Read chapter 8. Summarize the chapter. What was the most surprising thing you learned? How does the knowledge from this chapter help you to motivate yourself towards desired goals?
Provide a list of terms at the end of your post that you used from the chapter.
This chapter began by discussing and listing the components of the cognition ---> action sequence, which is a four step process that includes plans, goals, implementation intentions, and mental simulations. The chapter then went in-depth on these four components. A goal is anything that we hope to accomplish, and I learned in the plan section that we plan goals based on incongruities, or discrepancies between our current state and our ideal state. The book states that “the incongruity acts as the motivational ‘spring to action’ (provides energy), and the plan becomes the means of organizing our behavior toward the pursuit of the ideal state (provides direction)” (pg. 207). Within the plan section, I also learned the difference between the two types of discrepancies: reduction, in which an individual’s current state is challenged with a higher standard of excellence in the environment, and creation, in which the individual proactively sets a higher goal. In both cases, the individual can determine how well he or she is performing relative to his or her goal by feedback. Feedback is important in the goal-setting process because it allows people to track any progress they are making toward their goal. Within the mental simulations section, I learned that there are two types of mental simulations: outcome simulation, where we focus on a goal itself, and process simulation, where we focus on the ways we can behave in order to achieve the goal. The chapter stresses that process simulation results in more people achieving their goals than outcome simulation, which does not promote goal-striving behavior. Those who follow a process simulation focus on what the book calls implementation intentions, which are the specific steps one needs to take in order to accomplish a goal. For example, if I want to win this year’s Homecoming 5K, I am more likely to achieve that goal if I set specific times each day that I will train, versus simply trying to exercise “as much as I can” between now and then.
The most surprising thing that I learned is that difficult goals enhance performance. I would have thought that moderate goals were the most effective type at motivating us to pursue an ideal state, but that is not the case! The book’s reasoning for this is that “difficult goals energize the performer…therefore, goals need to be difficult to create energy” (pg. 213). The book says that the amount of effort we put toward a goal is proportional to the level of difficulty we perceive, and that we are more likely to persist toward achieving our goal until it is reached if it is difficult than if it is easy. Tied in with this idea is the idea that goals need to be specific, which makes more sense to me. I know that I’m more likely to finish reading a chapter if I give myself a set time frame to read a specific number of pages.
After reading this chapter, I am now more capable of ensuring that I achieve all of my goals, especially long-term ones. I now know that in order to have the feedback that I need to persist in my long-term task, I need to break up my goal into a series of short-term goals. This will allow me to evaluate my progress more frequently, which will bolster my sense of competence and keep me intrinsically motivated. I also know that I need to set specific times that I want my short-term goals to be completed. In regards to a research paper, this could mean that I plan to have my topic picked after one week, have 10 sources by the next week, have read the sources by the next week, and have taken detailed notes one week later. These are only four steps toward finishing a research paper, but I will have accomplished all of that work after only four weeks, as opposed to thinking that I’ll “get around to it eventually”.
Terms: cognition-action sequence, goal, incongruity, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, feedback, outcome simulation, process simulation, implementation intentions, long-term goals
Chapter 8 was a discussion of goal setting and goal striving. The book first starts off with the discussion of plans. People have a set of ideal behaviors, environmental objects, or an ideal events in mind. They also have an understanding of what their current behaviors, environmental objects, and ideal events that they currently possess. The differences between their ideal thought and their current actions or behaviors creates incongruity. These incongruities is what motivates people to make a change and create a plan to achieve that ideal sense of behaviors, objects and events. The cognitive mechanism that plans energize behaviors in and individual is referred to as the TOTE model (test-operate-test-exit). This model shows how an individual will test, compare the present state against the ideal state, and notice the incongruity between the two calling for action, operate, to change the environment. After a period of operation, the individual will test the situation again to see if and ideal state has been met. If ideal state hasn’t been met, the individual will continue to operate and re test until the ideal state is met or and individual decides to give up all together.
