Reading Blog Due 9/20 @ midnight

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Chapter 8

Read chapter 8. Summarize the chapter. What was the most surprising thing you learned? What elements of goal setting will you be able to use to strive to achieve your goals? Why do you think some goal setting strategies will work better for you than others? Be specific.

Provide a list of terms at the end of your post that you used from the chapter.

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Chapter 8 was all about Goals, Goal setting and striving to meet those goals. One perspective of motivation this chapter takes a look at is the cognitive perspective. Motivation (from this perspective) revolves around the way we think and what we believe. One study cognitive motivation focused on plans and how they affect behavior. Basically, people have an idea on how something should be,and at the same time people are aware of how something should be. Put these two together, and that is a plan...something that is "current" (how one looks or acts), and something that one wants to be (or how they want to look/act). The next part of the chapter talked about goal setting. A goal is defined as something an individual is wants to accomplish. Goal setting motivates a person by having them reflect on their current accomplishments to their ideal level of accomplishments. Within the section of goal setting, the book mentioned goal difficulty (how hard it is to reach a particular goal) and goal specificity (how clear a goal is the the performer); You don't want to be too vague in goal setting, but not overly-specific either. Goals that are more specific and more difficult will produce better results than those easy and very general goals. The last part the chapter focuses on goal striving. To sum this up, what a person has to do to reach their goal successfully, is to not necessarily focus on the goal itself, but to focus on how to go about accomplishing that goal.

One of the most surprising thing that I learned were the downfalls of goal setting. We have to be careful to understand that goal setting is sometimes used to enhance performance, not motivation. Another surprising downfall of goal setting I read was that if we set too high of goals or too hard of goals, we risk getting very stressed out, and it opens the door to failure. I would think that is the last thing anyone would want.

For me, I will definitely use the information on goal striving a lot, because whenever I made goals, I always focused on reaching that goal the end result. But after reading, I now understand that its important to focus on the process of completing that goal. (This is called process-stimulation). Although it may seem like a lot more work, it will be more effective at helping me meet my goal.

I think some goal strategies work better than others, because of past situations of a specific strategy working. Making my goals more difficult and specific will help me stay on the right path of reaching them. IE: Wanting to get a B or better on all my Ancient Greece tests would be a better goal than "I want a B by the end of the semester". Setting my sites on four tests, as oppose to three months is more specific, and more doable. It will make me less stressed, and now I can focus on the process of studying for teach test, instead of having to worry about all tests, quizzes and take home assignments.

Terms: Process Stimulation, Outcome Stimulation, Goal Striving, Goal Setting, Cognition, Plans, Goal specificity, Goal difficulty, Cognitive Perspective on Motivation

This chapter covers goal setting and goal striving. It begins with explaining that cognitions are mental events such as beliefs, expectations, goals, plans judgments, ect. After establishing that goals are cognitions, it starts to explain why people establish goals. The chapter explains that incongruity motivates people to create a plan which will activate change. Incongruity occurs when one’s present state is not one’s ideal state. Incongruity leads to goal setting in order to rid of the incongruity in one’s self. Each goal needs goal difficulty and goal specificity. The chapter explains that difficult goals give energy to one’s behavior and specific goals direct behavior into a certain direction which leads to strategic planning. Goals also need feedback and goal acceptance which is the choice of whether to reject or accept the goal. When one is concerned as to why they are not obtaining their goal they need to look at how they have implemented their plan of action. Usually when people are not successful at obtaining their goals, it is due to them failing to have a specific action plan. The 8 step goal setting program includes: specifying the objective, setting the goal difficulty, clarifying goal specificity, deciding when performance will be assessed, checking on goal acceptance, discussing goal attainment strategies, formulating implementation intentions and providing performance feedback.
The most surprising thing out of this chapter is the section of ‘focusing on action’. I would have never of thought that one should focus on how to accomplish the goal instead of focusing on the goal itself.
The elements of goal setting that I will be able to use are all of them. I will make sure that my goals are specific, are challenging, that I have fully accepted the challenge and have ways of getting feedback in place. I believe that this goal setting strategy will work the best for me because one of my strengths is being able to visualize achieving a goal. Also another strategy that will work the best for me will be setting short term and long term goals. Usually I just set long term goals but I sometimes have trouble keeping motivation. I believe that the short term goals will help me keep my motivation as I will celebrate the little milestones.
Long term goals, short term goals, goals, incongruity, goal difficulty, goal specificity, strategic planning, feedback and goal acceptance

Chapter 8 focuses on the cognitive study of setting goals and striving to meet these goals. The mental events of thinking and believing are what motivates us to make plans, set goals, and achieve the goals. Discrepancy is a representation of how far we are from our present state to our ideal state. Our present state is how we are currently performing and our ideal state is how we desire to be preforming. Plans and goals are similar because they both involve discrepancies. Plans are discrepancy reducers we become aware that our present state is far from our ideal state. For example, someone might have a high school gpa of a 2.0 but they need a 3.0 in order to get into the college of their choice. Goals are discrepancy creators because a person is looking forward at an ideal state that they have in their mind. For example, for some reason outside of getting into school or earning a scholarship, a person decides to strive for a 3.0 gpa. People who set goals outperform those who do not and people with more difficult, specific goals will put forth more effort. Once a person has developed a goal, they must receive feedback (or awareness of progress) in order to know that the goal has been met.

The most interesting thing I learned in this chapter was that it is more important to imagine the steps you will take toward meeting a goal (process simulation) rather than focusing on the goal itself (outcome simulation). After reading this I realized that I often focus on a goal of obtaining a 4.0 or increasing my fitness level but I fail to visualize the process of obtaining that goal. If my efforts shifted toward valuing the process, then it will be more likely that I will subsequently obtain the goal!

In addition to visualizing how I will obtain my goals, I think I should also focus on setting specific goals. I frequently make very broad goals such as I want to eat better or work out more. In order to be successful on these goals I need to be more specific. For example, instead of simply stating that I want to work out more, I could revise the goal to "I will work out for at least 30 minutes 3 days a week". Setting a more specific goal will then allow me to obtain feedback. If I only work out once a week then I know I am not meeting my goal of increased fitness.

Terms used: plans, goals, discrepancy, discrepancy reducer, discrepancy creator, feedback, process simulation, outcome simulation

Chapter 8 was all about goals. Defining what you would like to accomplish, coming up with a plan for it, preparing for distractions during, making sure the goal is difficult yet attainable, getting started right and finishing through effectively.
It is always hard for me to try and find something that suprises me in these chapters...usually I just pick something that is interesting and say it suprised me. But usually, everything I learn in these chapters is logical to me and it feels like I already knew it just not in the way the book described it to me. For this chapter I'll say I was suprised to learn that...focusing on the plan of action when trying to achieve a goal is more effective than focusing on the goal iteself. I mean once I think about it, it makes perfectly clear, logical, sense but I guess most would assume just focusing on that new car would be just as effective as focusing on getting a job, earning ____ amount of money etc. etc.
In order for most-goal driven people to acheive their goals, most of the elements of goal setting must be present.
In my own life, goals are very hard for me to set and achieve. At this point in my life I am very unsure of what of I believe in entirely and I question EVERYTHING I hear to an almost rediculous extent. The most important element in achieveing goals is defining the goals to be achieved. But if an individual such as myself doesn't know what goals they would like to focus their time on, how can any goals be met?
Lets say I want an A in this class. That grade is what I define as being Ideal. This goal is not only specific (I want to acheive an A which is a certain letter grade, a certain number of points, and a certain percentage) but it is also difficult (To get all points requires effort in reading, taking notes in class, ATTENDING class, and accurate comprehension of material). Both elements are crucial in performance enhancement.
Once I get this A, my parents will praise me as well as my peers and I will get piece of paper rewarding me for achieving such a difficult goal. This FEEDBACK is important because it gives me emotional satisfaction improving motivation. If I were to say get a C in the class, I would also get feedback (negative) and this would also motivate me to do better in order to be congruent with my percieved ideal. (This can also have negative consequences especially concerning people with undiagnosed or diagnosed depression)
In order for me to achieve the goal of an A in the most positive, rewarding, manner I also must accept the goal that is outlined. If I am involved in the process of setting the goal (talk with my parents and decide an A is optimal and reasonable) I trust the people assigning me the goal (myself or my parents) and I have extra-organismic incentives for completing the goal (money or something else material in reward for the A) then I will most-likely achieve my goal in the best way possible.
In order for me to achieve this A I must also focus on the actions that I need to take in order to get the grade (studying reading taking notes) instead of the A itself and I also need to come up with predetermined ways to deal with distractions and downfalls during before and during the goal acheiving process. If I set a goal to complete a blog post on monday night I need to be aware that monday night football will be on and I will be distracted. But because I already have a plan for dealing with that distraction I can avoid it. Not only must I plan for that, but lets say something unplanned like a friend coming over occurs, I have to be prepared to resume work on the goal after my friend leaves instead of forgetting and doing something else. This is basicallty the process of implementation intentions...
The hardest part for me is getting started and organizing a plan to finish. I like to live in the moment instead of preplanning everything in life. It causes me to have low self-esteem a lot of the time and in many aspects of my life it causes me to be unsuccessful. But I feel like the spontanaeity of life is what makes me who I am and what makes life what it is. When cave men lived, they had ONE goal. Survive. Sure it may have involved gathering food, shelter, and another cave woman to mate with. BUT HOW HARD IS THAT. Maybe harder than I think but I feel like I would be more succesful if I had fewer goals to worry about.
I don't think any of the strategies would specifically work better for me than others. If you read the chapter, you'd realize that all of them can help you achieve goals. I don't particularly respond well to negative feedback/criticism and I have a hard time generating intrinsic motivation to achieve things but it seems like nearly all of the strategies would help me achieve goals.

Implementaion Intentions
Focusing on Action
Criticism
Goal Acceptance
Feedback
Goal difficulty
Goal Specificity
Discrepancy
Plans
Perceived difficulty

Chapter 8 is about goal setting and goal striving. The chapter begins by discussing the cognitive perspective on motivation. According to this perspective, our thoughts, beliefs, values, expectations, etc all influence our behavior. Therefore, our cognitive processes generate our motivation to engage in certain actions (i.e., cognition---> action sequence). There are 4 elements that play a part in this: plans, goals, implementation intentions, and mental simulations.
When it comes to plans and goals, the driving motivational force is discrepancy. There are two types of discrepancies: discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. Basically, we all have an ideal state which we think we should be at and we are constantly comparing that to our present state. When the ideal state and present state do not match, it motivates us to plan and set goals to achieve the ideal state so that we reduce the discrepancy. On the other side of the coin, when our ideal state and present state do match, we tend set more difficult goals and plan to achieve them because we tend to form a new ideal state (this is known as discrepancy creation).
The most important thing to remember in goal setting is to make sure that the goals are difficult enough and specific. When goals are difficult, they increase effort and persistence. When goals are specific, they increase attention and strategic planning.
Another crucial part of goal setting is to make sure there is some sort of feedback present. Without feedback, people are unable to determine whether they are performing at, above, or below their goal level. If there is no feedback, people will not try as hard or be persistent towards achieving their goal.
Setting a goal is not enough in itself to energize and direct our behavior towards actually working on achieving it. The actual performance part of working on the goal is called goal striving. Part of goal striving is mental simulation or focusing on the action. When people just focus on the goal itself, it actually interferes with goal attainment. Thus it is important for people to focus on the processes that they will use to achieve their goal rather than the goal itself. This is because it helps with planning and problem-solving to achieve the goal.
In addition to mental simulation, creating implementation intentions are also crucial to goal striving. According to our text implementation intention "is a plan to carry out one's goal-directed behavior--deciding in advance of one's goal striving the 'when, where, and how long' that underlies one's forthcoming goal-directed action." In other words, you must plan when you are going to begin working towards your goal, the actual strategy you are going to use to achieve it, and how you will handle any problems, interruptions, or distractions that may interfere with achieving your goal.
I think the most surprising thing that I learned about was the mental simulation and creating implementation intentions. It surprised me because you often times hear people tell you to visualize what you want but in reality, that's actually very ineffective. Visualizing how you are going to get what you want is more effective. I guess what really made it surprising to me is that I had already been doing this for as long as I can remember. When I am alone, I day dream constantly but my day dreams are usually about what I hope to achieve and the steps and processes I need to take to achieve them. Currently, my most re-occurring day dream is about getting hired by the Iowa Department of Corrections as a probation or parole officer. Rather than focusing directly on the end result, I have been constantly thinking about the interview process that I will have to go through to get the job. I keep visualizing the different questions they may ask me and what is the best way to respond to them. Additionally, I think about my current internship through them and what experiences I have had so far, what experiences I would like to have before it ends, and how I can tie it all in with certain questions that I think they will ask. This whole process is not just the mental simulation of goal striving but it also is incorporating the implementation intentions because I am creating a plan (or in this case answers) to possible questions that may be asked in the interview.
I think the biggest issue I have with setting certain goals is creating implementation intentions to help with starting and persisting my goals. From reading this chapter, I now fully understand why this is extremely crucial to do so. Without setting a start date or a set date of when and where I will be completing tasks to accomplish my goals, I will be more inclined to put off the task. Additionally, with out setting up plans to keep myself focused and on task, I will be easily distracted and not finish what I started. To be more specific, I will use my goal of completing all my homework assignments. Prior to the semester, I had a lot of difficulty completing assignments because I would either procrastinate or I would get easily distracted by my kids and not finish my assignments. With the start of this semester and the pressure of making sure I pass all my classes so that I can graduate in December, I started creating implementation intentions to make sure that I start and finish all of my assignments. Some examples of this would be creating an after school schedule for my family. From 5pm-6pm, we all make dinner together and eat as a family. From 6:30pm-7:30pm, my husband and I alternate who is in charge of getting the boys ready for bed. Depending on which day, I begin working on my homework from 6:30pm till as late as it takes me. During this time, I turn off my phone so that I am not distracted. Additionally, I have made myself a little office in my basement in which I can be closed off from any distractions like the tv. To go along with this, I have a pair of sound-proof ear muffs that I wear so that I can minimize all noise and can fully concentrate on what I am doing. I have also built in mini-breaks through out the process so that I do not get easily frustrated, overwhelmed, or overly tired. Currently this all is a work in progress but it is slowly coming together. Right now, I'm working on doing this consistently.
For me, creating implementation intentions and using mental simulations may be a better to use than for others because I realize that one of my flaws in goal setting is being absolutely prepared for anything. Using the example of preparing for my interview, some people have the ability to communicate and respond effectively in certain situations without a great deal of planning. Because I am aware of the struggles I have with communicating effectively when nervous, using the mental simulation and implementation intentions strategies would help me significantly with performing well during my potential interview that might not necessarily happen had I not took the time to engage in these strategies.

Terms: cognitive perspective on motivation, cognition--->action sequence, plans, goals, implementation intentions, mental simulations, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, strategic planning, feedback, goal striving

This chapter talks about goals and goal striving. It discusses the plans, goals, implementation intentions, and mental simulations of goals and goal striving. Corrective motivation refers to the incongruity that arises from the present-ideal inconsistencies. Corrective motivation activates the decision making process and whether to change the plan, change behavior, or withdraw from the plan completely. The present state is the person's current status of how life is going and the ideal state is how the person wishes life was going. When the present state falls short of the ideal state, then discrepancy arises. There is two types of discrepancy. There is reduction which is based on feedback that underlies plans and corrective motivation and then there is creation which is based on a feed-forward system. Goal setting is what an individual is striving to accomplish. Goal setting is based on goal performance, difficulty, specificity, feedback, and goal acceptance. The concept of long term and short term goals were discussed as well.

One of the most interesting things I learned was the TOTE model and how we use that model to plan our behaviors and motivation toward goals. The TOTE Model is the test, operate, test, and exit model to goals. I found this section interesting cause it opened my eyes to how many times a day that I go through the test, operate, and test part everyday in life situations. I'm always testing then operating and testing again until I like or my present state fits my ideal state.

For me and goal setting I need a little difficulty or some needed performance to keep me interested in it. I have to have some difficulty and some challenge to my goals because if I do I'm not motivated enough to do the goal or complete it if its too easy. I also noticed I need to be specific with my goals. If I go too broad or big on my goals I will try and do only the easiest things to achieve the goal and beat around the bush. I also learned that I like to shoot for short-term goals rather than long term goals. Long term goals I feel are too broad and too far into the future and I can easily loose interest in the goal. That is why I prefer to shoot for short term goals rather than long term goals. I learned now to just work my way up the ladder and go from one small goal to another.

