and 25% set goals. Job availability, new practice areas, family obligations, and employer needs were key factors in goal formulation. Opportunities for self-direction, independent decision-making, and application of technical expertise were also considered in career choices and goal setting. Although few participants were currently performing PDP critical components, we conclude dietetic practitioners can gain the necessary skills for professional development with the newly available PDP Guide to support the portfolio process. We recommend that dietitians (a) allow sufficient time for the reflection process, including the use of additional tools; (b) develop personal mission statements to drive the goal-setting process; and (c) use effectiveness criteria to critique their goals.

Career Mobility↗

PubMed2003

Patient-selected goals: a new perspective on surgical outcome.

OBJECTIVE: This study was undertaken to study the relationship between achievement of patient goals, overall satisfaction, and objective outcome measures. STUDY DESIGN: After Institutional Review Board approval, we prospectively evaluated 78 women undergoing pelvic reconstructive surgery at Loyola University Medical Center. After informed consent for surgery, patients were asked to state their goals for surgery. In a follow-up telephone conversation, these goals were reviewed and negotiated to modify expectations. The same physician investigator contacted women 3 months after surgery to assess goal achievement, overall satisfaction, and their surgical experience. Date were analyzed with Spearman correlation and Mann-Whitney tests. RESULTS: Of 78 women, 75% indicated that they met most of their goals, and 72% were more than 80% satisfied. Patient satisfaction was moderately correlated to goal achievement (rho=0.57, P<.001). Objective cure, defined as no urodynamic stress incontinence and stage 0 or I prolapse, was not related to satisfaction (P=.14). Dissatisfaction was highly associated with feeling "unprepared for surgery" (P<.001). CONCLUSION: Objective and subjective outcomes are necessary to predict patient satisfaction.

Academic Medical Centers↗

PubMed2002

Identifying living and sentient kinds from dynamic information: the case of goal-directed versus aimless autonomous movement in conceptual change.

To reason competently about novel entities, people must discover whether the entity is alive and/or sentient. Exactly how people make this discovery is unknown, although past researchers have proposed that young children--unlike adults--rely chiefly on whether the object can move itself. This study examined the effect of goal-directed versus aimless autonomous movement on children's and adults' attributions of biological and psychological capacities in an effort to test whether goal-directedness affects inferences across documented periods of change in biological reasoning. Half of the participants (adults, and 4-, 5-, 7-, and 10-year-olds; Ns=32) were shown videos of unfamiliar blobs moving independently and aimlessly, and the other half were shown videos of identical blobs moving identically but toward a goal. No age group was likely to attribute biological or psychological capacities to the aimless self-moving blobs. However, for 5-year-olds through adults, goal-directed movement reliably elicited life judgments, and it elicited more biological and psychological attributions overall. Adults differed from children in that goal-directed movement affected their attributions of biological properties more than their attributions of psychological properties. The results suggest that both young children and adults consider the capacity for goal-directed movement to be a decisive factor in determining whether something unfamiliar is alive, though other factors may be important in deciding whether the thing is sentient.

Adult↗

PubMed2001

On the goals of medicine, health enhancement and social welfare.

Bengt Brülde in his article "The Goals of Medicine. Towards a Unified Theory" has proposed a normative theory of the goals of medicine within which the concept of quality of life plays a crucial role. In Brülde's analysis, however, the very concept of medicine is deliberately left quite vague and it is therefore difficult to see how the goals of medicine are related to the goals of closely allied enterprises such as health promotion and social welfare. In this reply I therefore propose an analysis of these related conceptual areas. I do this mainly in two respects. (1) Following the nomenclature in a previously published article (Nordenfelt, 1998) I propose a systematic conceptual framework for all varieties of health enhancement and distinguish different notions of medicine within this framework. A consequence of this analysis is, for instance, that the means and also the immediate goals of medicine in its broadest sense are more diversified than the means and immediate goals of medicine in its narrowest sense. (2) From this position I expand the topic further by comparing medicine and health enhancement with social welfare and try to trace the basic features between--as well as the common properties of--these different enterprises.

Clinical Medicine↗

PubMed1997

Relations among children's social goals, implicit personality theories, and responses to social failure.

Two studies examined children's thought patterns in relation to their responses to social challenge. In Study 1, 4th and 5th graders tried out for a pen pal club under either a performance goal (stressing the evaluative nature of the tryout) or a learning goal (emphasizing the potential learning opportunities). In their behavior and attributions following rejection, children who were focused on a performance goal reacted with more helplessness, whereas children given a learning goal displayed a more mastery-oriented response. Study 2 found that in response to hypothetical socially challenging situations, 4th, 5th, and 6th graders who believed personality was nonmalleable (entity theorists) vs. malleable (incremental theorists) were more likely to endorse performance goals. Together, these studies indicate that children's goals in social situations are associated with their responses to social failure and are predicted by their implicit theories about their personality.

Achievement↗

PubMed1996

Goal-relevant dimensions of hypochondriacal tendencies and their relation to symptom manifestation and psychological distress.