Incongruity as mentioned in the previous paragraph is also described as discrepancies. There are two forms of discrepancies that were discussed in the chapter discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. Discrepancy reduction corresponds to plan-based corrective motivation. Different aspects of the environment (bosses, coaches, professors, parents ect.) provide us with feedback about how good or bad a person is doing in a specific task and how that performance matches up with their idea of an ideal performance bringing a standard of excellence to the individual. Discrepancy creation corresponds to goal-setting motivation and is proactive, growth pursing system. This is when an individual sets his or her own goals that does not require feedback from a supervisor, professor ect. It is both of these discrepancies that create motivation for an certain action such as goals.
Goals are whatever an individual is striving to accomplish. Goals generate motivation within the individual by focusing their attention to the discrepancies they are currently facing, and where they need to be in order to achieve their ideal level of accomplishment. The setting of goals often will enhance performances in order to achieve the goal an individual has set for themselves. People who set goals tend to outperform others who don’t set goals and have a sense of intrinsic motivation. When it comes to completing goals, people tend to have higher interest in goals that are difficult and specific in the fact that they are more likely to perform well in a moderately difficult goal and need the clarity (specificity) of what the goal requires them to do. Only goals that are difficult and specific enhance performance.
Feedback is another important aspect of goals and goal setting. Feedback is what allows people to keep track of and mark the progress they are making towards their goals. The combination of both feedback and goals produce emotionally meaningful experience and without feedback, performance can be emotionally unimportant and individuals can lose motivation to achieve their goal. When feedback is showing that an individual is performing above or at their goal level, the individual feels competent and good about themselves. When the feedback and individual is receiving show that they are performing below their goal level, they may feel dissatisfied causing them to work harder towards their goal. Feedback provides the emotional push that continues the goal setting process.
Goal setting can expand over a long period of time and consist of both long term and short term goals. Long term goals are those in which elapse a longer period of time and are often comprised of many short term goals to reach the final end goal. Researchers have found that short term goals enhance intrinsic motivation where as long term goals facilitate intrinsic motivation.
In order to be successful with goals and see them through to the end there are a few key points to remember. Goals require specific focus and attention. An individual who focuses on the process to achieving a goal rather than the goal itself resulting in higher achievement of goals. Planning how to carry out a goal is vital to the success of completing a goal along with being persistent all the way till the end when you finally accomplish what you set out to do in the first place.
This whole chapter was interesting to me in the fact that I tend to set goals and then never follow through with them. Seeing and learning about different tools that can be used to make a goal successful and how to motivate myself through using goals will be extremely beneficial as I continue through college and beyond my college years.
Terms Used: Plans, test-operate0-test-exit model, discrepancies, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, Goals, Goal difficulty, goal specificity, Feedback, long term goals, short term goals.
Chapter 8 discusses the cognitive perspective on motivating and mental processes for achieveing goals. There are four elements in the cognition -> action sequence: plans, goals, implementation intentions and mental stimulations. It also discussed the T-O-T-E model which stands for test-operate-test-exit. This means that you first compare your present and ideal states, then you act to realize the ideal state, compare present and ideal states again and then present state incongruity with ideal state. This model stems from our process of removing our incongruity so that we can be closer to our ideal state.
Plans rely on discrepancy to drive their motvational force of action. Part of the T-O-T-E model stems from the cognitive discrepancy, which is making your present state closer to your ideal state. There are two types of discrepancies: discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. Discrepancy reduction is the feedback that is given that matches up with our ideal performance level. Discrepancy creation is based on a "feed-forward" system where the person just keeps looking forward and setting higher goals. A problem with setting a higher goal though is that it can be a difficult goal to achieve. On the other hand, achieving the goal is a big boost to your ideal state.
Goals are objects people strive to accomplish. Goals can be very specific, or they can be challenging and difficult. Ideally, your goals should improve performance, but two things must happen before a goal can achieve this. Feedback and goal acceptance. With feedback, positive or negative, a person can evaluate their goal and/or their plans for their goals. Goal acceptance is the process in which the performer accepts another persons assigned goal as their own.
In the process of translating their goals into actions, people form implementation intentions. That's a plan of when,w here, how, and how long one must act upon their set goal. If you set an implementation intention beforehand, you are more likely to achieve your goal more than those who don't.