Terms: TOTE model, plans, goals, goal setting, corrective motivation, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy reduction, short-term and long-term goals

This chapter is all about goals. Whether it is setting the goals or trying to reach the goals, the person trying to do so must have a plan. People have ideal states of their behavior, environmental objects, and events; therefore we all have an idea of what we want in life. It could be the knowledge of what their current running form looks like (present behavior), gift (present object), and plans for the night (present event). When a person is not happy with their present state, they take on a plan of action to make their present state become their ideal state. Present state represents the person’s current status of how life is going. The ideal state represents how the person wishes their life was going. When the present state does not meet the expectations of somebody’s wish for ideal state, a discrepancy is exposed. There are two types of discrepancies: discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. Discrepancy reduction is an environmental standard of excellence that makes you ask yourself if you are performing at this level. For example, a brochure stating that a 2.0 GPA is not enough for a scholarship and that you must have at least a 3.0 GPA to be considered for the scholarship. Discrepancy creation is when a person sets a higher goal for themselves without feedback from an outside source. An example of this would be a student deciding to try for a 3.0 GPA without anybody keeping track if they actually reached their goal or not or pressuring them to reach the goal. People who set goals usually perform better than those who do not set goals. Those with high goals are more likely to exert more effort than those who set lower goals. Also, those who set vague goals have a wider range of variability than those who set more specific goals. Another important part of setting goals is the feedback you will receive after you complete your task. Without feedback, performance on your tasks would not be important to a person. Feedback is the part of the goal-setting process that gives emotional experiences of felt satisfaction and felt dissatisfaction. The last variable that is included in goals translating into performance gains is goal acceptance. In order for a person to complete a goal they must first accept the goal. If a goal is accepted, then the person’s specific goals will improve the person’s performance because goal acceptance generates goal commitment. There are four factors that determine whether or not a goal will be accepted or rejected: perceived difficulty of the imposed goal, participation in the goal-setting process, credibility of the person assigning the goal, and extrinsic incentives.

The most surprising thing I read in this chapter was that people who have goals outperform those that do not have goals. The way I always looked at goals before I read this chapter was that if I do not set a goal, let’s say for how good I want to do on a test, I will not be worried or nervous about doing good on the test so I do not let myself down if I end up doing poorly on that particular test. Now that I have read this chapter maybe I will start setting specific goals so if my goal is to get an A on my next exam I will study more to reach my goal.

The element of goal setting that I will be able to use to strive to achieve my goals is goal specificity. When it comes time to start studying for a test, I usually tell myself that my goal is to pass this test with a C or higher. Now that I have read this chapter I learned that people tend to do better on a task if they have specific goal in mind for the outcome of the task. I am going to set a goal for my next test right now. My next test is next Friday and my goal is to get at least an 85% (B) or hopefully higher on the test.

I think that implementation intentions would work well for me better than using long-term or short-term goal setting. When I set short-term or long-term goals, such as I want to lose 10 pounds in two months, I always fail. This happens because I have a hard time staying motivated, especially when I have a lot of things to do. Therefore I believe that implementation intentions would work better for me. An implementation intention is the study of how goals, once set, are effectively acted on. These are important to goal setting so you not only set a goal but also accomplish that goal. This way I can look at the problems I have when I am trying to reach a goal, and try to stop the distractions, difficulties, and interruptions from happening. Implementation intentions will stop me from failing when I decide to set the goal of losing ten pounds again.

Terms: goals, present state, ideal state, discrepancy, feedback, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, extrinsic incentives, specificity, implementation intentions, long-term goals, short-term goals.

Chapter eight is all about goal setting and goal striving. Our book takes a cognitive approach on motivation and goal setting. Overall, we as human beings have in their minds their own personal ideals of how they would like to live and what they would like to do. Incongruity occurs when what we are doing and what we want to do aren’t matched up. This motivates us to make plans or goals to fix the incongruity and attain our ideal life. If something isn’t satisfying to a person, they will in turn fix that part of their life by making a plan to be current and work towards their ideals. Goals are anything that’s worked towards to better incongruency and attain personal ideals. Overall, people who set goals outperform those who don’t set goals. Goal difficulty is how difficult a goal is to reach. Goal specificity is how specific the goal is. These difficult and specific goals actually enhance performance because difficulty motivates a person, and specificity directs him or her. Feedback from others helps a person make better goals the next time because he or she can see whether their performance was at, above, or below the level of the goal standard. When someone performs above the level, he or she is more likely to be satisfied and make more difficult goals the next time and reach those goals. Goal acceptance is the process in which a performer accepts someone else’s goal as his or her own. Goals are not always reached just because someone set them. Sometimes people don’t even start, and sometimes they don’t finish the goal. It’s best to formulate implementation tactics to decide who, what, when, where, and how the goal will be reached. By doing so, the person has more guidelines to follow and is more likely to finish out and reach their desired goal. Lastly, the chapter ended with an eight step goal process. These steps include: specify the objective, set goal difficulty, clarify goal specificity, decide when performance will be assessed, check on goal acceptance, discuss goal attainment strategies, formulate implementation intentions, and provide performance feedback.

The most surprising thing I learned was that setting difficult goals actually makes a person more likely to reach that goal than setting easy goals. It makes sense though that because the goal is difficult; a person understands this and has more motivation to reach the goal. With easy goals, a person knows the goal can be reached undoubtedly, so doesn’t necessarily need to put in much effort to do so. More difficult goals, however, are harder to reach. So, a person will understand they need to work hard to reach the goal and will be more motivated to work on what they need to do to reach it. That’s surprising to me though, because I would think that because it’s difficult one would actually give up on it easier. I thought that easy goals would be reached more because there wouldn’t need to be a need for much effort.

I will be able to use elements to help me set better goals such as specificity, and implementation. When I make goals, they are usually very broad like: get a degree in Psychology. This goal would be a lot easier to use if I could actually make it more specific and direct it towards exactly what I want to do. Instead I should make my goal to get a BA in Psychology in four years with a minor in Sociology and decide by my junior year if I want to go to Grad school. By making the goal more specific, I can actually work harder towards exactly what I want to do and not give up as easily. It would also be best to implement my goal but making a step by step process of how I will reach my goal such as what kinds of grades I want to receive, how much volunteering I want to do, adding an internship into my schedule, and so on. By doing this I will reach my goal even easier. Also, I will be more successful in the long run.

Because I am a very organized person, I feel that it would be in my best interest to make my long term goals into step by step goals to reach the long term. By doing this I can check things off the list and feel accomplished. This makes me want to work harder rather than give up because I feel like I’m not really going anywhere with my goal. Because I am more of a short term thinker (because long term stresses me out) I would be much better off doing this step by step rather than just using a very vague goal and expecting to get there without guidelines.

cognitive perspective on motivation, plans, long term goals, short term goals, goals, incongruity, goal difficulty, goal specificity, feedback and goal acceptance

Chapter 8 is the first of three chapters that discuss cognitive motivations and discusses plans, goals, implementation intentions and mental simulations. It begins by explaining that cognitive motivation revolves around a person’s way of thinking and believing. Incongruity is a mismatch between what a person see’s as their ideal state at that time and their actual present state at that time. The discomfort we feel from this incongruence is the motivating factor that makes us formulate a plan act on it and keep working on the plan until the ideal state matches the present state. Many feel that plans are adjustable and changed if the current plan is ineffective, which is called corrective motivation. Goals create motivation by focusing on the discrepancies (incongruity) between the present state of accomplishment and our desired amount of accomplishment. It is important to set difficult and specific goals so that we are energized and focused on accomplishing the goal. The goal may be set by an outside source, but needs to be agreed on and set by a trustworthy person in order to accept and strive to accomplish the goal. In order to successfully accomplish a goal one must use mental simulations which are focusing on the actions necessary to accomplish the goal. Implementation intention is a basic plan prior to goal-directed action that decides the when, where and how long for the action. This is very important to get started on goal directed action and to stay focused and finish the action.

It was most surprising to read that a goal should be difficult in order to energize the person. Before reading this I always thought that smaller goals are easier to work towards and more motivating because they provide more instant gratification and seem less daunting in the beginning. After reading it I get that a difficult goal requires more work but it’s much more exciting to plan out work towards and actually accomplish a larger more difficult goal.

I think that goal striving and mental simulations are the most helpful aspects of goal setting that I learned about that I would like to begin to use. Generally when I set a goal I am very good at implementation intention and love to plan the whole thing out, however I tend to lose steam shortly after because I lose the motivation to act out the goal. I think that by continuing to visualize what I want and focus on the actions that are necessary to accomplish the goal I will become a lot more successful.

Terms: plan, goal, incongruity, discrepancy, implementation intentions, mental simulations corrective motivation, goal-directed action.

Chapter 8 is about goal setting and goal striving. It teaches us how to set goals and how to actually attain those goals over time. The hardest part about a goal is to initially get started with it. For example, when wanting to loose weight, the reason why most people fail is because they don't plan out how they are going to reach their goal, it isn't specific enough, and they believe the goal will just be reached by accomplishing nothing. In this chapter it talks about the present state a person is currently in and the ideal state they would like to be at. Discrepancy is when the present state falls short of the ideal state. Discrepancy creates the sense of wanting to change the present state to the ideal state. The discrepancy may be the motivator rather than the ideal state itself. The chapter defines a goal as whatever an individual is striving to accomplish. When a person wants to loose twenty pounds, or get an A in their class then they engage in goal-directed behavior. Just like plans, goals generate motivation by focusing peoples attention on the discrepancy between their present level of accomplishment and their ideal level of accomplishment.

I thought the most surprising thing in this chapter was learning that difficult goals enhance performance. I always thought that if a goal was too difficult then people would fail faster than sooner on those. In the book it is actually the exact opposite. It shows us that goal difficulty and goal specificity are the two factors that make goals more precise and more capable of attaining. "As goals increase in difficulty, performance increases in a linear fashion." To me this shocked me, but as long as you have it written and planned out then it is very possible to attain what your wanting to accomplish.

Goal setting is not just stating that you want to be a doctor or teacher. To be able to reach a long-term goal you have to break down the BIG goal into many short-term goals. So if i were wanting to become a doctor as my long-term goal; one of my short-term goals would be to get good grades in my undergrad studies. Another short-term goal then would to apply and get accepted into medical school, figure out how to pay for tuition, graduate medical school, find an internship, and volunteer for hospitals. Long-term goals are more advanced and take time to reach so you have to give yourself incentives in the process other wise you are going to never be reinforcing your good behavior and wonder why your doing it. Goal-setting has intrinsic motivation because you yourself wants to reach the end result but there are extrinsic motivators that can help along the way.

I think that all of the aspects of goal-setting are very helpful but implementation intentions are the ones I would like to focus most of my attention on. "A goal without a plan is just a dream", this is one of the quotes that is put under implementation intentions. Why this is so substantial is because many people fail the goals they set for themselves and this is because they don't make it as difficult as it should be, its not specific enough, the person themselves don't accept it, and it doesn't have feedback in the processes. An implementable intention is a plan to carry out ones goal-directed behavior. This means deciding in advance of ones goal striving the when, where, and how long that underlies ones forthcoming goal-directed action. I want to be able to use this action in my goals because it is a key reason why I feel like I have failed at my goals in the past. It tells you to get started despite the daily distractions we have. This is one of my main causes of everyday failure. Ill have something to do but ill get distracted by my roommate, television, food, just about anything. The second part implementation intentions talk about is being persistent despite the difficulties or set backs. Being persistent in a goal is something you have to do in order of reaching it. The third and last thing it brings up is being able to resume. This is when an interruption occurs-like being very ill, then you are able to resume right back to the goal once the illness ends.

Terms: Implementation intention, goal-striving, goal-setting, long-term goals, short-term goals, feedback, goal specificity, goal difficulty, discrepancy and present and ideal states.

Chapter 8 is about goal setting and how that can increase our motivation to accomplish what we want to accomplish. The chapter began by talking about discrepancies. When our present state, which represents the person’s current status of how life is going, falls short of our ideal state, which represents how the person wishes life was going, a discrepancy is exposed. Discrepancy creates the desire to change the present state to match the ideal state. Two types of discrepancy exist and they are discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. Discrepancy reduction is based on needing to perform at a standard the environment set, for example, needing to raise a GPA to get accepted into a college that has a required GPA of 3.0. Discrepancy creation is when a person looks forward and proactively sets a future, higher goal. A goal is whatever an individual is trying to accomplish. Goal setting begins with a standard, which is a definition of what adequate performance is. It also involves incentive, which provides a target to aim for. Goals should be both specific and difficult. The goal must tell the person exactly what they need to do to accomplish the goal, and cause the person to work hard to accomplish the goal. When goals are difficult, it energizes behavior by increasing effort and persistence. When goals are specific, they direct behavior by increasing attention and planning. Both of the aspects of goals lead to enhanced performance. Goals increase performance because they clarify performance expectations, counteract boredom, make feedback important, and accomplishing goals cause feelings of pride and satisfaction that the task itself would not create. Feedback is very important in reaching one’s goals because it documents the performer’s progress towards goal attainment. Feedback defines performance, and whether that performance is above the standard, at standard, or below standard. Feedback can also act as a reinforcer or a punisher. When accomplishing a goal, it is important that goal acceptance occurs. Four factors affect goal acceptance and they are perceived difficulty of the imposed goal, participation in the goal setting process (whether the goal was forced on the person or if they had some say in it), credibility of the person assigning the goal (do they respect them?), and extrinsic incentives. Goal choice (ideal goal, actual goal, minimal goal) and whether the goal is short term or long term also affect performance. Ability, past performance, incentives, and self efficacy all influence goal choice. If a goal is long term, there must be short term goals as well that lead up to reaching that long term goal, because there are several problems with long term goals. Long term goals have a prolonged period of time in which performance goes unreinforced, which lowers goal commitment. They also don’t provide immediate performance feedback. Implementation intentions are important when deciding on a goal and are a specific goal directed action, initiated at an anticipated future outcome. It is a two step process. The first step is setting the goal, and the second is planning how to attain the goal. Planning how to attain the goal involves getting started despite daily distractions, persisting in spite of difficulties, and continuing once an interruption occurs (such as an injury or sickness). To put all of it together, an object to be accomplished needs to be identified, then the goal must be defined in difficulty and specificity, then the time span must be identified, next goal acceptance must be checked, after that goal attainment strategies must be discussed, followed by creating implementation intentions and providing performance feedback. Those are the steps in an effective goal setting program.
One thing that surprised me was that there are drawbacks in goal setting. The drawbacks are increased stress, possibility for failure, non-goal areas ignored, short range thinking, cheating, and undermines intrinsic motivation. I thought having goals could only bring positives to a person’s life, and I never thought about the fact that they do add more stress and set you up for failure. From this chapter, I learned that I need to make my goals more specific and focus more on the process than just the end result. It is easy to think I want to get into graduate school someday and not think about all of the work it takes to get there. It is important for me to sit down and think about the process I will need to go through to attain this goal, and set a series of short term goals for myself along the way so I can receive some sort of feedback. I think coming up with difficult goals in my life will be easier for me than coming up with specific goals in my life because to think “I want to go to grad school, or I want to do be a counselor someday,” sounds good, but to actually come up with the specifics of how that will be accomplished will be a lot harder for me. I also struggle with goal acceptance, because I know the ideas that others, such as my parents, have for me with my life, but I don’t know if those are necessarily my goals as well. One goal I do have that is my own is that I want to lose ten pounds. I already run a lot, eat healthy, and have lost 15 pounds, but it has been awhile since I’ve lost any weight, so I need to come up with new goal attainment strategies.
Terms: discrepancies, present state, ideal state, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, goal, Goal setting, goal specificity, goal difficulty, feedback, goal acceptance, goal choice, short term goal, long term goal, Implementation intentions