A national sample of 60 male and 61 female adults completed a telephone interview that included measures of hypochondriacal tendencies, psychological distress, and symptom manifestation. They also provided cognitive evaluations for their most important health goal on scales measuring self-efficacy, value, planning, self-reward, self-criticism, self-monitoring, social comparison, and positive and negative goal-based arousal. Health goal cognition significantly predicted hypochondriacal tendencies measured 15 to 30 days after the goal assessment, even after controlling for chronic illness diagnosis. Correlations between goal cognition and hypochondriacal tendencies differed from those observed for psychological distress, and no significant correlations emerged with symptom manifestation. Results support a motivational account of hypochondriacal tendencies and extend previous goals research.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1991

Processes that mediate the relationship between a group goal and improved group performance.

The relationships between the level of a group performance goal for quantity, group process, and group performance were assessed. Forty groups of 3 people performed 3 trials of a production task. One half of the groups were assigned a low goal for Sessions 2 and 3, and one half were assigned a high goal. To measure group process, videotapes of each group were analyzed and self-reports of behavior were collected. A significant difference in performance across the high and low goal conditions was found for Session 3, and measures of group process showed that effort, group planning, changes in individual and group performance plans, and reduced concern for quality mediated the group goal effect. These results are discussed in relation to Weldon and Weingart's (1988) model of group goals and group performance.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Personal goals and emotional well-being: the moderating role of motive dispositions.

Two studies examined the importance of motive dispositions in determining the extent to which the pursuit of personal goals accounts for interindividual differences in emotional well-being. Within the domains of agency and communion, motives were assessed with a picture-story test, whereas self-report measures were used to assess goal attributes. Study 1 found that progress toward motive-congruent goals, in contrast to progress toward motive-incongruent goals, accounted for students' daily experiences of emotional well-being. Study 2 found that the combination of high commitment to and high attainability of motive-congruent goals predicted an increase in students' emotional well-being over 1 semester. In contrast, high commitment to motive-incongruent goals predicted a decline in emotional well-being. Results are discussed with reference to a 2-system approach to human motivation.

Affect↗

PubMed1996

Motivational implications of pain: chronicity, psychological distress, and work goal construal in a national sample of adults.

A heterogeneous national sample of adults (mean age = 40 years) employed in management positions was contacted by random digit dialing procedures and interviewed about current pain experience, work-goal cognitions, and psychological status (depression and anxiety). In accord with predictions, persistent pain experience was differentially related to the construal of work-related goals. Specifically, individuals with both persistent and episodic pain (relative to those with no pain) reported lower levels of goal-centered value, self-efficacy, and positive arousal and heightened perceptions of goal-based self-criticism, negative arousal, and conflict between work and nonwork goals. Furthermore, regression analyses revealed that goal cognition accounted for unique variance in depression and anxiety over and above the contribution of pain chronicity.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1993

Connecting goals and actions during reading.

Three experiments showed that reading about a character's actions can reactivate a goal of the character stated earlier in the passage and backgrounded by intervening material. Subjects were slower to read a line describing an action that was inconsistent with a goal of the protagonist than they were to read about an action that was consistent with the goal, even though both lines were locally coherent. Goals were reactivated even when the intervening material did not describe attempts to achieve the goal (Experiment 2) and when the intervening material described another goal of the protagonist (Experiment 3). The results suggest that reading a sentence can reactivate relevant information from earlier in the text, even when the sentence is coherent with its immediate context and the reactivated information has been backgrounded by several lines of unrelated text.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

The role of perspective in the accessibility of goals during reading.

An implicit assumption of several causal reasoning models is that readers adopt the goals of a narrative's protagonist during text comprehension. In apparent violation of this assumption, readers participating in Experiment 1 of the present study drew inferences relevant to a protagonist's goal even when that goal was already satisfied from the perspective of the protagonist. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants were explicitly asked to view the text situation from the point of view of the protagonist. In this case, the goals of the reader and the protagonist should be the same. In these experiments, participants focused on the goals of the protagonist only when those goals had not been satisfied from the perspective of the protagonist. These results are discussed in terms of reader- and character-based perspectives and in terms of text characteristics that cue perspective taking.

Adult↗

PubMed1992

The effects of goal difficulty on physiological arousal, cognition, and task performance.

Two laboratory experiments with 117 undergraduate students were conducted to examine (a) the effect of assigned goal difficulty on arousal (self-report and heart rate), cognition (perceived norm, self-efficacy strength, and personal goal), and behavioral (task performance) measures and (b) the role of heart rate as a mediator of the goal-difficulty-performance relation. All Ss performed a task requiring cognitive and physical responses. Results of both experiments demonstrated that assigned goal difficulty affected heart rate, cognition, and task performance and that heart-rate change was positively related to the cognitive and behavioral measures. Regression analyses suggested that a cognitive-affective mechanism may mediate the goal-difficulty-performance relation. Discussion is focused on the theoretical and practical implications of integrating an arousal concept within goal-setting theory.

Adult↗