I thought that the part of mental stimulations was very interesting. This is where you either focus on the goal you wish to attain, focus o how to attain the goal or didn't focus on anything. According to the book, if you focus on how to accomplish the goal, instead of the actual goal, then you will be able to draw out the distinction between the content of a goal and the process of goal striving and once a goal has been set, it doesn't automatically translate itself into effective performance. The book gave an example of a sales car man and how they paint a mental image for us of what exactly it is that they're selling us. This can be a positive reinforcer into guiding us to complete our goals.
Terms: Cognitive perspective, goals, plans, implementation intentions, mental stimulations, T-O-T-E model, incongruity, discrepancy, cognitive discrepancy, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, feedback, goal acceptance, positive reinforcer
Chapter 8 was about the topics of goal setting and goal striving. The chapter started out by discussing the concept of plans and, more specifically, the TOTE model. In this model, the individual constantly compares the present state against the ideal state in a back and forth rhythm of test and operate and test again until the present state is consistent with the ideal state. Corrective motivation was discussed next. This type of motivation is fixated on plans that are not static. Corrective motivation allows the individual to consider many possible solutions and to be flexible with plans. Next, the concept of a discrepancy was discussed and the two types that exist: discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation.
Finally we get to the first topic of the core of the chapter: goal setting. The fact that goal setting enhances ones performance is stated and the ideas of goal difficulty and goal specificity are gone over. It is stated that “as goals increase in difficulty, performance increases in a linear fashion.” In addition, the easier the goal, the less effort it stimulates. Along the lines of goal specificity, it is said that the more specific the goal the better one’s performance.
Next, the idea of feedback and it’s relation to goals is discussed. According to this chapter, feedback allows one to see how much progress he/she is making towards their goal. Feedback helps to maximize one’s performance. In addition, goal acceptance helps individuals to attain their goals. The extent to which we participate in setting our own goals rather than receiving a goal set by someone else has an influence on our goals. Moreover, the credibility of the person assigning us our goal has an impact on how accepting we are of the goal.
Chapter 8 goes on to discuss the criticisms of goal setting in that it originated in the fields of business and management therefore making the focus more on performance rather than on motivation. In addition, goal setting can produce stress and opportunities for failure while simultaneously putting creativity and intrinsic motivation at risk.
Long-term goal setting is the next section in the chapter. Long-term goals are better achieved when broken down into multiple short-term goals. Short-term goals allow for frequent feedback on performance and allow for intrinsic motivation to persist.
The second topic of the core of the chapter, goal striving, is next. The ideas of mental simulations are gone over and we can see that focusing on implementation intentions help one to reach their goals rather than focusing on the goal itself. Implementation intentions are defined as a plan to carry out one’s goal directed behavior. This includes setting specific action plans as to when, where, and how the goal will be attained. Three volitional problems can be expected to emerge throughout the goal striving process: getting started despite daily distractions, persisting in spite of difficulties and setbacks, and resuming once an interruption occurs.
The chapter ends by “putting it all together” by describing 8 steps in an effective goal setting program. These include specifying the objective to be accomplished, defining goal difficulty, clarifying goal specificity, specifying the time span when performance will be assessed, checking on goal acceptance, discussing goal-attainment strategies, creating implementation intentions, and providing performance feedback.
The most surprising thing I learned dealt with the mental stimulation ideas. I was surprised that focusing on implementation intentions helped with goal striving better than focusing on the actual goal did. It seems like when most people want to accomplish a specific goal, they focus more on the outcome rather than on what it takes to reach their outcome. For example, when people want to lose weight, I think sometimes they focus more on their desired body figure or desired weight than on the actual processes of eating healthier, exercising, etc.
The knowledge from this chapter helps to motivate me towards my own personal goals because I now know what works and what doesn’t! For example, I know to break down long-term goals in to multiple short-term goals because my competence will be satisfied and my intrinsic motivation will persist. In addition, I know to focus on implementation intentions instead of the final goal itself in order to accomplish my goal. I now know to be very specific when setting my goals and to think of the when, where, and hows. Moreover, I know that setting difficult goals will enhance my performance!