Chapter 8 was about goal setting and our motivation behind obtaining goals. People have mental representations of the ideal states of environmental objects, behavior and events. We have knowledge of our present state as well. When one’s present state and one’s ideal state don’t match, they experience incongruity. Incongruity motivates us to have energy and direction to reach our ideal state. We do this through the TOTE model. We will test our present state, act on the environment, test our present with ideal state again. It is not until we reach our ideal state that we exit, according to the model. Discrepancy is the conflict between what is and what is desired. There are two types of discrepancy, discrepancy reduction when feedback underlies plans and corrective motivation, and discrepancy creation based on a “feed forward” system so a person proactively sets a goal. One wants their goals to be difficult and specific because these enhance performance. Feedback is also important because it shows progression to maximize performance. Pitfalls to goals is that they increase stress, failure is a possibility, non goal areas are ignored and intrinsic motivation is undermined. To implement a goal, one needs to set a goal and plan on how they are going to attain the goal. They need to take steps to get started, persist despite the difficulties and resume once an interruption occurs.
One thing that was surprising was the fact that difficult, specific goals enhance performance. Difficult goals increase our effort and persistence towards a goal because we are afraid of failure. We are more likely to be less distracted and give up as well. We don’t quit until we achieve our goal instead of being bored or frustrated. This was interesting to me because I don’t think people really like things that are difficult for them. Many of us choose the “easy way out” when we can. However, I guess we set the goal ourselves, we would be more motivated to achieve it and not let anything stand in our way. When our goal is specific, we direct attention and strategic planning to carry out our goal. They direct us where to concentrate and what specifically to do. We learn through trial and error when we have a specific goal. We learn what strategies are successful and continue to use those. However, if they are unhelpful, we will revise it and create a new strategy.
I am in the process of applying to graduate school and goal setting has been in my life greatly recently. I made a timeline of the stuff I need to get done and when it needs to be accomplished. For example, I updated my resume and took it into career services to have them edit it. They gave me feedback on how I could improve my resume and tips on how to write a personal statement. This is a goal I set for myself so I am not stressed out when deadlines sneak up on me. Because I set this goal myself and broke it down into specifics (and it is also difficult) I will keep striving towards my goal. I have established a long term goal to strive for graduate school. In order to do this, I had to maintain a high GPA, work two jobs to fund this dream, research schools, application processes, different cities, and the list goes on. The specific and difficult short term goals have helped me keep on track for my long term goal.
I think from setting goals in the past, I have learned what strategies do and do not work. I have learned that if I don’t receive feedback, I don’t know how well I am progressing or what I can do to improve. For example, when writing multiple papers for a class, I don’t want to write one before my other paper is graded. Some professors are extremely picky on things such as formatting or using too many of your own words, etc. I have learned with these professors not to work on another paper until I receive my graded one. The feedback helps me improve my goal of receiving a good grade in the class. Also writing out my goals and the steps to achieve those goals is very helpful because I can take it one step at a time and not get stressed thinking of all the things I need to do in order to achieve that goal. (An example of this would be the timeline for graduate school explained above).
tote model-goals-discrepancy-reduction discrepancy-creation discrepancy-goal difficulty-goal specificity-feedback-short term goal-long term goal

Goals were the main topic of chapter 8. People who set goals become much more successful at accomplishing tasks than those who do not. A person decides that they need to set a goal when there is a discrepancy between their present state and their ideal state; this discrepancy is what motivates them to set a goal and go through with it. The best way to set a goal is to set a goal that is difficult and that is specific. When a goal is difficult it energizes the person’s behavior so that they will work harder at their goal to achieve it. Setting a specific goal directs the person’s behavior, they are more likely to stay focused and plan a way to get what they want. Feedback is a major reinforcer for goal setting. A person likes to know how well (or not well) they are doing so they can decide whether or not they need to adjust their behavior to reach their goal. Goal acceptance is the key piece to achieve your goal. Also you have to accept the goal as your own in order to have any motivation to follow through. If you are only setting a goal because you have to, you will most likely fail. Short-term goals are lot easier to accomplish than long-term goals because you get feedback right away. Although the positives of setting goals outweigh the negative, there are a few dangers in goal setting. When a person sets a goal it can increase their stress, there is a possibility for failure, they may ignore non-goal areas of their life, they are only thinking in short range, the pressure of the goal may cause them to cheat, and it sometimes undermines intrinsic motivation. This chapter talks about how people really need to set their goals then plan out how you are going to achieve that goal. Distractions and difficulties may come about, but you have to presume once the distraction and difficulties go away. Writing down your goals or telling people about them also make a person more likely to go through with them.

The most interesting/surprising thing I learned is that in order to accomplish a goal, you really need to plan out steps in how you are going to go about attaining your goal. I always set goals without really thinking of the steps I need to do in order to achieve my goal, that is probably why a lot of the times I give up on the goals that I set.

This whole chapter will really help me out in my goal setting, but the thing that I will focus on the most is setting short-term goal rather than long-term goals. I have a lot of long-term goals, which is good, but I need to think of and write down short-term goals in order to accomplish my long-term ones. Setting short-term goals will keep me motivated to get to where I want to be because I will constantly be getting feedback.

I think that some goal strategies will work better for me than others because I am a type of person who definitely needs to see feedback in order for me to keep pushing towards my goal. Therefore, setting only long-term goals is out of the question for me. Making my goal a process and actually writing down the process will be the best goal setting strategy for me. I am a very visual person, so writing my goal process down will actually motivate me to attain my goal. I will be able to physically cross off when I’ve accomplished one of the processes and then I can see where I need to go next. Also writing the process down will also help me stay focused on my goal. If I don’t write it down, I could forget what it was that I wanted to accomplish next and then totally lose track of my goal.

Chapter 8 talks about goal setting and goal striving. The definition of a goal is whatever an individual is striving to accomplish. I think that most people don’t even know that they have goals. I sometimes don’t consider myself having goals but I always strive to get good grades, which would be consider goals. It also says that when people set goals it usually enhances performance. When goals increase in difficulty performance also increases. Goal specificity is important because it helps the person know what is important. Goals that are specific and difficult enhance performance because there is a motivational reason. The book says that difficult goals energize the performer, and specific goals direct her toward a particular course of action. Feedback is also important with goals so that the person can know how they are doing with their goal and if they are in the right direction. Goal acceptance is also very important. If the person does not fully accept the goal then it is less likely to be achieved. When a goal is accepted by the individual they will be motivated more to achieve it. One of the down falls of the goal-setting theory is that it leans more towards enhancing performance rather than motivation. Long-term goals are harder to achieve especially when the person does not set short-term goals to achieve the long-term goals. When striving for a goal don’t think about the goal, think about how you are going to achieve the goal. Implementation intention is a plan to carry out one’s goal-directed behavior. People that actually write down what their goal is and how they are going to achieve that goal are more likely to achieve their goal.

The most surprising thing I learned from this chapter is that people that write down their goals and the steps they are going to take to reach their goal are more likely to achieve their goal. When I set a goal I usually never write it down, but now I plan on writing them down and how I plan to reach them. Then I can look at the list and not forget what I need to do.

I can use all of the elements of the goal-setting theory to help me achieve my goals. The main element I will use is implementation intention. I already have a long-term goal; which is to eventually own my own practice of being a marriage and family therapist someday. I have not actually written down that goal and the steps I am going to take to achieve it. I always think of what I need to do to actually achieve it but it would be easier to be able to just look at a list each time rather than having to think of it off the top of my head.

I think that the feedback part of the goal-setting theory would work best for me. I feel this way because I like to know exactly how I am doing and what I need to do better in. If I am bellow-standard I would want to know so I could become better. It would also be nice to know when I am above-standard so then I could know what works best.

Words: goal setting, goal striving, goal, performance, goal specificity, goal difficulty, feedback, goal acceptance, motivation, long-term goals, short-term goals, implementation intention

Chapter 8 discussed goals setting and goal striving. The chapter started off by talking about a plan. A person has an ideal state, how they want things to be going, and a present state, how things are going currently. When a person’s present state does not reach or is not at at their desired state, they have a discrepancy. A person devises a plan to try to fix this dicrepency. There are two types of discrepancy. The first one is discrepancy reduction. This is a plan that uses feedback to alert one to their discrepency, also known as feedback system. The second discrepancy is discrepancy creation. A person uses motivation through creating their own goals and increasing those goals to pursue. This is also known as a feed-forward sysptem. Goal setting is used in order to create a fix for these discrepancies. Goals motivate people to accomplish a plan—decreasing their discrepancy. Goal-peformance discrepancy is the level at which people decrease the discrepancy between present level and their ideal level. By setting a goal, many people accomplish more rather than without. In this process, goal difficuly is an imporant influence on how much a person accomplishes. When the goal is more difficult, people tend to become energized and acomplish thigns at a higher level than if the goal was easy. Feedback is also an important factor in goal setting to be effective. This allows people to keep track of their progress over time. Without it, people become emotionally unattached to their goal which results in failure. A person must also accept the goal to achieve it. This is called goal acceptance. Difficult goals often attract goal rejection, where as easier goals tend to be a magnet for goal rejection. Goal setting has multiple critisims and pitfalls such as it is used to enhance performance rather than motivation, creates stress, and opportunities for failures. Long-term goals are great as long as there are smaller short-term goals to accomplish along the way. Short-term goals increase the chance of accomplishment of the long-term goals because it gives a person feedback and provides a response to ones actions. The chapter concludes with goal striving and pursuing. One way to put these goals into action is focusing on the goal and using mental specializations. Another way is to tell others about your goals.
The most surprising thing I discovered is the importance of writing things out. I have learned that over time on a personal level, but I never understood the impact it can play when achieving a goal. It was surprising to learn that it has a huge impact on the probability of the goal being obtained.
I have never been a goal driven person. I always go with the flow and know the general outcome I want to achieve. For the most part, this is a great tactic for me; however, there a few elements that will help benefit me in my everday activites to achieve these goals. Specifying my goals, telling others, writing them down, and making lists are specific things I can use to enhance my goal accomplishments.
I find that I don’t finish my goals unless they are specific. For instance, I tend to be very busy over the weekend, and I want to get homework done before the weekend comes. If I use a general plan of “accomplishing my homework before the weekend,” I tend to not get anything done by Friday. If I set a specific plan and use short-term goals such as finishing one class on Monday, and two others on Tuesday, I find that I get a lot accomplished. Short-term goals do wonders for myself. I also like to write things out. It helps me think about the things that need to be accomplished, sets all the things I need to do into simple steps instead of an overwhelming amount of things to do and gets the items done.
Terms: plan, discrepancy, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, feedback system, feed-forward system, goal, goal-peformance discrepancy, goal difficulties, feedback, goal acceptance, long-term goals, short-term goals.

Chapter 8 discussed goal setting and goal striving. The most surprising, and rather hopeful thing I learned was how many simple tasks one can do to put them ahead of other in our journey to acheive our goals. These simple tasks include but are not limited to: writing your goals down, planning your goals out with specific timelines and guidelines, and making feedback possible along your journey. It is amazing to me that these simple things have been proven, time after time, to help people achieve their goals (especially the writing them down part). The book starts out with defining the word goal. Goals are simply anything that a person is trying to accomplish. Goals are put into place when someone's present state does not meet the standards of the ideal state. In class we learned that this mismatch between the two states is what develops our motivation for the goal setting and goal striving. An ideal state generally includes social and personal standards that one wants their life to meet. If these standards are not met, they will work towards meeting them. If the standards are met, they will be content with who and where they are, therefor changing nothing about their behavior. The book discusses that inorder for a goal to be beneficial to the person, the goal should be difficult and specific. These two ideals are different from what I would have inititally guessed that goals should be. Difficult goals help energize behaviors, while specific goals help direct those behaviors, as we learned in class. Another important part of the goal setting and goal striving is feedback. One needs feedback to either reinforce their behavior or punish their behavior. Without feedback, one will have no idea how they are doing, they might feel as though their efforts are pointless, and they could ultimately lose track of their goal(s). This idea brings me to the difference between long-term goals and short-term goals. While long-term goals are great, short-term goals should be implemented to help you out along the way. This is the area in which I often need help in and could benefit the most from. I forget that I need to do stuff now inorder to ensure the achievement of my goals later. My father always talks to me about what I am going to do after I graduate, and my career choice is very imortant to both him and I, but he often over looks the many things that I am accomplishing now. I have begin to set short-term goals for myself to help me reaach my long-term goals. These short-term goals include: becoming involved with more clubs this semester, finding a place to volunteer this semester, and getting atleast a B on all my personal wellness tests. I have accomplished the first 2 and got a B on my first personal wellness test but I never receieved real feedback from my family when doing this. This lecture time, in a way, gave me the feedback I needed. It reinsured me that these little things I am doing now will help me, a ton, later. The last two terms that really struck home with me in this chapter are: goal-perfomance discrepancy and goal acceptance. Goal-perfomance discrepancy refers to a mismatch in one's goals compared to one's perfomance. In class we learned that this might, and usually is, due to the fact that difficult goals increase motivaton but can effect goal commitment, meaning you may become uniterestned or uncommitted to the seemingly difficult goal. This is especially true if the goal is imposed on you. Lastly, we have goal acceptance. In order to succeed in a goal, one must accept a certain goal as thier own, something they really want to work toward. While reading this, I could not help but think of how badly my father wants my younger brother to take over the family business. While this could be easily done once my brother graduates from college and could ensure my brother a wealthy lifestyle, I think that if this does happen my brother will perform worse at the job than our father, even though my father has no college education himself. This is because my brother has no drive and no motivation to become the owner of a pallet company and has not accepted the goal as his own yet, and I don't think he ever will. While my brother is still very young, I hope can start to develop some life goals of his own so that he will experience the positive feelings that accomplishing your goals bring.

Terms: goal, short-term, long-term, feedback, goal acceptance, goal-perfomacnce discrepancy,, and goal difficulties.

Chapter eight surveys how goal setting and striving affect our motivation and vice versa. This is the first chapter in part two of the book which is dedicated to the topic of cognitions and the part they play in our motivations and emotions. Cognitions are defined as “mental event” and they “revolve around a person's way of thinking and believing”. Chapter eight goes going into detail about four of these cognitions: plans, goals, implementation intentions, and mental simulations. The concept of plans revolves around the idea that we identify our “present state” and also our “ideal state”. If these states do not match each other, than an “incongruity” is created and a plan is born to get rid of the incongruity, because the mismatching of states creates a feeling of discomfort; a plan of action is formulated. The book then describes a cognitive mechanism to explain how plans work called “TOTE” or test-operate-test-exit. Essentially, the process involves, as I have already stated, realizing the incongruity in the two states (test), execute a plan of action to remove the incongruity (operate), check again to see if the incongruity was removed (test), if it was then you have succeeded and can move on (exit). However, the test and operate stages often have to be repeated numerous times before the states finally see eye to eye. Plans are susceptible to revision because humans are “active decision makers”. Using “corrective motivation” we are able to consider the possible ways of removing the incongruity and which path to the ideal we must take with the consideration of the emotions involved. The book presents the term “discrepancy” which I am led to believe is the essentially the same concept as incongruity; it “creates the sense of wanting”. This branches into two different types of discrepancy. Discrepancy reduction is defined, in short, as “discrepancy-detecting feedback” or how well or how awful our current present state is matching up with the ideal (best used with plan-based motivation). Discrepancy creation, on the other hand, is “feed-forward” and this encourages the setting of higher goals (best used with goal-setting motivation). Which brings us to the topic of goal setting which is the concept of choosing and achieving whatever it is that a person wants to accomplish. This has its own term “goal-performance discrepancy” which, much like with plan-based discrepancies, is what is missing (the middle ground) from what we have accomplished and what we want to accomplish. Two things really affect the performance of our goals: goal difficulty (which is how hard it is to accomplish) and goal specificity (how much the person knows about how to reach said goal). Together these two things are known to energize and direct behavior in a manner that increases performance and effort, which is essential in reaching any goal. Motivation, however, is not the only force that drives performance; ability, training, coaching, and resources do as well. However, performance means nothing to us without feedback. When we achieve a goal we feel really good about ourselves and when we fail we feel really bad, but either way, feedback provides the emotions that are interconnected with our goal setting. To make all this happen effectively, goal acceptance (which is just what is sounds like; accepting whether or not you want to achieve said goal) has to happen. This is actually quite a complicated process that revolves around four basic factors: 1.) perceived difficulty 2.) participation in setting the goal 3.) whether you trust the person assigning you the goal and 4.) is there some extrinsic incentive in accomplishing the goal. Whats important to remember about goal setting is that “long term goals” don't work well to motivate. It is better to set a series of “short term goals” so that it doesn't seem so daunting and you can feel a sense of satisfaction more often. Also, it is important that you do not focus on the goal itself, but on the actions required to reach said goal. This is a way more effective way of attaining a goal. To better make this happen, an “implementation intention”, or a plan that directs your behavior towards setting a goal and achieving that goal.
The most surprising thing I learned what how detailed this process really is. You think about setting a goal as something that really takes only about five minutes of my time to think of and another five to set a basic plan to achieving it. But, as I learned, there is a much more complicated process behind what I do and what I don't. I took much of this for granted.
However, knowing the process with help me attain my goals now that I can better understand what I have been doing wrong all these times I have failed at a goal. For instance, I am now aware that if I want to achieve a goal I need to make sure they are shorter and easier to reach so that the satisfaction of reaching them will keep me setting more and more goals. Knowing that goal difficulty and goal specificity are two things to be considered when setting a goal, I can think more into my goal setting and thus not “setting” myself up for failure. Pun intended.
The strategies that work to help motivate me to achieve my goals is going to be different in someone else because: A.) we all have different goals B.) we all have different levels of difficulty in which we can endure C.) we all have different levels of motivation and two people can have two different levels of motivation and still accomplish the same goal but its how they go about them that makes the difference. Some people need shorter goals and some people need to break it down into many easy goals, etc.
Terms: Cognitions, Plans, Goals, Implementation Intentions, Mental Stimulation, Present State, Ideal State, Incongruity/Discrepancy, TOTE, Corrective Motivation, Discrepancy Reduction, Discrepancy Creation, Feedback, Goal-Performance Discrepancy, Goal Difficulty, Goal Specificity, Goal Acceptance, Goal Setting, Long Term Goals, and Short Term Goals.

