Autonomous Motivation, Controlled Motivation, and Goal Progress

ABSTRACT Although the self‐concordance of goals has been repeatedly shown to predict better goal progress, recent research suggests potential problems with aggregating autonomous and controlled motivations to form a summary index of self‐concordance (Judge, Bono, Erez, & Locke, 2005). The purpos...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personality 2008-10, Vol.76 (5), p.1201-1230
Main Authors: Koestner, Richard, Otis, Nancy, Powers, Theodore A., Pelletier, Luc, Gagnon, Hugo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Achievement
Adolescent
Adult
Behavioural psychology
Biological and medical sciences
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Goals
Humans
Individuality
Intention
Internal-External Control
Male
Meta-analysis
Motivation
Objectives
Personality
Personality traits
Personality. Affectivity
Problem Solving
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Systematic review
Weight Loss
Young Adult
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:ABSTRACT Although the self‐concordance of goals has been repeatedly shown to predict better goal progress, recent research suggests potential problems with aggregating autonomous and controlled motivations to form a summary index of self‐concordance (Judge, Bono, Erez, & Locke, 2005). The purpose of the present investigation was to further examine the relations among autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and goal progress to determine the relative importance of autonomous motivation and controlled motivation in the pursuit of personal goals. The results of three studies and a meta‐analysis indicated that autonomous motivation was substantially related to goal progress whereas controlled motivation was not. Additionally, the relation of autonomous motivation to goal progress was shown to involve implementation planning. Together, the three studies highlight the importance for goal setters of having autonomous motivation and developing implementation plans, especially ones formulated in terms of approach strategies rather than avoidance strategies. The present research suggests that individuals pursuing goals should focus relatively greater attention on enhancing their autonomous motivation rather than reducing their controlled motivation.
ISSN:0022-3506
1467-6494
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2008.00519.x