Terms: goal striving, goal setting, implementation intentions, plans, corrective motivation, discrepancy, discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation, TOTE model, goal difficulty, goal specificity, feedback, goal acceptance, long and short-term goals, mental simulations
In all honesty, I didn’t love chapter 8. I understand the necessity of it because goals are rooted in motivation, however, I am not a huge goal setter and so I couldn’t apply much of the information from the chapter into my everyday life. Nonetheless, I read the chapter and will proceed to offer a summary.
A goal is essentially an ideal state that you wish to reach. At the moment, in many facets of our lives, we are in our current or present state. We are content and pleased with some of our present states. For instance, I am content with my GPA. In other areas of our lives we may not be quite as pleased. I am not fully pleased with the fact that my room is a bit messy. Because I would ideally like for my room to be clean (ideal state) there is a discrepancy between what is and what I wish were. The discrepancy is what motivates us to act. When there is an existing discrepancy (e.g. you need a GPA of 2.0 to graduate yet you currently have a GPA of 1.78) and you wish to make this discrepancy disappear, this is called discrepancy reduction. You want an already existing discrepancy to go away. When you create a discrepancy (e.g. you would like to run a 8 minute mile versus your current 9 minute mile) and you wish to defeat and overcome this discrepancy it is called discrepancy creation. We create a discrepancy between where we are at and where we would like to be.
Noticing discrepancy is the initial stage in forming a goal I would say. First we must be aware that we are not at the ideal state that we would like to be at; then we can begin setting goals for ourselves. The book describes an ideal goal as one that is difficult, specific, has feedback and is accepted. If a goal is too easy we will not put forth much effort; that is, we will lack energy to accomplish our goal. With that in mind, setting difficult goals will be beneficial (…shoot for the stars, right?). Difficult goals energize us to embark on accomplishing our goal and they also help us persist through the goal striving process. Specificity directs our behavior. Without specific information about what our goal is we don’t know how to go about accomplishing it. Goals that lack specificity are ambiguous and do not offer any direction. Feedback lets us know how we are progressing towards our goal. Without it we do not know if we are near our goal, far from it or have reached it. It is important to track your progress towards your goal. Finally, goal acceptance is specifically needed in situations in which an external entity creates a goal for you. This goal will not be achieved unless the person that is given the goal accepts this goal. The factors influencing your decision to accept a goal are: the perceived difficulty of the goal, participation in goal setting process, credibility of person assigning the goal and external incentives. The book says that, in the case of an external thing imposing a goal on you, it is best if the difficulty of the goal is minimal. A daunting goal may cause people anxiety when it is imposed upon them and they may not feel confident that they are able to achieve the goal and therefore they choose to reject the goal rather than accept it. An individual is more likely to accept a goal if they have some say in the matter rather than the goal being forced upon them. Autonomy is important to us and we don’t enjoy being told we must achieve a certain goal by another person. If the person that is imposing the goal on us is not highly credible we will not likely want to do what they are asking. Why should we? What do they know? Finally, external incentives help encourage us to accept the goals imposed on us.
Finally, we have goal striving. In order to accomplish our goals we must attempt to accomplish them! The book says that it is important to focus on how we will accomplish our goals. Some people say just thinking of your goal will get you there. That’s not the case. We have to know how we will accomplish this goal. Focusing on the how will result in a better likelihood that you will accomplish the goal. Accomplishing our goals can be tough. Getting started, persisting and resuming once something distracts you from your goal all make accomplishing your goals difficult. That is why a difficult goal that is specific will help you remain energized to accomplish your goal and also will help you stay focused on your goal.
I was interested to learn that discrepancy is the source of motivation when it comes to goals. I have never thought of goals in this way before (i.e. that there is a discrepancy between where we are at and where we would like to be). It makes sense, but you would logically initially think that the end goal is the source of our motivation. However, in order to achieve the end goal, we much first get rid of the discrepancy. I was also surprised to learn that the harder the goal the better you will do at achieving it. I wonder if this levels of at some point or even reverses. What if a goal is too difficult for you? Then you will be constantly upset and have little motivation to continue since it is illogical for you to attain the goal. I do understand though what the book is saying.