Chapter 8 discussed how goals work to motivate people. Goals and plans are part of the cognitive side of motivation. Goals develop from discrepancies between present state and ideal state. This discrepancy occurs when someone makes a comparison between where they are at now and where they would like to be in the future. A goal is whatever someone is trying to accomplish.

A goal is determined by two things. It’s first compared to a standard. This standard works and a definition of adequate performance. The incentive is then considered. The incentive is the target you are striving for. This target has some sort of external object associated with it. This is the first step of goal setting. From there, the goal setting can take two different paths. A difficult goal will work to energize behavior. This causes us to persist harder and longer. We must also be specific. This gives our energized behavior a direction. It also makes it easier to work smarter, focus our energy, and remain attentive. This two types of goal work together to enhance performance. Our goals work to clarify expectations, alleviate boredom and apathy, make feedback important, and generate feelings of competence and satisfaction.

Feeback works to make goals more valuable and effective. Feedback is defined as knowledge of results. Feedback helps to make goals more effective in two ways. It defines performance. For example, when we see our test grade in comparison to the class, we can see whether we were average, above average, or below average. This type of feedback provides us with knowledge of our progress toward our goals. It can also act as a reinforcer. When we see that we scored above average on a test, it motivates us to study just as hard on the next test.

For a goal to be effective, we must also accept it. Goal acceptance occurs when we take a goal on and accept it as our own. For example, if someone has always been interested in farming and decide they want to go to school for Agriculture they have achieved goal acceptance. If another person’s family has had a farm in the family for years, and they are just expected to take it over, they may not have achieved goal acceptance. Four factors determine goal acceptance. The first is perceived difficulty. A goal must be difficult to encourage us, but if it seems impossible we will perceive failure as expected. We must also participate in goal setting instead of having goals imposed upon ourselves. This would be like to person who is expected to be a farmer from their family. We must also see credibility in the goal assigner. The goal must also contain extrinsic incentives that motivate and appeal to us.

We must also go through the process of goal choice. There are three different paths of goal choice. The ideal goal would be the overly optimistic choice. The actual goal is the one we actually hope to accomplish. The minimal goal is seen as something that is “do-able” at the moment. Minimal goals work as stepping stones toward our actual goal. There are four predictors used in goal choice. Ability, self efficacy, past performance, and incentives are all considered before choosing a goal. Ability consists of what we are actually skilled at and able to do. Self efficacy is how competent and confident we feel in the area of our goal. Past performance consists of what we have done up to this point. Incentives are what our goal will get us. We also consider short term goals versus long term goals. Although it is important to have long term goals, short term goals can be more motivating and realistic. A long term goal can go unreinforced and lacks the immediate feedback that we need to continue on our path. Short term goals can work toward our ultimate long term goal, and provide us with the feedback and reward that we need to stay motivated.

If we wish to accomplish our goals, we must have implementation intentions. These are specific, goal-directed actions that are initiated at an anticipated future out come. This occurs in a two step process. First we set our goal. Next we plan how to attain that goal. Our plain can keep us going despite dasy to day distractions. It helps us persist through difficulties. And if an interruption gets in our way, our plan can help us resume.

The most surprising thing I learned was that goals can also have a bad side. They can increase our stress with deadlines and pressure. They open up the possibility for failure. When we have a goal, we tend to ignore the non-goal areas of our life. They can make us feel that we need to cheat to get what we need to accomplished. They also undermine intrinsic motivation.

I think I will be able to use the planning element of goal setting. I think this will work well for me, because I can get easily distracted with little things I want to do and forget the big picture. I think this planning will work better for me, because I have goals and am very motivated but I am also disorganized. Planning requires that you already have a goal set for yourself. Planning would not help someone who is unsure what they want or where they want to go. The planning aspect of goal setting prevents us from becoming distracted by unimportant details. These are the things that I find myself spending time on when I should be more focused on reaching my long-term goals.

TERMS: present state, ideal state, goal setting, standard, incentive, feedback, goal acceptance, goal choice, short term vs. long term goal, ability, self efficacy, implementation intentions

Chapter eight was primarily about goals. It was about setting goals and how to attain said goals. It was also about long-term and short-term goals. Long-term goals are more difficult to stick with because you do not get the feedback you do when you make and accomplish short-term goals. It is easier to ask yourself why you are doing something with the long-term goals because you can forget. One perspective chapter eight takes a look at is the cognitive view. There are four elements with the cognitive view. The action sequence is plans, goals, implementation intentions, and mental simulations. When making a goal you can either have goal difficulty or goal specificity. Goal difficulty is how hard the goal is and this energizes your behavior and leads to you having an enhanced performance. With goal specificity is how specific you make your goal. This directs your behavior and also leads to you having an enhanced performance.
I think that the most surprising thing was about the pitfalls of goal-setting. Goal-setting theory is about enhancing performance than enhancing motivation. That is one of the downfalls. Also it works best when the tasks are not very interesting and require a straightforward procedure. Also goal-setting has three pitfalls which are namely, stress, opportunities for failure, and putting creativity and intrinsic motivation at risk. If someone says you do not do something quite like they wanted it will affect your goals for future things.
I think I’ll be likely to use all of this information about goal setting. For some goals I will attempt goal difficulty but I will also have goal specificity and I will make sure I have enough feedback that will help me keep setting and accomplishing goals. But I will also work on my goal striving and rather than focusing on just accomplishing a goal I will sit down and consider the steps I need to take to accomplish a goal. When I set my goals I never really think about or even write down steps I will need to take to achieve my goals. I’ll have to focus more on the steps than the end result. I think that making short term goals will work better for me because if I set long term goals I’m likely to forget and give up on them. I won’t work as hard to achieve them.
Terms: Long term goals, short term goals, goals , goal difficulty, goal specificity, feedback, goal-setting theory, goal striving,

Chapter eight is about goals/goal setting and how we go about accomplishing those goals. In order for one to achieve a goal they must form a plan. Most people have an idea of how they want to live and what they want to do with their lives. When someone’s current state doesn’t match their ideal state they experience incongruity. Incongruity is what encourages us to attain our goals. When setting a goal it is best to make it specific and not something too easy to accomplish. Feedback is an important factor in goal setting because as humans we like to be praised for our accomplishments, and when we aren’t accomplishing a goal as intended it is best to have feedback to guide us back in the right direction. This being said, short term goals are a lot easier to accomplish because we receive feedback right away and are able to reap the benefits, whereas long term goals we don’t receive feedback and results right away. It is important for people to realize that there is always a possibility of failure and there will be distractions along the way. For example, you have a goal to lose weight and eat healthier, but it’s finals week and you’re in the union most of the week, it’s easier for you to grab something there and snack along the way than to go home and make a healthy meal. It’s a distraction and slightly veering you from your goal, but it’s not permanent.
I found it most interesting that goals can have a negative effect on our lives. They can add to the day to day stress we feel, make us feel bad when we don’t accomplish them or have a setback, and they allow us to be vulnerable to failure.
I think this will help me with my goals by actually having something written out I will be faced with seeing it every day, which will motivate me. I feel like every week I say to myself that I am going to start working out, and I always put it off with some excuse because there is nothing to push me or make me feel super guilty about not going. If it were written down I’d be faced with seeing it.
Terms: Feedback, short term goal, long term goal, Incongruity, present state, ideal state

Chapter 8 discussed goal setting and goal striving. We do first need to have a plan how are we going to achieve the goal. The author talks about how plans motivate behavior and what do we have to do form the present state to the ideal stage when we reach our goal. Yet, first of all: what is goal? How do we define goal? Goal is whatever individual is trying to accomplish. So, setting a goal when is difficult we energize behavior which means
that we increase our effort to do better, and we work longer and harder to achieve that goal. Also, when the goal is specific then we direct our behavior by increasing attention, and planning and we work smarter. Both those ways enhance performance.

Setting goal increase performance, even writing down the way how are we going to achieve goals, or even writing down what the goals are already increase a chances to of achieving particular goal. It is very important to get feedback because with no feedback, the performance can be emotionally unimportant and uninvolving. Goals clarify expectations, counteract boredom and ampathy as well as when we achieved the goals we feel satisfied and pride, our self esteem increasing. The combination of goals with feedback produces meaningful mixture, emotional satisfaction and while goals failure bring emotional dissatisfaction.

When we choosing goal it is either ideal, actual or minimal goal.There are four factors that affect goal acceptance: extrinsic incentives, credibility, participation in the goal setting, and perceiving difficulty of the goal. There are also some dangers with setting a goal such as increases stress, cheating, possibility to fail, short range thinking, and undermines intrinsic motivation.
The most surprising thing or what I realized is that we do focus on the goal itself rather than how are going to achieve it, find the way and have a strategy for it; the steps that we have to take it to achieve this goal. People often forget about those such important things, they just think about the goal and what they going to do after they achieve it instead focus on the way how to reach it first.
To strive to achieve my goals, I have to have a specific goals knowing exactly what do I i have to achieve and how am I going to do that. Also, the goal cant be too easy, and not too difficult as well.
For me, for instance, in sport before the season I have to know what do I want to achieve, usually write the times or scores down, hang on my door to look at it every day to remind me what do I have to accomplish. I write down every day work out and discuss with coach what do I have to improve the most and then focus on that. I do have long term goals and small term goals. Long is for example the time I wanna run in every event at Nationals and short or small goals, to improve at practice, or in the weight room.


Terms:

Goal setting, goal striving,discrepancy, feedback, goal acceptance,

Chapter 8 focuses on goals and planning. It discussed about cognition and how it unites beliefs, expectations, goals, plans, judgments, values and self concept as "determinants of action." The study of motivation began by George Miller, Eugene Galanter, and Karl Pribram who focused on how plans motivate behavior. A mismatch between one person's present self and ideal self is defined as "incongruity." The present self is identified as the current status of how an individual's life is going and the ideal self is how an individual wants their life to be. Incongruity is used as a "spring of action" which provides energy and direction towards our goals we want to achieve. In addition, discrepancy which can be used as a measurement of present self on one end and ideal self on the other. Therefore, discrepancy makes us want change the present state and push ourselves to our ideal state. There are two types of discrepancies which are: discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. Discrepancy reduction is defined as the environment providing some feedback on our performance and how it compares to our ideal self. Discrepancy creation is when an individual sets a higher future goal for oneself to achieve. A goal can be defined as whatever an individual wants to accomplish. Goals are divided into short term and long term goals. For instance, my short term goal is to pass my Religions of the World exam tomorrow, and my long term goal is to become a juvenile probation officer. The more difficult goals are, the more energy the individual will put forth. In addition, there is goal specificity which states that the more specific the goal, the more these goals direct an individual towards their action. This chapter states that an individual needs feedback otherwise their performance can feel unimportant and uninvolving. Also, it discussed four things that determine whether an individual's goal will be accepted or not. They are as follows: perceived difficulty of goal, participation in goal setting process, credibility of the person assigning goal, and extrinsic incentives. The study of implementation intentions is when an individual sets a goal, how they accomplish or act upon this goal. What I found somewhat surprising is that an individual will put forth more effort when the goal is more difficult. However, it does some self explanatory because an individual would get bored with a goal that does not provide a challenge. An element I will use in my goal setting strategy is to map it out like the example in the textbook of the long term goal lattice structure. As learned in this chapter, and in class today, those who actually write a goal are more likely to achieve their goals. Therefore, I feel this will be a start for me and looking at this structure will internalize this goal and help motivate. I think some goals work better for others because some individuals enjoy more of a challenge with their goals, therefore will aim for higher long term goals. However, those who get stressed easily may prefer long term goals that are on an easy to moderate level. In addition, some individuals could be more motivated by feedback to help them achieve their goals, and others may be more self motivated and prefer to accomplish it on their own.

TERMS USED: goal, cognition, long term goals, short term goals, incongruity, discrepancy, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, goal acceptance, goal specificity, difficulty, implementation incentives, feedback, present self, ideal self

Chapter 8 deals essentially deals with goals, or as the chapter puts it, ‘four elements in the cognition to action sequence: plans, goals, implementation intentions, and mental stimulations.’ From the reading, however, it all seemed to relate to goals. Plans are how people remove the incongruity between their present state of mind and their ideal state. The discrepancies between these different states serve as the cause for incongruity, which causes the motivation to make a plan to remove said incongruity. There are two types of discrepancies. A discrepancy reduction is reaction based and involves dealing with plan-based corrective motivation. Also, a discrepancy reduction provides feedback about how someone’s performance level regarding anything to the ideal performance level. A discrepancy creation, on the other hand, is proactive, deals with a “feed-forward’ system. An example of this would be when someone looks to the future and sets a higher goal for themselves to reach, such as an honors student deciding a 3.8 isn’t high enough, they want a 4.0 GPA.

A goal is whatever someone is trying to accomplish, be it kissing the cheerleading captain, graduating valedictorian, etc. There are a few things one needs to consider when setting goals. Goal specificity is having a specific example of what you are going to do. For example, instead of saying I want to improve my grades, I could say I want to get a 3.75 GPA. Another thing to consider is the goal difficulty. If I had been getting a 2.3 GPA in the past, a 3.75 might be a bit too difficult and would be setting me up for failure. On the other hand, a 2.4 GPA would be too easy for me to attain and wouldn’t really create a challenge. Goals that fit these considerations enhance performance. Another necessary consideration is goal acceptance. YOU have to accept the goal in order to create motivation and to increase the level of performance. Additionally, feedback is critical.

Implementation Intentions are whether people realize the goals they have for themselves and/or fail to act to begin the accomplishment of the goal. An example of the first part is that if I get a report card with a lower GPA on it, and was upset, but I never before thought about getting a lower GPA. Other than starting, difficulties include persisting and resuming.

This made me realize I need to be more specific when setting goals. Usually, I am just say that I need to study more or to exercise more, and it rarely works, but if I say I want to study an hour a day, it should help more. This, to me, was the most surprising fact in the textbook. I have never really given it much thought, but now that I have it seems like commonsense and I am a bit ashamed that I’d never thought about it before.

One goal setting strategy that would not work for me, would be the goal difficulty part. I tend to give myself overly difficult challenges. For example, my entire high school career I strived towards becoming the class valedictorian. I never really developed a plan to do it, which is another part that’s difficult for me, and I also ignored the fact my class consisted of several very intelligent people. Over ten percent of our class had a 3.95 or above, and thirty-five percent had a 3.5 and above. This lack of planning and the difficulty of my goal really made it difficult to obtain, actually, I didn’t get it. I think if I would have put more thought into it, there would have been a greater chance.

Chapter eight was about plans, goal striving, and goal setting. According to the cognitive perspective plans come from “incongruity” which stems from a difference in the way we are (present state) and the way that we want to be (ideal state). When a person is not satisfied with their present state they formulate a plan in order to reach the ideal state that they have in mind. Once the plan has been formulated it becomes the impetus from which action stems. The main way action is expressed is by the TOTE model (test-operate-test-exit). Goals are the end results of plans. A goal is simply something that an individual is striving to accomplish. Goals also result from a discrepancy between present state and ideal state, and there are two different types of discrepancies; discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. Discrepancy reduction is when an external force of the environment (parents, colleges, employers) tells an individual how well they should be performing. Discrepancy creation on the other hand comes from within when a person looks ahead and sets a higher goal than that which outsiders have set for them. The most effective goals are those which are difficult but specific in nature. Setting these types of goals increases performance, and easy or nonspecific goals do not. The main reason is that specific difficult goals focus the individual’s attention and do not allow smaller more insignificant events get in the way. Another important factor for goals to be successful is feedback. Feedback is important because it produces emotional satisfaction. When an individual can observe progress on the way to the goal they have set, it increases motivation to attain the goal. With no way to monitor progress people will become unmotivated. The final factor important in goals is goal acceptance. Goal acceptance is “the person’s decision to either accept or reject the goal.” There are four factors related to whether or not a person will accept a goal; perceived difficulty of the goal, participation in the goal-setting process, credibility of the person assigning the goal, and extrinsic incentives. If a goal is accepted performance is improved because of goal commitment. For a person to successfully accomplish a goal it is very important for the person to plan out the steps needed in order to achieve said goal. Process stimulation strongly increases the chances that a goal will be met by helping with getting started, persisting, and resuming the goal achieving process. There are eight steps for effective goal setting; specify the objective, define goal difficulty, clarify goal specific, specify the time span when performance will be assessed, check on goal acceptance, discuss goal-attainment strategies, create implementation intention, and provide performance feedback.