Like I said before, I am not a big goal setter. Therefore, this chapter doesn’t have many applications in my life. I did like what I read in the criticism section. I don’t like goals because I don’t like to take the time to sit down and think about what I want and formulate a detail plan on how to achieve it. As the book mentions: goals work to motivate you on tasks that you lack motivation in. Most of the time, in the short term, if I am not motivated to do something on my own (i.e. without setting a goal and formulating a plan) I really have no desire to try to make myself do it. I am plenty motivated on my own to do well in school and to get the things done in my daily life that need to be taken care of. After reading the section on criticisms I learned that I don’t like the structure of goals. I do believe that is one reason why I don’t like to make them… Perhaps it would be good for me to make more goals. But, really, right now, I am doing just fine.
Chapter 8 was all about goal setting and goal striving. When we set goals it usually is because our ideal behavior is not matching up with our present behavior. We develop cognitions on what should motivate us and what we want in our life. So when we have mismatches in our cognition we want to remove the incongruity. We can compare our present state with the ideal state by comparing what we want to what we have. For example, if we look in the mirror and our hair isn’t the way we want it then we can change our hair to look that meets our ideal standards. Plans to change can range from short mid and long term. Short term plans have a quick pay off and stress an extrinsic response while medium and long term plans take a while to pay off and usually invoke intrinsic motivation because you have to commit to the plan. Discrepancy occurs again when our present state doesn’t make our ideal state. Discrepancy creates the state of wanting to change. There are two types of discrepancy, discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. Discrepancy reduction is when we receive feedback that isn’t ideal. An example of this would be having a low GPA that doesn’t meet up to the standards to the program you want to enter. Discrepancy creation is when a person looks forward and proactively set a future, higher goal. An example of this would be trying to get 15 sales instead of the normal 10 as a business person. This process is goal setting.
Goal setting is a great way to get results to further move forward to your ideal state. People who state goals for a task are fur more likely to obtain them than those who don’t. The difficulty of the goal is important because it determines how energized a person is about obtaining. The harder the goal, the more energetic a person is about it. Goal specificity is another useful thing in goal setting. A person who set goal dates for a person will do better than someone who just says try your best. Feedback is important in obtaining your goals. Without feedback, performance can be emotionally unimportant and uninvolving.
There are four factors that determine whether 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 are factors we must suffice in order for our plan to work. We need a difficult goal to motivate our work ethic, a plan laid out to obtain the goal, we need people around us who are credible in helping us with our goal, and an incentive to help us strive to our goal.
Goal striving is the point at which we want to change something but there is a gap between goal directed thinking and goal direction. Basically we have mental simulations of what we want and how it will happen but we don’t go out and do it. The goal then just becomes a dream at this point. Planning a goal one must get started despite distractions, persist in spite of difficulties and resume once interruptions occur.
The most surprising thing I learned in chapter 8 was that people who set goals outperform people who don’t. Simply just wanting to do well isn’t as powerful as saying, “I want to get an A on this test.” Knowing the power of setting goals should inspire us all to do so. It will impact our performance dramatically, increasing the chances we meet our ideal standard.
The knowledge from this chapter helps me reach my goals be just learning out to plan them out. Like the book says a goal without a plan is just a dream. If we don’t thoroughly look at what we want in life and plan for it then it will never come true.
Terms: plans, discrepancy, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, long term short term goals, goal setting, present state, ideal state, goal difficulty, goal specificity, feedback, goal striving.
This chapter cognitive processes that help with motivation. These include plans, goals, implementation intentions, and mental simulations. Discrepancy is the main driving motivational force behind plans and goals. Discrepancy reduction deals with plans and corrective motivation. Discrepancy creation, however, deals with goals and goal-setting. People know their present state in life and they often aim to get to their ideal state. When their present state conflicts with the ideal state that causes conflict and this produces motivation to get to that ideal state. This can include plans, goals, etc. Plan-directed behavior is capable of removing the discrepancy between present and ideal states. Goals also take place and these are objectives people endeavor to accomplish. Within goals, feedback and goal acceptance must take place. These are pretty self-explanatory, but feedback is when the person evaluates their performance as good or bad, and goal acceptance is when a person accepts another person’s assigned goal as his or her own. People often encounter distractions and interruptions when trying to accomplish a goal. People often must formulate implementation intentions that create a specific when, where, and how a person must act. Also, towards the end of the chapter it was included that there’s an 8-step goal-setting routine that include all of these principles. The steps go like this: specify the objective, set the 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.
I just thought all of these concepts overall were very interesting. I didn’t know that the concept of goal-setting and obtaining long term goals had so many aspects to it. There’s so many different facets to goal setting an it all makes sense as to why we do the things to do and why motivation either sticks with us or doesn’t. I enjoyed the topic of present vs. ideal states. It makes perfect sense that if our present state doesn’t mesh with our ideal state, it is the driving force to make plans and goals and accomplish them. It is such a blunt idea and it was very interesting to me that I had never thought about it that way before.
All of this knowledge has helped with my goal setting process. I really had never thought about any of these aspects in goal-setting. There are many steps I can apply to my life that I may not have known otherwise. For example, if I want to lose weight I would first have to set that goal. I’d have to identify the objective, define the difficulty of the goal (very difficult), clarify goal specificity (I want to lose 5 pounds by the end of December), and specify how and when performance will be measured. These things may seem simple, but in fact they will be very difficult for me. However, if I can set my mind to it I can persist and accomplish this goal. I know that it must be intrinsic motivation with this long term goal because if I’m only doing this for an environmental factor, I will most likely not succeed. This chapter has helped motivate me because it has taught me the techniques to handle long-term goals. It taught me that I know it will be difficult because there are many different facets to long term goals, but I know that following these steps will help me accomplish what I need to do.
Terms: cognitive processes, plans, goals, implementation intentions, mental simulations, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, present vs ideal state, goals, plan-directed behavior, feedback, goal acceptance, intrinsic motivation
Chapter 8
In Chapter 8 it talks about plans. In 1960 a trio of psychologists investigated how plans motivate behavior. People think about how things should be before they do them whether it is a negative thought or a positive thought, ideal behavior, object, or event. Incongruity is when one’s present state and one’s ideal state do not match. People get uncomfortable with incongruities so they will set up a plan to make their presence match their ideal state. Incongruities act as a form of motivation. The TOTE model helps direct the behavior to create a plan. TOTE stands for Test- Operate-Test- Exit. I really liked the example in the book about looking in the mirror and checking if your hair is okay. You test you presence by looking in the mirror, if it’s okay you exit the bathroom and don’t fix it. Your hair is how you envisioned it in your mind. If your hair in not what you envisioned in your mind, as you stand in front of the mirror, your operate to fix it and then retest the presence of your hair in the mirror and if it’s how you envisioned it in your mind, you can leave the bathroom satisfied and don’t have to worry about your hair. When looking at the TOTE model, a person can test and operate many times before the exit of the plan. A persons plan can undergo many modifications and changes. Also a person’s behavior may also change during a plan. Corrective motivation acts as a way to make decisions in which people will look at many different possibilities to reduce incongruity. Plan directed behaviors are dynamic and flexible processes that are driven by corrective motivation that drives a person to the most direct plan of action. Corrective motivation is the process of going back and forth between the act to achieve the ideal state and making revisions to an ineffective plan. Corrective motivation can involve a lot of emotion or little emotion. When someone is on track with their plan and is making progress they might feel little emotion because their ideal state expected them to be at that part in their plan, but when people are not reaching their ideal state expectations in their plan they may start feeling intense negative emotion. Another term talked about in this chapter is Discrepancy and how it is a scene of wanting to change the presence state so that it will move closer and closer to the ideal state. This was confusing for me because it sounded just like incongruities. Discrepancy reduction is when something shows us that we are not moving forward in a plan towards a goal. Discrepancy reduction provides feedback on how well or how poorly a person is doing to meet up with their ideal performance level. Discrepancy creation is feedback given to person that makes them want to set higher goals towards their ideal state. Both provide motivational basis for action on a plan. A goal is whatever an individual strives to accomplish. Goals are similar to plans in that they generate motivation by focusing a person’s attention on the incongruity between their present state and their ideal level of accomplishment. People with goals outperform those without goals. Goals enhance performance but they have to make sure they set the fight goal for the ideal state of mind. Some terms talked about in the chapter regarding goals were goal difficulty and goal specificity. Goal Difficulty is how hard a goal is to accomplish and goal specificity is how clearly the goal informs the person on