The most interesting thing that I learned in this chapter was how important it is to sit down and write out a plan when you want to accomplish a goal. In the past I have always looked at the outcome and not given much thought to the processes involved in getting there. This is probably one of the big reasons that some goals of mine have failed in the past. When setting a goal in the future, I will make sitting down and making a plan a vitally important part of my goal setting process to increase my chances of success. Simply visualizing outcomes is not enough. To be more effective I will not focus my energy on the outcome but focus, instead, on the process.

By using almost everything I have learned in this class I believe that in the future I will have a better picture of the processes involved in effective goal setting and that will make me more successful. By setting difficult specific goals and giving myself some form of feedback I will be able to maintain the motivation that I feel when starting a plan. Also, by focusing on the path and not the outcome I believe I will be able to maintain my level of commitment which in some cases has been a problem in the past. Another element that will help is setting goals into the different categories of long and short term.

I don’t know that any strategies will work better or worse for me than others all of the time. I feel like some are more useful in certain situations than others and that all have their own place for maximum effectiveness. Having said that, the one area in which I can improve my entire goal setting is in specificity. I have had problems with my goals being too broad and having learned from this chapter that will no longer be an issue.

Terms: cognitive perspective, ideal state, present state, TOTE model, discrepancy creation, discrepancy reduction, feedback, goal acceptance, process stimulation, eight steps for effective goal setting


Cognitive perspective on motivation focuses on a way a person thinks and believes, focusing on the individual’s mental processes. Individual’s understand how their life is going currently (Present state), and have mental representations of how they would like their life to be (Ideal state). Incongruity forms when an individual’s present state doesn’t match up with their ideal state. Incongruity creates energy and a plan directs our behaviors toward reaching our ideal state, a process known as the TOTE model. Incongruity, rather than the ideal state, provides motivation. Incongruity creates a motive to get closer to the ideal state by creating a want for change from the present state. There are two types of discrepancies: discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. Discrepancy reduction is based on feedback from the environment, telling on how well we are performing. Discrepancy creation is when an individual sets a higher goal/ideal state, that only exists in the individuals mind and doesn’t require feedback from the environment. The chapter then discusses goals, which are whatever the individual is striving to accomplish. A goal should be difficult, allowing the goal to energize behavior. Difficult goals increase effort by energizing individuals to work harder and also increase persistence by providing energy to work longer. Goals should also be specific because specificity directs behavior by increasing attention and increasing planning. Feedback is also needed for goal setting to be effective. Feedback allows an individual to track their progress toward their goal. Without feedback, performance can seem emotionally unimportant. Another important factor in goal setting is goal acceptance, or the individuals choice to accept or reject the goal. Four factors that can affect goal acceptance are: perceived difficulty of goal, participation in goal setting process, credibility of the person assigning the goal, and extrinsic incentives. The chapter then encourages individuals to use short term goals when working toward their ideal state. Long term goals should be broken up into several short term goals, increasing the likelihood that you’ll reach your long term goal. Short term goals generate immediate performance feedback opportunities as well as reinforcement.

The topic that I found to be the most surprising/interesting was the section on implementation intentions. An implementation intention is a plan to carry out the goal directed behavior. One of the biggest problems with reaching goals is that people don’t act on the goals they set, usually because they don’t develop a specific action plan. Implementation intentions help individual’s get started in the presence of daily distractions, persist with difficulties and setbacks, and resume after an interruption occurs. Implementation intentions effect motivation by linking goal directed behavior to a situational cue, such as time and place. Implementation intentions allow goal directed behavior to occur automatically without decision making.

One element of goal setting that I can use to personally obtain my goals is implementing my intentions, or creating a plan. I have no problem setting many specific and difficult goals. However, my main problem is that I create goals but don’t create a detailed plan. By creating a plan to carry out my goal directed behavior, I can overcome distractions, continue working when I encounter difficulties, and continue working toward my goal after interruptions. Implementation intention will also help link my goal directed behavior to situational cues. For example, one of my goals is to study for the GRE. So, I create an implementation intention to study for the GRE from September 21-October 14, in the library from 1:00-3:00 PM. Tomorrow, the date will be September 21 and when 1:00 PM rolls around, the time will initiate my goal directed behavior. Another element of goal setting that will help me personally will be to break my long term goals into several short term goals, allow many opportunities for feedback and reinforcement.


Terms: Incongruity, cognitive perspective, present state, ideal state, TOTE model, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, feedback, goal acceptance, implementation intentions.

Chapter 8 was titled Goal Setting and Goal Striving. It first started off with explaining how people are aware of their present state of behavior, environment and event but also have idea of an ideal state. What this causes is an incongruity and the individual sets up a plan to get rid of the incongruity. It acts as a motivator. Next, the chapter talks about corrective Motivations. This is a four-step process that leads an individual to activate a decision-making process to reduce the incongruity. The book also talks about discrepancy which is the motivation behind wanting to change ones present condition into their ideal condition. There are two types. One is the discrepancy-detecting and discrepancy-creating. Next, the chapter explains that goals need to be difficult, specific, accepted and also receive feedback for them. Having these three factors leads to better goal performance. Also important to goal performance is implementation intentions. They are believed to have positive effects on goal striving by helping people get started, persisting and resuming after interruptions.

The most surprising thing I learned was probably how important it is to have specific and difficult goals. Specific goals help to direct behavior, thus increasing attention as well as increasing planning. And when a goal is difficult it energized the behavior making an individual exert more effort and persistence. I think this was surprising because I know I have set a lot of goal for myself and now I know why they usually fail. My goals tend not to be specific enough so I don’t give enough attention to them.

I know for sure that I will set difficult goals for myself because I usually lack the energy to stay focused. I will also tell someone I am very close with what my goal is. Therefore I can receive feedback which will keep me motivated. I will also use an implementation intention that way I know the specific action plans for how I will achieve my goal.

I think implementation intentions will work better for me because often times I experience setbacks and interruptions and with implementation intentions that is expected. I also believe having specific goals work best for me so that I know exactly what I need to do, or not do, do achieve my goals. Also feedback is important; I don’t believe it is the most important to me. For example, I set a goal of losing 10 pounds so I would be healthier. I received a lot of positive feedback but after losing only 6 pounds I didn’t continue my goal.

TERMS: Corrective Motivations, Goal Setting, Goal Striving, Ideal state, Incongruity, Discrepancy-Detecting, Discrepancy-Creating, Goal Difficulty and Specific Goals, Feedback, Implementation Intentions, Motivation.

The chapter pretty much talked about goals and how we should set/plan to accomplish our goals. It talked about how discrepancy can either put plans into motion or create new goals to accomplish. It also connected how the difficulty of the goal and the specificity of the goal can directly affect the performance of the person who is trying to accomplish the goal. The chapter also talked about how important feedback is with goals. So even if a person has a long term goal, they also need to have short term goals so they can get some positive feedback and still want to accomplish their original goal. While reading, I felt that the book did a good job of showing how many goals that people set can fail due to one or many things they didn’t do when they set the goal or when they were working on accomplishing the goal. Sometimes I think that it is easier to point out what not to do so that you can relate to a broader field of people who set a goal and didn’t accomplish it.

I guess the one thing that I really found surprising was the two types of discrepancy. I always thought of ‘discrepancy’ a more of a negative word. It was interest to see how reduction and creation were used in clarifying goals and creating new ones.

I use multiple elements when it comes to the success of my future career. I have to long-term goal of becoming a police officer. This includes narrowing down what departments I want to apply for, and when. I also have to side goal that I have been working on for almost four years now: running 1.5 miles in 15 minutes. This is something that takes many people out of the running when they try to become an officer. To help, I’ve joined a work-out class and I try to record my run times to see how/if I improve over time.

I try to set goals that are have awards in steps (finishing first in my workout class one day, completing the workout class, increasing my run time, passing police requirements). But when I start on a goal, I set the bar low to see what I can do first. When I started running I was first just walking. After a few weeks, I started adding in jogging to my walking. After a couple months, I could go almost 3x farther in the time I originally started at.

List of terms: goals, plan, discrepancy, difficulty, specificity, performance, feedback, long term goals, short term goals.

Chapter eight focuses on reasons behind our motivational behaviors through goal setting and strivings. Setting plans motivate behavior. We develop an ideal state of mind when we perceive things. We all find things about ourselves that need improvement, because they are simply not up to par with what our ideal self-image consists of. We also acknowledge our present selves by doing so. When the two ideas of an ideal self and present self don’t agree we have what is called incongruity. There is an unequal balance between the two and this helps motivate ourselves to get rid of the incongruity and work toward our ideal self. Once we become consciously aware of incongruity, we develop a plan through what Miller and colleagues exclaimed as the TOTE model. We test our present state compared to our ideal self then act upon it. We test and operate until we finally reach the exit point and reach an ideal state by minimizing our incongruity. We also have to deal with what is called a discrepancy, when our present state does not reach our ideal state. With discrepancy, this acts as another way motivational actions occur, because we want to remove this particular cause affecting us from reaching our ideal state of satisfactory. The chapter further breaks down discrepancy into two forms, discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. Discrepancy reduction gives an environmental standard (ideal) that our present state is not achieving. Discrepancy creation on the other hand is simply creating higher goals for ourselves to reach our ideal state. Setting goals for yourself also strongly motivates behavior. When there is a feat we want to accomplish, often times we develop a goal to reach. The more difficult the goal becomes, the more performance increases. The same goes for specific goals. If I say I am going to go to the gym at 8:00a.m. and shoot 100 free throws for one week straight starting Friday, this would be an example of a specific goal. Goals may range from short-term to long term. There isn’t any evidence provided that the goal is affected by how long or short term it is, however, any goal at all (long or short) involves a higher performance rate than individuals without any goals at all. Long-Term goals may also be developed of many different short-term goals to reach the final outcome. Goals can be extremely difficult to accomplish. Striving to accomplish a goal keeps the motivation of our behaviors in check. Writing out your own goals can be one of the biggest indicators of whether or not you will accomplish your goals.
The most surprising thing I learned was that goal setting may not always be a good thing. I never really thought of setting a goal to be a bad thing, until I read the section on criticisms. If goals are set to standards to high, we often set ourselves up for failure. Depending on the type of person, stress and other distressing events may cause negative effects by not reaching a goal. Setting difficult goals does help increase performance, but too difficult of goals can also induce irrational pressures to accomplish your goals and interfere with autonomy.
In order to achieve my goals right now, I need to write down and focus visually on what I want to achieve. Visualizing my goals is a crucial element to accomplishing my goals. It’s always been real easy to say which things I want to do and focus on an ideal self, but lack the motivation to actually get it done. Mental simulations will be useful in accomplishing my goals, because it allows me to understand the importance of the outcome instead of visualizing dreams and unrealistic goals. I believe different goal strategies will work better for me because we all have different motivations in life. Whether we are intrinsically or extrinsically motivated to perform depends on individual characteristics. Some people want to accomplish goals in short-term, because of environmental pressures. I find myself more internally motivated when it comes to goal setting, because I want to accomplish my goals for myself and feel that I accomplished something. Our motivations require different strategies in goal setting because of discrepancy range as well. Perhaps some people have a smaller gap between present self and ideal self that they only set easy to moderate goals, where I have a much larger discrepancy and goal difficulty.
Terms: plans, TOTE Model, discrepancy reduction & creation, Goal setting, goal difficulty, Long/short term goals, mental simulations, goal pursuit.

This chapter discusses why people make goals, and how they set and strive for goals, and what tactics are/should be used to promote the success of a goal. Goals are defined as whatever an individual is striving to accomplish, and can be positively negatively affected by many different strategies or obstacles. Corrective motivation includes detecting a present-ideal discrepancy, creating a plan to end the discrepancy, starting the behavior the plan entails, and find feedback pertaining to the present-ideal incongruity. Discrepancy is the difference that motivates us to want change--need goals, and is the difference between the present self and the ideal self. There are two types of discrepancies. They are discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation, and the difference between them has to do with where the discrepancy comes from. Is it motivated from the personal-self, or is it a planned to correct? Feedback plays a very important role in motivation to complete a goal, and is defined as knowledge of results allowing people to keep track of progress. Without any feedback, people will not be motivated to strive towards a goal. This is why short-term goals can play a very important role in completing long-term goals--they allow people to see their progress and creates positive reinforcement. If a goal is external, there are four factors that will determine whether the goal is even accepted or not. These goals include perceived difficulty, involvement in setting the goal, credibility of the goal-assigner, and any extrinsic incentives that come along with completing the goal. Mental stimulations are also a strategy used to strive towards a goal and include outcome simulations, which are less effective and process simulation, which includes mentally simulating the process of a goal. One of the most important steps when it comes to setting a goal is actually planning the ways in which you will get to this goal. Implementation intentions are just that--a plan to carry out a goal (When? Where? How?). When goals are more specific and difficult, performance is enhanced and there is more direction.

The most surprising thing I learned was the significance of creating short-term goals and intertwining them with the long-term goal to increase the likelihood and motivation to achieve the certain long-term goal. I definitely see myself incorporating more short term goals into my life. It seems like something that is obvious, but when I actually looked at some of the goals I have and haven’t accomplished it was clear that some of my long term goals were kind of forgotten if they weren’t broken down into the short-term steps that precede that goal.

I will use many elements of goal setting to strive to achieve my goals, but what I think will have the most affect on me will be intertwining more short-term goals and implementation intentions into my long-term goals. It is easy to say I want to get a 4.0 or exercise more often, but after reading the chapter I realize it will be much easier and more effective if I create more short-term and specific goals for myself, as well as plans to carry them out. Setting a goal of getting a 4.0 is not going to be easy if I don’t create short-term goals in between that allow me to receive feedback relatively often and reinforce my effort. I think even though everyone is different, the strategies discussed in the chapter will be helpful to just about anyone when they are trying to better set and achieve their goals. I however, am very busy, and it is very easy for me to lose sight of my long term goals and run into volitional problems if I don’t create implementation intentions to achieve my short-term goals, write them down, and note whether I accomplished the goal or not. Mental simulations like process simulations aren’t as effective for me, and I think it is because I build up the process of doing it so much that it make myself dread doing an assignment which isn’t as big of a deal as I make it out to be when I’m constantly trying to imagine and remind myself I need to get the assignment done. This type of goal striving might work better for others.

Volitional problems, implementation intentions, goal, short-term goal, long-term goal, feedback, corrective motivation, incongruity, mental simulations, outcome simulation, process simulations, goal acceptance, discrepancy, discrepancy creation, discrepancy reduction, plans.

This chapter is all about goals, and more specifically, how to set and strive to accomplish goals. The motivation behind goal setting is a discrepancy or incongruity between one’s present state and one’s ideal state. Whether we set short-term or long-term goals, feedback is an important aspect to let us know that we are, or are not, on the right track to accomplishing the goal. The best type of goal to set is one that is difficult and specific. Difficult goals will energize the performer, and specific goals will direct the performer toward a particular course of action.

I didn’t realize that there were two types of discrepancies that motivate goal setting: discrepancy reduction is based on the discrepancy-detecting feedback that underlies plans and corrective motivation, is reactive, and requires feedback to impose it; discrepancy creation is based on a “feed-forward” system in which the person looks forward and proactively sets a future, higher goal.

I will use short-term goals to achieve my long-term goals. Setting short-term goals will help me to realize the steps I need to take in order to achieve my long-term goals. They will also provide points for feedback & evaluation. Within my short-term goals I will set implementation intentions of when, where, how, and for how long I will do something to accomplish the goals. This specificity will help me get started on my goals, to keep me on track, or to help me get back on track if I get distracted. For short-term goals that are necessary to reach my long-term goals, but are uninteresting, I will also try to find more goal acceptance & ways to create intrinsic motivation.

I think writing down my short-term goals to accomplish my long-term goals and being very specific with my implementation intentions will work the best to help me to accomplish my goals because I am a very detail-oriented person. I use my planner all the time. I make tons of lists. I am a list-maker who receives satisfaction when I can cross something off of my list. In fact, just this morning I made out a huge list of all that I have to do this week, in the coming weeks (both in school and in my personal life), and to prepare for my internship next summer. Just the act of writing these tasks down and visualizing an organized list of what all I need to accomplish motivated me to get moving to get some of the things on my list done so I can cross it off my list and not worry about it anymore. Even though I did not get to take a nap between classes today, I sure got a lot accomplished on my list!