what to do. The harder the goal the more a person will show effort and persistence and drive. When achieving a goal and the effort you put into the goal will start to give a person feedback. Without feedback, effort and persistence cannot be measured. I though the example in the book about a runner trying to achieve a goal of a six minute mile but without a stop watch a person cannot measure that goal or performance toward that goal. Besides the difficulty and specific instructions for a goal and the feedback and person must have goal acceptance. Goal acceptance is when a person provides another person with a goal. A person can accept or reject a given goal from another person. One thing that really surprised me is how much we do this a day. Just from dinner to bed I was amazed at home many goals we get asked to do. Can you cook dinner?, can you wash the dishes?, Can you give Ella a bath?, Do you want to watch a movie? In all of these simple things they can be rejected or accepted and they all have underlining goals for a person personally. Do I want to cook dinner or do I want to be lazy and eat out, how this will affect a goal for someone who is trying to lose weight or trying to save money. Do I want to wash the dishes or try and do them before work tomorrow and how will this affect my goal to work out before work if I have to cut it short to do dishes.
I think in the bigger picture of things if you are not careful I can see how achieving a giver long-term goal can be affected by little goals and goal acceptance from others.
The chapter also talked about Goal setting theory and how it is designed to enhance performance and not motivation. Goal setting is to increase performance of a person’s efforts, persistence, attention, and strategic planning. Sometimes this can cause stress if the goal settings become to challenging. Sometime goals are administered in ways that are controlling, pressure-induced, and can undermine creativity and intrinsic motivation by interfering with autonomy of a person.
The chapter also talked about long term goals and how they can be successfully accomplished with several short term goals. The rest of the chapter talked about some struggles people may encounter if they are having failed goal attempts or planning. Many of the time people set to big of goal that is unrealistic to accomplish. Instead and person should work up to a difficult goal by setting smaller, not as difficult goals and work their way up to difficult goal. Another big problem people face is that they do not act on the goals they set for themselves. Just because a person makes a goal does not mean it will happen. I person needs to but in the emotional and physical effort to make a goal happen. I think this chapter will help me in my goals especially with my long term goals and how to put in place smaller goals that will help me lead up to a big goal. For example, I want to graduate but I never made any small term goals to make that a successful goal and not I am getting down to the wire on graduation and I am scrambling to make it happen. I think one thing that I did in another class was to make a time line of all the things a need to accomplish before graduation and I think it set out a really nice plan for me to follow. I think all the things on the time line are like little goals that I need to accomplish to reach the bottom of it which it graduation. I also think just putting a plan out on paper and giving myself a visual really helped in my long term goal to graduate.
Terms: Drive, intrinsic motivation, autonomy, goals, plans, long term goal, goal setting, criticism, goal acceptance, feedback, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, discrepancy, corrective motivation, TOTE , cognitions, and incongruity.
Chapter eight was all about goals. I really liked this chapter, because it tied in a lot of the information I have learned from one of my favorite classes here at UNI – Behavior Modification. If you haven’t taken that class, you should really think about taking it. I took it with Otto Maclin and I really enjoyed the class. Anywho! As I said, this chapter deals with goals and talks about the steps to making a great goal as well as the steps to ensure that you follow through with your goal and are able to attain it. The textbook calls this goal setting and goal striving. We hear about goals all throughout our lives in society – school, work, and health are just a few main areas where we hear about people making goals. However, we also know that it isn’t uncommon for someone to not reach their goals. Why is this? Chapter eight tells us it is because people do not have the motivation to do so because they are not setting up their goals properly and making a proper plan. A great quote from the book states “A goal without a plan is just a dream.” The chapter also provides a short list of problems that are more than likely to occur and what we can do to get around them. This is called implementation intentions, or rather, how we are going to effectively act on our set goal. In this chapter it teaches us how to create a goal (not as easy as it may seem!) by telling us the characteristics it should have and why they are important. It also teaches us what steps can be made while performing the behaviors to reach this goal. Through these important steps and techniques, I truly believe that anyone can accomplish any goal (within reason).