Terms from chapter used: discrepancy, incongruity, difficulty, specificity, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, short-term goals, long-term goals, feedback, evaluation, implementation intentions, goal acceptance, and intrinsic motivation

Chapter 8 focuses on the concept of goals and the process of goal setting. Goals are things people hope to accomplish. These goals can arise from the discrepancy between present state and ideal state and then if the right goal is set, then it can motivate someone to accomplish their objective. To set a worthwhile goal, it should be fairly difficult and specific. The difficulty drives someone to stay motivated and the specificity doesn't allow the person to switch between their interpretation of their goal. In order to fully execute a goal, one needs to set implementation intentions that sort of define how one can accomplish their goal and when they are wanting to accomplish it.
The thing that surprised me about this chapter was how the authors emphasize that the goal should be difficult. In past classes, I was under the impression that goal difficult was more of a curvilinear relationship rather than linear. If a goal is too difficult, then one might be apt to give up. Therefore, a curvilinear relationship would give support that somewhat of a difficult goal needs to be set, but too difficult could undermine performance similarly to easy goals.
When trying to set goals that I can obtain, I am going to start be more specific and create more implementation intentions. The goal specificity will allow me to have a specific idea of what I want to try and accomplish. I tend to set vague goals that allow me "wiggle room" when accomplishing, but I may not necessarily accomplish everything I want to because I switch around my interpretation. The implementation intention would be the ultimate thing to use when striving to meet met my goals, as it gives direction to the goal, a timetable for the goal, and more purpose to the goal.
Goal setting strategies that are more effective for me are receiving feedback and defining goal difficulty. I value receiving feedback because it allows me to check my progress on goals and as well to see if I was fully able to accomplish a goal. Lack of feedback creates uncertainty in my work and could end up hindering further work towards a goal. When I set goals, I always try to set goals that are difficult enough to keep me motivated, but not too difficult that it doesn't seem attainable. For me, the key factor in setting goals is whether is attainable. If the goal seems "too far off the course" then I might not remain as motivated to accomplish the goal.

Terms: Goals, goal setting, feedback, discrepancy, present state/ideal state, goal difficulty, goal specificity, implementation intentions

This chapter focused on the cognitive aspects of goal setting, starting with making a goal and what qualities go into a good goal. A goal can arise from a discrepancy between your present state and your ideal state. In order to achieve your ideal state, you have to know how it compares to your present state. From there, you use standards to define what performance is in relation to this goal. We learned that a goal should be both specific and difficult. Specificity in a goal helps to direct behavior, helping us pay attention to it and plan better. Difficulty energizes our behavior, giving us effort and persistence. It is similar to the optimal challenge we discussed in an earlier chapter.
Feedback is also important to goal setting. Without feedback, we may not have an objective way to define our performance level and whether we are at our standard. This can act to reinforce us for our behavior or punish us for less optimal behavior.
Some variables that moderate the relationship between the goal and the performance are goal acceptance, goal choice, and whether the goal is short term or long term. Short term goals are more manageable, but make our thinking short term as well. Long term goals are more difficult to uphold and require more effort and dedication. A way to help make them easier is to split them up into shorter steps, effectively making a number of short term goals. Goal acceptance can be affected by the perceived difficulty of the goal, the credibility of the person setting the goal, how much we participated in the goal making process, and what extrinsic motivations there are. Basically, how much dedication we give to the goal based upon what role we had in making it and the factors it is defined by. Goal choice is influenced by our self-efficacy, our ability, our past performances, and the available incentives. This is more about what goals we chose based on what we think we can handle personally.
Goals are really important in achievement. They can help us clarify our wants and what standards we have set for ourselves, and be more likely to achieve our desires than without goal-making. However, when making a goal we still have to be careful of the stress it can induce, be aware of the possibility of failure, make sure we don't neglect other areas of our life, or let our intrinsic motivation slide off from all of the cognitive processes in making the goal.
I was surprised by the listing of the pitfalls of goal making at first, but afterward it made sense to list the possible negatives involved with such focused thinking and behavior. In making my goals in the present and future, I think I will head the advice of being specific and outline my goals with standards and definitions that way I know whether I am working toward my goal or not. Otherwise, I typically just set a general course towards my ideal state without much of a laid-out plan or standards to work by. I actually used my break time today to write out all of my current goals and try to set a basic standard or definition to them so I can't pretend I am working at it when I am really not at my desired performance level. I think the difficulty aspect comes fairly naturally, but perhaps laying out what would make my task more difficult or more easy would help me to see whether I should be challenging myself more or whether I should give myself a break. I really do think that planning out my goals will help a lot, so I'm happy about the ideas this chapter has given me for making a basic action plan.

Terms used: discrepancy, present state, ideal state, standards, goal specificity, goal difficulty, persistence, feedback, goal acceptance, goal choice, short term goals, long term goals.

Chapter 8 focused on goal setting and striving. A goal is defined as what you wish to accomplish. Goals fall under the cognitive perspective of motivation and mental process. There is an action sequence to this process and it involves plans, goals, implantation, and stimulation. There is the present state (where you currently are) and the ideal state (where you wish to be) when the ideal state is not met there is an incongruity or discrepancy. There are two forms of discrepancy, discrepancy reduction and creation. Discrepancy reduction is reactive, absence overcoming, and is centered around a feedback system. It asks the question “are you performing at the ideal state?” Discrepancy creation is proactive, encourages growth, and works on a feed-forward system. This provides a new goal to attain. Goals are better attained when there is perceived difficulty because more effort and energy are exerted by the performer. When goals are specific and not vague it directs attention, planning, and increases performance. So the more difficult and specific a goal is the more performance is enhanced. Goals also need feedback to see if progress is happening or not happening toward the goal. Goal acceptance is also important, accepting someone else’s goal as your own. To summarize, the steps to goal setting include what is the goal, difficulty level, specificity level, and feedback. When it comes to actually carrying out the goal there is goal striving which includes goal acceptance as mentioned earlier, strategies to get to the goal, implementing those efforts, and feedback. Factors that affect goal acceptance are perceived difficulty, participation in the goal setting process, credibility of the person setting the goal, and extrinsic incentives. When thinking of strategies to attain the goal and implementation efforts it is important to be very specific. Like “I will go to the library every Wednesday morning and read so that I am prepared for the big exam coming up”.
What surprised me the most was all the details that went into setting a goal and striving for a goal. Who knew there was so much to this! I also thought how the models for goal setting and striving can be applied to basically anything and it would work.
I think I could use pretty much all the elements about goal setting and striving in this chapter to achieve my goals. I really like the long term versus short term goals. I often look at the big picture in a goal and not all the steps that are required to achieve the overall goal. It would actually make more sense to set short term goals along the way than think of the end result all the time and I would think it would reduce some stress. Even just writing down my goal I think would be beneficial to me.
I think defining my goal would work well for me, actually being specific on what it is I wish to accomplish will help eliminate confusion or stress. I know this would be very helpful on group projects and offer clarity to everyone involved. It will help narrow my goal, sometimes I set goals that are too broad and require a ton of effort. When it would have been better to have a very specific goal. I think I would use implementation and short term and long term goals together rather than totally separate. I could implement short goals that would help me achieve my overall goal.
Terms: Goal, goal setting, goal striving, incongruity, discrepancy, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, feedback, implementation, goal specificity, goal difficulty, goal acceptance, goal striving strategies, extrinsic incentives, long term goal, short term goal, cognitive perspective of motivation and mental process, action sequence, ideal state, current state.


chapter 8 was over goal setting and goal striving. Chapter 8 talked about the cognitive perspective on motivation. Where cognitions are mental event. Cognitive sources of motivation revolve around a persons way of thinking. The following motivational agents in the cognition were also talked in this chapter: plans, goals, implementation intentions, and mental simulations.

Present state represents the persons current state, and the ideal state represents how the persons wishes life were going. So when the present state falls short of the hoped-for ideal state a discrepancy is exposed. It is the discrepancy rather than the ideal state that has motivational properties. Discrepancy creates the sense of wanting to change the present state so it will move closer toward the ideal state. There are two types of discrepancy, the first type of discrepancy is discrepancy reduction which refers to the discrepancy- detecting feedback that underlies plans and corrective motivation. And the second type of discrepancy is discrepancy creation, this type of discrepancy is based on a feed-forward system in which the person looks forward and proactively sets a future, higher goal.

Goal settings is whatever an individual is striving to accomplish. Goal setting enhances performance, but the type of goal one sets is a key determinant in the extent to which a goal translates into performance gains,as goals vary in how difficult they are and in how specific they are. When a goal is specific it increases attention, therefore a person works towards that goal with more focus, therefore the end result is enhanced performance. When a goal is difficult it energizes behavior it increases effort and persistence and a person works harder and longer.

Feedback or knowledge of results allow people to keep track of any progress toward their goal. Which means a performer needs both a goal and feedback to maximize performance. And without feedback performance can be emotionally unimportant and uninvolving. The four factors that determine whether an externally set goal will be accepted or rejected are the perceived difficulty of the imposed goal, participation in the goal setting process, credibility of the person assigning the goal, and extrinsic incentives.

Terms: feedback, goals, discrepancy, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, motivation,


Planning to achieve a goal that you have set is crucial to achieving your goal. When looking at the cognitive perspective of motivation it is important to remember that everyone has different beliefs and thinks differently about life and how to solve complex problems. That said; there are specific actions we can take to effectively achieve goals we create.

The first step is to PLAN. In this step we decipher between the here and now and what we want to have achieved down the road. For example, right now my car is a mess (present state) and I want my car to be clean (future/ “ideal” state). Inconsistencies in an individual’s behavior or environment motivate them to achieve the future state. These inconsistencies are also known as discrepancies or incongruities. Secondly, goals must be created. Like plans, goals also rate differences, differences in performance, income, etc. When we create goals that are specific and difficult, performance is generally increased if it is paired with feedback to track progress and also internalization of a goal. i.e.) do you feel competent that you can achieve the goal? If planning is used with goal setting, a goal directed action is produced. For example if I just wish for improved writing skills, they will most likely not be bestowed upon me. However, if I cognitively plan out what I can do to improve my writing skills, my goal/desire is more likely to be achieve/attained.

The third step is making our goal directed action specific. What and when we will carry out our plan to achieve our goal? This is known as implementation intentions. We may intend to get our homework done, however without implementing ground rules or a specific time or place we will work, our intentions may be thwarted by distractions. Finally, combing all the previous steps allows us to engage in the last; cognitive processing of goals through strategic and specific planning. This also means figuring out how to persist with a difficult goal.

For me, the planning phase of the cognitive perspective of motivation was the most interesting. It seems so elementary and easy to understand but without the other phases there is generally not a successful outcome. It reminded me of the ‘argument’ between the unconscious id and conscious superego. There is always an internal battle between where we are in our lives and what we hope to attain or achieve. Much like the ego mediates problems between the id and superego, other phases of the CPM allow us to achieve or attain our ideal state.
The tip I will mostly likely remember is not to practice in “wishful thinking” without planning out how to make it a reality. Like I mentioned before, improved writing skills will not just be given to me. I must plan out and work to achieve that goal.

*Not to be a downer, just couldn't wrap my mind around my thoughts completely - see below>>
While reading this chapter all I could think of aside from all the things I wish I had or wanted to achieve was a movie I recently watched titled, “Fateless” (2005). In short, the movie is about a Jewish boy that is taken into custody by Nazi’s during the Holocaust and his experiences of concentration camps, near starvation, and many other atrocities he was forced to endure. With help from another man, the main character begins to understand his present state and creates an ideal of where he would like to be. They then create specific plans and lay out actions they will take to progress towards achieving their long term goals (Walking the streets of Budapest/ Seeing Family). They do this using short term goals: surviving one day at a time by rationing what little food they received and staying as clean as they were allowed. Their self-esteem is beaten down day after day yet they persist even in the face of such despair. It makes me wonder if the will to live is in a separate category from daily and life goals. How were Holocaust survivors able to motivate themselves to push forward day after day of such inhumane treatment?

-Cognitive Perspective of Motivation -Discrepancies –Incongruities –Goal Directed Action - feedback -

Chapter 8 essentially describes how we perceive the difference between our present state and our ideal state and endeavor to make our ideal a reality. It is the discrepancy that motivates us to set goals to make change, and our goals energize and direct our actions toward accomplishing/achieving/obtaining our desires. In goal setting, those that are difficult/challenging and specific are most motivational toward improvement because they both energize and direct our behavior. Feedback is also necessary to both define our performance (evaluate where we are/where we need to be) and either reinforce or punish the efforts made at a given time. Both satisfaction and dissatisfaction with performance have motivational qualities toward future goal setting/revising. When goals are presented to us (not chosen BY us), they must be internalized/accepted in order to result in improved performance. In other words, they must be somehow personalized to truly motivate toward improvement. Long-term goals are best broken down into a series of short-term goals in order to provide immediate feedback, reinforcement, and continued commitment. Most crucial for goal success, moreso even than having a clearly imagined outcome, is to mentally simulate the PROCESS by which you plan to work toward meeting your goal. Focusing on when, where, and how the goal will be implemented is often more fruitful than simply stating WHAT the goal is.

Based on the four predictors of goal choice (ability, past performance, self-efficacy, and incentives), goal-setting must be a very individualized process. Personally, my ability and sense of self-efficacy are enough to prompt me to set challenging goals, but my past performance sometimes plants seeds of doubt in my foundational ideals. While I know that I am capable, I also know that my tendency to procrastinate has often gotten the best of me and has prevented me from achieving what I know I am capable of. For me, having specific (written?) “implementation intentions” is what would be most effective toward moving me toward my aspirations. The problem with being a responsible adult is that there are rewards available for NOT meeting goals as well. When the punishments and rewards are intangible (not getting an assignment done, so not getting the grade desired), the tangible rewards one allows one’s self (to be entertained in myriad ways) is sometimes more immediately satisfying that the impending disappointment of getting that bad grade eventually. Having a strict sense of self-discipline is a key factor in the “planning” aspect of goal setting. I think this may be the most crucial aspect for me, because I know of my shortcomings in the “persisting” and “resuming” areas of planning. Also, I tend to work best under pressure, but then wish I had more time to do what I know I should have started earlier in order to perform at the level I know I am capable of. Because of this, I get a feeling of anxiety when deadlines approach, which then makes it more difficult for me to focus. Perhaps both setting specific, implementation intentions AND developing a system of incentives/rewards is what I need in order to be able to override the challenge of avoiding distractions and not feeling daunted by challenging tasks. I remember from college (the first time) reading an article in the Daily Iowan that said to follow the “10 minute rule,” meaning, give yourself ten minutes to get into whatever task you are avoiding, and if after ten minutes you still can’t focus, do something different. Most likely though, thirty minutes will pass before you realize that you forgot to check if it had been ten yet! The hardest part is always getting started!

Terms: present state, ideal state, discrepancy, feedback, reinforce, punish, satisfaction, dissatisfaction, internalized/accepted, long-term goals, short-term goals, mental simulation, implementation intentions, self-efficacy, incentives, persisting, resuming

Chapter 8’s main focus was about goals and how we motivate ourselves to set these goals and try to achieve them. When we are setting goals we have a cognitive idea about ourselves and what we are trying to become which is present state and ideal state. Present state is the current state that we are at and what we believe we are at. Ideal state is what we strive to become or different tasks we want to achieve in life and in everyday things.
Then, when we are goal setting there are two things determine what they are. For the first one it is standard, which is the reference point for guided subsequent mental and physical action so one can evaluate adequacy for one’s performance. Then, there is the incentive, which is the motive that makes you want to achieve the current goal and for you work hard for that goal. From the incentive there is two ways for you stick with your goal, which is difficulty and specific. For difficulty, it how much does this task make you work that you are working hard enough that it’s not too easy, but that it isn’t impossible for you to ever achieve that goal. Difficulty energizes our behavior that it makes us want to work harder to achieve enhanced performance and then to keep working for even better. Next, we have specific goals, which are the focus of an individual’s attention toward the task at hand and therefore away from tasks that are incidental.
Then for us to keep at a goal we need feedback which is knowledge of results, which allows people to keep track of any progress toward their goal. This helps us in two different ways. One it defines our performance, which means how well we are doing and the things that we need to tweak here and there to have a better outcome next time. For the second one feedback can be used as a reinforcer or punisher. For instance, when we are performing a certain task like when losing weight and people saying you’re looking good and that they are proud of you for staying on this new goal you are reinforced to keep with it. Also, it can be a punisher, that when you have studied really hard for a test and when you finally get the results back you didn’t do so well it can wreck your self-confidence.
For someone to stick to a goal and make sure we see a result is that we have, goal acceptance. Goal acceptance is a person’s decision whether to accept or to deny a goal. That we notice the difference between long term and short term goals. That long term goals are usually a goal that might take several years to accomplish and take a lot of persistence, but we need short-term goals in between to give us feedback and satisfaction for all the work we have done. Then there is goal choice which the goal we are achieving something as simple as trying to lose a couple of pounds in a few weeks or as hard as going for your MD and just starting freshmen year of college.
The surprising thing I learned and made me think is that we do need incentives to keeps us with our tasks and things constantly reminding us that we are doing good or what things we need to change to achieve our goal in the future. Like when we were talking about writing our goals down in class that it would probably push me to stick with something better and notice my progress more. To achieve my goals I think about what it can do to better me in physically, finically, and emotionally because then if the goal seems to be reasonable and have good results in the end I want to try to achieve it. I think my goal setting strategies are actually pretty bad because I’m a huge procrastinator and I’m lazy so I really have to kick my ass to get myself going on a lot of things even though sometimes they aren’t as good or they are at the last minute. But I feel that keeps me motivated at sticking with things is the fear of letting myself or others down, so that’s what keeps me going on most tasks.
Terms: Present State, Ideal state, goal setting, incentive, difficulty, specific, feedback, goal acceptance, long term goals, short term goals, goal choice

This chapter focuses on goals and goal setting. A goal is whatever an individual is trying to accomplish. A goal can be formed by discrepancies between who they are now, their present state, and who they want to be, their ideal state. When the person’s present state isn’t how they wish it would be, or if it falls short of how they would like, this forms a discrepancy. This discrepancy allows for motivation to occur. The person is motivated to reach the ideal state and eliminate the discrepancy. Standards and incentives guide the formation and implementation of goals. When setting a goal, one must make sure the goal is both specific and direct. When the goal is difficult, this energizes the person’s behavior, which increases the effort and persistence of achieving the goal. When the goal is specific, this directs the behavior in the appropriate direction, which increases attention and planning. These two together allow for an enhanced performance and make the goal more attainable. Feedback is very important to goal setting. By keeping track of one’s progress, one is able to maximize their performance. Feedback defines performance and also acts as a reinforcer or punisher. By documenting one’s progress, the person is able to process if they are on track to attain the goal. First and foremost, the person must either accept or reject the goal. This is goal acceptance. Long-term goals are very difficult to achieve because they are over a prolonged period of time and therefore are unreinforced. Without the immediate performance feedback the goal commitment decreases. It is better to translate the long-term goal into several short-term goals that will keep the person committed. Implementation intentions are crucial to setting goals. These are specific goal-directed actions and include two steps. First the goal must be set. Second, there must be a plan on how to attain that goal. This includes getting started despite any distractions; persisting; and resuming when there is an interruption.
The most surprising thing I learned was how easy the chapter made it seem to make a goal and follow through with it. It all sounds so simple when written out. I also found the idea of implementation intentions interesting. It seems like a pretty obvious thing to me when setting a goal, to write out timelines or outlines of what I want to do and when I want to do it. I am definitely a planner so this seems all pretty obvious and simple. But when reading about implementation intentions it made sense that this might not always be so obvious. A big part of planning how to attain the goal is persisting in spite of difficulties, and resuming when an interruption occurs, and this made a lot of sense to me. When you have the goal and plan written out, it makes it easier to resume the plan when you’ve gotten off course, for you have it all laid out in front of you and therefore have less excuses to not return back to the plan.
As stated above, the implementation intention is very helpful to me. I am a planner, and therefore when I have a goal in mind I write everything out. An example of a goal I have is to run the Living History Farms Off Road Race in November. I am not a runner – I highly detest running in fact, so completing a 7 mile race is a big goal for me. When I set this goal I found a training guide online that set out a mileage plan, increasing the miles I run each week so I can steadily progress up to running 7 miles. When I found the plan I proceeded to write out on my calendar each day I was to run the next 2 months and the number of miles I was supposed to run each day. This is my form of an implementation intention. If I write out what I’m supposed to do and when I’m supposed to be doing it, this increases the likelihood that I will do it. One element that I will use more often when setting a goal is feedback. Oftentimes when I set a goal I make a big commitment to achieve the goal, but as the days and weeks go on I start to slack on my progress or plan. I don’t often reflect on what I’ve been doing, and so by periodically looking back on my progress and using feedback, this will allow me to do a better job at sticking with the plan.
Again, I am a planner, so implementation intentions are very helpful to me. One thing I don’t do well with is attainment strategies. I don’t always think all the way through the goal and identify any possible pitfalls I may come across. So by thinking through attainment strategies I may be more successful in achieving my goals.
Terms: Goal setting, discrepancy, present state vs. ideal state, standards, incentives, specific and direct, feedback, goal acceptance, long-term vs. short-term, implementation intentions

The goal setting and goal striving chapter was about what goals are and what works to motivate people to achieve these goals. It talks about what is needed to maintain and accomplish the goals and also what is discouraging during the process.
Ultimately a goal is something a person is trying to accomplish, and people tell you all the time, you can do anything you want, as long as you put your all into it. I firmly am a person who believes this statement. I have always been a goal-oriented person, and have achieved a lot more goals than I ever could have imagined I would have 5 years ago. The main function for setting a goal is having a current or present state and then having a state you want to be; the difference in between the present and ideal state is the discrepancy you wish to removed to attain that ideal state of place. Goals can be an average thing you wish to do or they can have a reward behind it, and they can both be positive. In order to achieve goals you put your mind to you first must accept the goal as your own. If you are not truly wanting the goal you're working to achieve, you are just setting yourself up for failure. In order to keep from being bored and/or giving up, your goal must be reasonable difficult, and the more specific you get about a goal, the easier it is to achieve it. I found it very surprising that if you write something down, you're more apt to attain your goal. Had I known this long ago, I would have had pen and paper with me at every second.
As I'm in the Careers of Psychology class, I've been becoming more and more sick with anxiety about my future. I've been learning things I wish I knew my freshman year, or even before that. I am realizing how much I'm unprepared for quite a bit of things in my very near future. I know a few others in the same boat as I am, and they tell me they want to throw in the towel, but I've found myself telling them, "you just can't give up..if you do, you ultimately have nothing and then you really ARE screwed." I'm taking the hits as they come and trying to turn them into a positive. Looking at the big picture, I'm trying to let the stress that's building give me more motivation, I'm trying to look at the bigger picture and not let failure get the best of me, and I'm honestly trying to start doing the things that should have been in progress or done.. just because they NEED to be done rather than not done at all. It's better late than never, right? My goals that I've been creating for myself because of this class are becoming more realistic and attainable. They are becoming more fit for my needs, rather than for others. I've always been somewhat of a people pleaser, and I'm finally wiping clean of that and focusing on myself and my needs for my future. My goals are becoming more suited to what I enjoy and like (giving me extrinsic motivation and prevent boredom), I'm accepting my own goals and I'm looking for feedback. You have to fail to learn and I feel I could write a book about my failures, but at least I can say I've learned A LOT! I have been raised to have a lot of pride and I feel absolutely fantastic when I achieve something I've been looking forward to. There are some people out there who don't get that type of satisfaction because people are all completely different and have different goals they want to achieve. You have to find your own niche when it comes to goal setting and successes, otherwise, you're truly not accepting your own goal. I am a very hands-on person, I can take criticism, but there are those who absolutely can't deal with hands-on or criticism at all. I have taken steps to do what I want.. they have to do just the same, for them. I am also a very persistent person with a lot of integrity and courage, and it takes skills as such to stay motivated and optimistic. Those who can't deal with failure, probably can't handle success.. you must fail many times in order to learn something and gain something out of experiences. If you're not willing to try, or give up after the first shot, it's a safe bet to make that you're not going to get anywhere.

Terms: Goal setting, striving, plan, specific, goal difficulty, extrinsic motivation, feedback, acceptance, discrepancy, criticism, satisfaction, persistence, skills, stress, progress, ideal state of place, present state of place, incentives (rewards).

This chapter was about goal setting. But first it talks about planning, the process by which one might remove incongruity. An incongruity is a difference in an ideal state and the personal present state that causes discontentment. Corrective motivation pushes us to review incongruities and evaluate our plans, which must be flexible. Planning and corrective motivation focus on a discrepancy reduction principle; the environment giving feedback on behavior that is measured to a standard. Goal setting is more the discrepancy creating type; it’s based on a personal future ideal instead of an environmental comparison to a personal level. The book defines a goal as “whatever an individual is striving to accomplish” and I feel that gives a good summary of what the chapter is all about. How we accomplish those things we strive to do. A goal must be difficult and specific; the desired outcome should not be vague or easily accomplished as it can then be easily ignored. A difficult and specific goal will energize and direct behavior, respectively, and enhance the overall performance in goal attainment. With goals, there must be feedback, documentation of the performer’s progress on the goal attainment. In order to determine whether you have reached your goal or made progress towards it, one must have some way to get feedback. With the feedback, performance can be analyzed and that can cause emotion. If a performance did not reach the goal, negative feelings are typical as the opposite is also true. Both positive and negative feelings can motivate further goals or plans. If a goal was not attained, the process of discrepancy reduction can be used to plan and remove the incongruity. A positive outcome may lead to a loftier goal. Goal acceptance is also important; committing to a goal given to an individual by another party. The more accepted an external goal is, the more internalized it will become and the higher the likelihood it will be achieved. Ways to increase goal acceptance include participation in the goal setting process, seeing the difficulty level as reasonable, having some credible source giving and enforcing the goal, and possibly receive extrinsic rewards.
There are also negative aspects of goal setting, such as distress upon negative feedback, possible failure, and possible loss of intrinsic motivation. Controlling goals create pressure and stifle creativity and autonomy. Long-term goals are another possible issue with goal setting, if the goal is too far off, there is no feedback until the goal is reached and the lack of feedback can make continuation of the goal striving process difficult. However, long term goals create a sense of autonomy in reaching them and can increase intrinsic motivation compared to short term goals. Failing goals can be a problem with the goal itself or the lack of action. Implementation intention is a specific plan on how to go about beginning a goal. The easiest way to start a goal is to actually start; just taking that first step brings you that much closer to the attainment and increases your likelihood of completion. Persistence even during difficulties and resuming upon interruption also are incredibly helpful to goal completion.
The most interesting/surprising part of this chapter was the study on women who wrote down their breast examination date for their goal versus women who did not, a whopping 100% who wrote down their goal achieved it while only 53% of the women who did not write their goal down achieved it. Even in the other studies on even more intensive tasks, simply writing down the goal made it more likely to be achieved.
Personally, the ideas proposed in this chapter are very helpful. What we discussed in class about future planning and that chart in the book about becoming a concert pianist seem like really great ideas, I’m a junior and still have no idea what I want to do after college. I need to start making some goals for myself. I will try to set a long term goal with multiple short term goals within it in order to receive the feedback from those on my way. I don’t know if I am interested in attending graduate school and setting some goals for myself before graduation will help me to determine whether they seem attainable without grad school. Some strategies work better than others depending upon what people are intrinsically motivated to do. Some people (not me) already have a long term goal in mind and are intrinsically motivated to reach that goal and need only set some short term goals before reaching that final goal. I have a short term goal to get my undergrad in psychology but no long term goal so I have nothing further on to pull me through this short term goal and keep me motivated.

Terms: plans, incongruity, corrective motivation, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, goals, goal difficulty, goal specificity, feedback, goal acceptance, implementation intention


This chapter was about the cognitive process behind motivation. Specifically, it looks at the cognition—action sequence, and the four elements it involves: plans, goals, implementation intentions, and mental simulations.

Everyone has two states of being: their present state and their ideal state. Their present state is everything in their environment, behaviors, etc; their ideal state is how they envision these same elements in an ideal way. When these two states do not match, people have discrepancies.

Plans are derived from discrepancy reduction. So if there is a discrepancy in one’s life that they would like to minimize or get rid of, they make plan-orientated behavior. For example, I am very messy: I leave my clothes lying all over my room (in fact I am currently looking at my dirty laundry pile as I type this blog), and I am not so good about putting things away. I would like to get rid of that bad behavior, so I made a plan to stay for clean this year, for my sake and especially for my roommates.

Goals are derived from discrepancy creation. These are the outcomes and objectives that people want to accomplish. Goals that are difficult and specific help improve performance, because they require persistence and direction. These can provide either negative or positive emotions, depending on how you perform in relation to your goal level.

I was surprised at how many “steps” were involved in the goal setting process. I have kind of always thought of goal setting as simply “1) Set a goal. 2) Make plans to accomplish it. 3) Do it.” However, much more goes into it than that.

I think one of the biggest steps for me to achieve my goals are within the goal striving process. I have no problem coming up with and setting goals, but the next steps are where I can tend to falter. I need to be more proactive in discussing goal attainment strategies and creating implementation strategies. For example, for the last couple years I have been trying to get back into the habit of exercising on a regular basis. These goals are not hard to make, but sometimes hard to strive for. This year, I really took major steps towards goal-attainment strategies and creating implementation. For the first couple weeks, my roommates and I woke up at 6 AM three days per week to work out at the WRC. However, these strategies have been floundering, and I will need to revisit these strategies.

I think for me, I have always been pretty good at the early stages of the goal-setting process. I see a problem or discrepancy within my own life or the world around me, and I have goals on how to change it. I have been good at being able to point and articulate the goals I am shooting for. However, being sometimes overly ambitious, these goals can be a struggle to accomplish.


Terms: cognition-action sequence, plans, goals, present state, ideal state, discrepancy, plan-orientated behavior, goal-striving, goal-setting

Chapter 8 is all about making and pursuing goals. The author first discusses the concept of discrepancy, which is defined as a disconnect between our present state (how we are) and our ideal state (how we would like to be). This is not all that surprising, but it is not how many would typically view goal setting. Most would likely assume that the motivating factors are inherent in the ideal state itself; however, it is a bit more complicated than that – the motivation likes in the contrast between the less-than-exemplary present and our ideal future. This can either be accomplished through discrepancy reduction or discrepancy creation. These are comparable to somewhat of a ‘glass half-empty/glass half-full” approach – either one can become motivated through reducing deficiencies based upon preexisting feedback, or one can choose to be proactive and generate discrepancies to be overcome.

In order to facilitate enhanced performance in attaining one’s goals, it is paramount to make those goals both adequately difficult and specific. Difficult goals provide an energy boost that increases an individual’s effort and persistence, and specific goals provide a focused direction for this energy. Next, it is important accept the goal as one’s own and find a way to receive necessary feedback while striving to achieve it. In addition to defining the quality of one’s performance, getting feedback on progress allows a person to become emotionally involved in the process. This produces negative or positive feeling that can serve as reinforcement or punishment that can catalyze future goal-setting endeavors.

This leads to the area of goal-setting in which people most often fail: implementation intentions. All too often, we as humans tend to focus too strongly on the end result instead of the actions it will take to get there. The aim of implementation intentions is to link an effective behavior with situational cues so that advantageous choices can be made unconsciously. This takes a great deal of willpower and rather meticulous planning, but it is indeed possible.

I think the most surprising thing for me in the chapter is simply the power of thoughtful action. One of modern humanity’s greatest shortcomings is our ability to allow our circumstances to dictate choices throughout each day. Yes, it is good to relax and live in the moment sometimes, but too frequently we wake up in the morning and decide how that day will go on a whim. People often do not want to be slaves to a personal routine, but isn’t that much more preferable when faced with the alternative of being slaves to sporadic choice and underpreparedness?

I believe it is important for me to concentrate on specificity and effective implementation when setting my goals. Even I tend to fall victim to that common evil of having my “eyes on the prize”. The more meticulous I can be in doing so, the better, because honestly we are all remarkably programmable when it comes right down to it. The major difficulty for me with goal-setting in contemporary life is how easy it is to fall off track. The world today has so many distractions, whether it be TV and movies on demand, video games, junk food, sex, alcohol…you name it. Any and all of these can undermine our best implementation intentions and send us down a path of bad habits. I think it is most important for me to recognize these tendencies and counteract them with scrupulous short-term motivations that can allow me to optimize the use of my time.

Terms: goals, goal setting, discrepancy, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, goal difficulty, goal specificity, feedback, goal acceptance, implementation intentions, present state, ideal state

This chapter talked about the cognitive perspective on motivation. It explained that the cognitive study of motivation is the cognition to action sequence. There are four elements in the cognition to action sequence—plans, goals, implementation intentions, and mental simulations. The book talked about how plans and goals are based on a discrepancy or mismatch between a person’s present state and their ideal state. This also is the “spring to action” for the motivation. It talked about the test-operate-test-exit model to further explain the discrepancy motivation. Basically, one tests and then checks and if the incongruity continues they keep testing until their ideal state is satisfied. This is known as the corrective motivation, too. There were two types of discrepancies discussed. Discrepancy reduction uses a feedback detection to help with plans and corrective motivation—plan-based and reactive, deficiency overcoming, and feedback based. The other is discrepancy creation—goal-setting and proactive and growth pursuing. This uses a “feed-forward” system. The person thinks about the situation and then intrinsically sets a future, higher goal. For both of these discrepancy is the big factor that effects the motivation. Then the book talked in detail about goal-setting. Generally people that have set goals outperform people that don’t have goals. Then performance discrepancy was talked about. It said that the higher the goal, then the more effort is put in to reach the goal, and that the more specific one’s goal is, then the more effort will be put in to react it. Some side things that happen with this is that one can develop a better way to work towards a goal and a person will start to persist longer on a goal if discrepancies are taken out. Another main factor in goal setting is feedback. The feedback helps to track if one is getting to the standard or getting better. Another big part of goals was the goal acceptance. One has to accept the goal in order to achieve it or discrepancies will appear and the goal won’t be met. This means you have to make the goal your own. There were four factors for acceptance—perceived difficulty, participation in goal-setting, credibility of person assigning goal, and extrinsic incentives. Difficulty is related to the goal acceptance inversely, meaning easier equals higher acceptance and vice versa. Extrinsic incentives help by increasing the person’s goal acceptance based on their need for the reward. There were also three pitfalls of goal-setting—stress, opportunities for failure, and creativity and intrinsic motivation can be put at risk. Then the book talked about long-term goal setting. It can sometimes be hard to keep these and that’s why it’s good to have short-term goals along the way to help you reach the long-term goals. Then it talked about the goal striving and that is good to focus on the action and how to accomplish our goals. It gave an implementation intention for goals or the “when, where, and how long” for goal direction.
Most surprising thing was the facts about how most people just look at the future for goal striving and that made me think about my personal goals and how I need to change that quick since I am a senior and running out of time.
I think goal-setting will be much easier now if I use the short-term goals in order to help achieve my long-term goals. I never really thought about it helping me achieve a bigger picture thing so now that I am conscious of it, it will help a lot.
I think focusing of the goal more will be the biggest help to me for future goal-setting. I sometimes can get distracted and mismanage my goals but I feel like the focus would help get rid of the clutter in my brain. And the fact of just writing all my goals down will probably be a big help, too. I feel like if I got a planner today and started to write all of them down, things would be a lot easier for me.
Terms used:
Plans, goals, implementation intentions, discrepancy, test-operate-test-exit model, corrective motivation, Discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, feedback, and goal acceptance

Chapter 8 was about the importance of goal setting and goal striving. Goal setting happens when we strive to accomplish something. We set goals to generate our motivation by “focusing people’s attention on the discrepancy”. Discrepancies exist when our present state is different from our ideal state. Goal striving consists of our means we use to attain our goal. The chapter pointed out that goals must be specific and difficult in order to motivate us. Difficult goals energize our behavior and specific goals direct our behavior. The most surprising and interesting thing I learned in this chapter was that “goal setting aids performance on uninteresting, straightforward tasks by generating motivation that the task itself cannot generate”. The chapter mentioned that “for tasks that are inherently interesting and require creativity or problem solving, goal setting does not enhance performance”. I found this surprising because I think even with things that I like doing, setting goals does enhance my performance. For example, when I draw I like to set goals like finishing it before a certain date. It allows me to be more productive on the project and also makes me finish the piece. I found the section on long term and short term goals really interesting. The chapter pointed out that short term goals create opportunities for positive feedback for uninteresting tasks. I think this is important because obviously as a college student we are supposed to do a lot of things that probably are uninteresting, but by setting short term goals it can make the task more enjoyable by gaining a sense of competence and success from the feedback of the boring task. It is important to know that goal proximity affects persistence and intrinsic motivation. It is important to use short term goals in order to reach a longer term goal. Short term goals help keep the person motivated by providing feedback, which is essential for goal setting and striving. Feedback helps people feel an emotional sense of satisfaction that can keep then going in times of struggle on the way toward a long term goal. I learned that it is also important to focus on HOW to accomplish the goal is much more important than just simply thinking about the goal. I also will use the fact that goals need to be challenging to change some of my goals. I always assumed that moderate or easier goals would be more beneficial because I could reach them quicker. But this chapter taught me that goals that are difficult and specific are the best because they energize and direct our behaviors. I need to focus more on short term goals that can progressively get me toward my long term goal, instead of just focusing on the long term goal and getting frustrated when I don’t see results. After reading this chapter I realize I need to add specifics like when and how I am going to attain my goal, including what I will do when things interfere with my goal. The chapter explained that planning for lapses on the way to achieving a goal will make it easier to bounce back after the lapse. The chapter discussed implemental intentions and how they help people carry out their goals by deciding in advance the goal striving strategies like the “when, where and how”. This is really important for me personally because I know that when I miss a day or two of exercise, I quickly get on a habit of not going. But if I make it part of my goal that if I miss a day, the next day I make sure I exercise first thing, for 40 minutes, then I will be much more likely to bounce back after a day off, instead of continuing to skip it.
Terms: goal setting, goal striving, short term goals, long term goals, feedback, persistence, intrinsic motivation, specific and difficult goals, discrepancies, implemental intentions

Chapter 8 discusses goal setting and goal striving. Chapter 8, when compared to previous chapters in the book, contained far less content. The chapter starts out by discussing plans and how they are created from discrepancies between our present (who we are) vs. ideal state (who we would like to be). In order to change our present state to our ideal state, we must create a plan. This plan is often seen in the TOTE model (Test-operate-test-exit), where we will constantly test the discrepancy (test), correct it through a certain behavior (operate), test to see if the discrepancy still exists (test) and finish (exit) once we have reduced or removed it. From here the chapter moves into discussing the two types of discrepancies that exist, discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. Discrepancy reduction is when some force within our environment (i.e. your boss) causes you to form a new sort of ideal state in which you must try to bring your present state towards. Discrepancy creation is when an individual creates an ideal state all on his or her own without feedback from some external source within the environment. The two main differences between these types of discrepancies is that discrepancy reduction is created out of trying to overcome a deficiency and requires feedback from some sort of external source within the environment. The second main difference between the two discrepancies is that discrepancy reduction revolves around plan-based corrective motivation, whereas creation revolves around goal-setting motivation.

From here, chapter 8 moves into goal-setting motivation. The chapter discusses how difficult and specific goals both increase performance, but do so in very different ways. Difficult goals energize behavior and lead to increased performance through motivation, while specific goals direct behavior and lead to increased performance through planning. The chapter also mentions two important factors in goal setting. The first factor, which is feedback, is important because it can either act as a reinforcer or a punisher when defining the performance of the individual. Being able to compare yourself socially and receive feedback is very important in staying committed to one’s goal. The second important factor of goal setting is that of goal-acceptance, which is accepting a goal as your own and internalizing it as your own value instead of somebody else’s.

The chapter mentions how setting implementation intentions are important in order to achieve and complete goals. Implementation intentions work by creating plans as to when, where, how, and for how long one is to act. These implementation intentions are important because individuals whom create these implementation intentions are more likely to follow through and complete their goals.

As the chapter closed out, it offered an eight-step program for setting goals in order to help individuals plan-out and achieve their goals. This eight-step program can be divided up between two processes, the goal-setting process and the goal-striving process, each consisting of four steps. The goal-setting process involves, specifying the objective, understanding and setting the difficulty of the goal, clarifying goal specificity and deciding when performance will be assessed. The second process, which is the goal-striving process, involves checking on goal acceptance, discussing strategies in order to obtain these goals, creating implementation intentions, and providing and receiving performance feedback.

I suppose the most surprising thing that I learned, although I am not sure why it was so surprising as it is completely logical, is that goals should be used when people are not intrinsically motivated to perform an action. Like I said, I am not sure why that was so surprising, but I think actually seeing it in text brought the idea to the front of my head where it just kind of hit me like, “Oh duh, that makes sense”.

I suppose that implementation intentions are the most important thing I learned about striving to create and meet your own goals. Knowing that just writing down the steps to completing a goal can help an individual become more likely to complete the goal is helpful for me. I suppose since many of my goals tend to be long-term goals, it is good that I have more of a specific-goal oriented approach in order to help focus on directing my behavior towards completing the goal instead of really energizing my behavior in order to motivate myself to complete the goal (since many of my long-term goals are goals that I have I am already intrinsically motivated by).

Terms

Plans
Discrepancies
Present-self vs. Ideal-self
TOTE
Discrepancy reduction
Discrepancy creation
Corrective motivation
Goals
Specific-goals
Difficult-goals
Feedback
Goal acceptance
Implementation Intentions

Chapter 8 examined plans and goals. One of the first ideas presented in the chapter was how a discrepancy between our present and ideal states gives us the motivation to change. One example of a behavior is a pitch in baseball. We know what our pitch looks like and what a professional baseball player's pitch looks like. Most of us can easily perceive a discrepancy between the two, which motivates us to make a plan in order to get our present state closer to our ideal state. In other words, the mismatch between our present state and our ideal state creates an awareness of incongruity giving us the motivation to change.
A goal is whatever someone is trying to accomplish. From our earlier example, the goal would be to pitch a baseball like a professional. People with goals generally perform better than others who do not have set goals. They also perform better when they set themselves a goal as opposed to when they do not. But goals have to meet certain criteria to be optimally effective. First, the degree of difficulty must be proportionate to the skills of the performer. Goals that are too easy lead to less than optimal performance. Goals that are set to high lead to frustration and do not provide satisfaction. But goals that are challenging yet attainable energize behavior and help individuals to their best work. Also, specific goals direct behavior, optimizing and focusing energy. Finally, feedback on goal performance helps people stay emotionally engaged and keeps them from becoming uninterested. This is why long-term goals are often hard to achieve. They provide little positive feedback and may become overwhelming if not broken down into smaller short-term goals.
An implement intention is a statement of where, when, and how long that is made before starting goal oriented activities. This planning is an important part of goal setting; many people fail to achieve their goals because they do not make a specific plan of action. One of the easiest ways to achieve your goals is to simply put it down in writing.
I think I will use implement intentions to achieve my goals from now on. I believe that if I properly plan how to get started, overcome distractions, and recover after interruptions then I will be much more successful in achieving my goals. I would also like to start using process stimulations, or visualizations of how I'm going to achieve my goals. This requires concentration on the process for attaining a goal, not on the outcome if the goal is realized (which is called outcome stimulation). So if I wanted to have a 100% completion rate in my rugby game in three weeks, I would need to visualize myself practicing passing and working on the technique, not making perfect throws during a game.
Present and ideal state, goal, plan, implement intentions, feedback, outcome and process stimulation

Chapter 8 was all about goal setting and goal striving. This chapter takes a cognitive view of motivation. It begins by talking about plans and how these motivate our behavior. People have a mental representation of their ideal states of behavior, environmental objects, and events. We have ideas about how we think something should be. We also are aware of how things are presently. Incongruity is defined as “any mismatch perceived between one’s present state and one’s ideal state.” When we have these feelings of incongruity, this motivates us to formulate plans to make this disappear. This plan is something we form that provides direction for us to eliminate this. We go through what the book calls the TOTE model. We compare (Test) our present state with our ideal state. If it is incongruent, we act (Operate) on this to get to our ideal state. We then compare (Test) our states again. If we see that the incongruence has disappeared, we Exit the plan. If the incongruence still exists, we go back to acting (Operate) on it. This model works for both short-term and long-term plans. The book continues to discuss that we no longer view plans as static, fixed, and mechanical. Incongruity leads to corrective motivation. This means that we consider different ways to reduce incongruity. We may change the plan, change the behavior, or withdraw from the plan. Corrective motivation energizes us to go with the most adaptive plan. It allows us to change and revise an ineffective plan, not just act to achieve our ideal state. Corrective motivation also involves emotion. If we progress toward our ideal state at the expected rate, we feel little emotion. If we progress faster than expected, we experience hope, excitement, enthusiasm, and joy. If we progress slower, we experience anxiety, despair, and frustration.
The chapter then goes on to discuss discrepancy, which is the main portion of the chapter. Discrepancy is pretty much the same as incongruence, except that discrepancy, not the ideal state, is what motivates us to act and change. There are two types of discrepancy, discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. Discrepancy reduction is based on feedback. This is where we compare our current performance with our ideal performance and have that be our motivation. Discrepancy creation is based on feed-forward. This is where we look forward and set a future, higher goal. Instead of trying to get to an ideal state, we try to get to one that isn’t set yet. We go above and beyond our ideal in this. The biggest difference is that discrepancy reduction is associated with plans and discrepancy creation is associated with goal setting.
A goal is whatever an individual is trying to accomplish. Goals focus people on the discrepancy between their present level and their ideal level in order to generate motivation. The book talks about how people with goals outperform people without goals. There are many important factors that determine whether goals help people perform better. The first thing is the difficulty of the goal. Goals that are easy do not energize effort, while the more difficult the goal, the more it energizes effort. The second important factor is goal specificity. Goals need to be clear and precise in order to energize effort and performance. Typically goals should be translated into numerical terms. Together, difficulty and specificity work to enhance performance. Difficulty energizes performance and specificity directs it. Another vital piece of the goal setting puzzle is feedback. Feedback has to be timely and tell the progress in relation to the goal. If there is no feedback, the task may be unemotionally unimportant and uninvolving. Depending on whether you attain the goal or fail, the feedback provided will produce different emotional feelings. Goal acceptance is important as well. If goal setting is being done by someone else, it is important that you accept this as your goal; otherwise you will not internalize it and succeed. Acceptance depends on the difficulty, participation in the goal setting process, credibility of the person assigning the goal, and extrinsic incentives.
The next thing the book discusses is goal striving. This is where it focuses on getting started, persisting in the face of difficulties, and resuming after interruptions. People who use outcome simulations, simply mentally envisioning the end goal, instead of process simulations, mentally envisioning implementation intentions, do not do as well or get to their goal. Implementation intentions are exactly when, how, and where the person go about achieving their goal. Goal setting and goal striving are important in order to achieve a goal.

I think the thing that surprised me the most was just how much is involved in the process of attaining a goal. I didn’t realize that a plan and goal were two different things. I also didn’t realize there were specific steps that you take in order to attain a goal and that discrepancy is what motivates us to change and act. I thought it was all pretty interesting. I also liked how they listed the steps simply after discussing them all extensively. I think that I will be able to use all of the elements of goal setting/striving listed in table 8.1 on page 226. I think I have habitually been the kind of person who uses outcome simulation instead of process simulation. I think that will be the best change I can do to help me achieve my goals. I have tried to get in the habit of writing down a specific list of steps that I need to complete to achieve my goals. I think if I start to envision them and think of them with goal specificity, it will help greatly. I think that these will work especially well over many others because I am a procrastinator by nature. If I can specify times to do things and envision doing them in order and time, I will be able to do the most good. I already define difficulty, although I find myself over-exaggerating difficulty. I also think that goal acceptance will be one that will help me more than the rest. I know why I need to obtain certain goals, but until I truly accept them as my own and not trying to please others, I will not be able to best perform them.

Terms used: goal setting, goal striving, incongruity, incongruence, discrepancy, TOTE model, short-term, long-term, corrective motivation, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, plan, goal, goal difficulty, goal specificity, feedback, goal acceptance, process simulation, outcome simulation, implementation intention

Chapter 8 is about goals and the goal setting process. A goal is whatever an individual is striving to accomplish. To set a goal you have to form a plan. To start you would analyze your present state and your ideal state to see where you are at and where you would like to be. An example of this would be with your classes. Kelly has a 2.7 and wants to be at a 3.0. She would set her goal to make her new GPA by the end of the year. You would make a plan for how you would be to this 3.0 and then would receive feedback on how your doing which may be how well you do on a midterm and then decide if you are studying enough or giving enough time to your studies. When your present state is different from your ideal state, you have a discrepancy. This can cause stress and motivate them to change something in their life. There are two different kinds of discrepancy, discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. Reduction is when the environment effects your discrepancy and creates a goal for you. Creation is when you see something you want to change due to internal factors and create your own goal. Three important aspects of goal setting inclue specificity, difficulty, and feedback. Goals need to be specific in order to direct the person on a particular path and plan. When goals are difficult they are motivating. If a goal was easily achieved we would be bored and loss interest. Feedback is crucial because it gives us results on how we are doing and a form of reward and sense of accomplishment. That goes along with setting short term goals and long term goals. short term goals are more easily reached because you see results right away and get immediate feedback. With long term goals you may no see the results or change and loss interest. This could be with certain diets. When you don’t see yourself losing weight and you become discouraged by the lack of feedback. At this point you might modify your goal. When making goals you also might become distracted from you goal. You could have a diet laid out but then thanksgiving break comes along and you eat things way off your diet plan. Then when you return you jump right back on your plan.

What was most surprising was the starting of a goal. The book said that when women wrote down when and where they would have there appointment they did so 100% of the time. I think a lot of times starting your goal is the hardest part.

I think elements that will be useful is setting myself realistic goals. I need to set weekly goals for myself for the short term value in order to reach my long term goal of applying to grad school and taking the GRE.

I think this will work for me because i am a procrastinator so by setting a weekly goal and putting the time when im going to accomplish this goal in my schedule for the week it will be easier to get it done.
goal ideal state present state discrepancy reduction discrepancy creation goal difficulty goal specificity difficult goals short term and long term goals

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