The most surprising thing I learned was the section on the criticisms of goals. We talked A LOT about goals in my Behavior Modification class, however criticisms of goal setting was something we never learned. I found it very interesting to read about in this chapter. The criticism comes from how and why the original goal-setting theory was established. Goal-setting was developed within the business field, something you learn if you ever take Industrial Psychology or Organizational Psychology (once again, I’ve taken both and would recommend these classes as well to anyone). Therefore the theory and goal-setting process itself was designed for sales and profit. The goal of the goal-setting theory was to make as much money as possible. In a business world, this makes sense. However, since its purpose is to enhance performance (to enhance profits) that mean it isn’t designed to enhance motivation. Goal setting theory also works best with uninteresting goals, another downfall. It was thought that if mundane work tasks (such as screwing in nuts and bolts) had a goal that employees could strive towards, it would make the task itself more interesting. Therefore when goals are already interesting and involve creativity, goal-setting theory doesn’t enhance performance. Finally, goal-setting can add stress to employees. Since the point of goal-setting theory is to increase performance, many strains can be added to the employees (high demands, strategic planning, full attention, etc.) Though while I talked about in my last blog that we want our goals to be difficult, setting to high of standards can just be setting up employees to fail. It is important to know these criticisms in goal setting in order to try and work around them and avoid these pitfalls as much as possible.
The section on implementation intentions really helped me when thinking about my goals and how I can achieve them. As I stated above, in this section there is a list of problems that you should expect to emerge once you’ve made your goal. The list is as follows:
-Getting started, despite daily distractions
-Persisting, in spite of difficulties and setbacks
-Resuming, once an interruption occurs
Though these might all sound like “duh” points to be made, I think it is important to point out obvious issues that will come up and try and deter you from your implementation intentions. Implementation intentions are so important because they facilitate goal-directed behavior. Goal-directed behavior is just what it sounds like, behaviors that are directed towards a goal or actions that will help you obtain your goal. If you think about this without all the technical jargon, it is common sense. What are implementation intentions? They are set plans you have in order to achieve your goal. Since we have a plan, we know exactly the behaviors we need to emit in order to reach our goals. These specific behaviors are performed in order to reach our goal, so therefore are behaviors are directed towards our goal (goal-directed behavior).
Terms:
drive, motivation, goal-setting theory, enhance performance, goal-setting, goal striving, implementation intentions, goal-directed behavior
Chapter eight discusses some of the key cognitive sources of motivation. Chapter eight focuses its attention towards goals, which are what an individual strives to accomplish. The text also touches subject on plans, implementation intentions, and mental simulations as well.
Chapter eight begins by examining planned behavior. According to the text, any difference between one’s present state and their ideal state is called incongruity. In order to accomplish goals, we need to remove this incongruity between who we are now, and what we want to be/achieve. One aspect of planned behavior is the TOTE model. This model suggests that we weigh the difference between the present and the ideal state. If incongruity is recognized, then we are able to react with the environment in order to achieve this ideal state. After we have acted, we re-evaluate ourselves to see where we are in relation to the desired goal. If we are congruent, achieved what we wanted to achieve, then we exit. If there is still incongruity between ourselves and the desired outcome, then we operate again. The process can repeat itself until the ideal state is achieved. Anytime there incongruity between the present and ideal states, a discrepancy drives motivating behavior. Discrepancy drives us to make changes to our present state and becoming closer to the ideal state. Discrepancy comes in two forms: discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. Discrepancy reduction allows us to see how our performance levels in our present state match up with the performance levels in the ideal state. It gives us feedback of how well or poor we perform. Discrepancy creation is self-created by an individual. This type of person is proactive in setting goals for their future, and look forward to accomplishing the ideal state.
Like I said earlier, goals are what people strive to achieve and accomplish. A goal is the ideal state. Goals make people realize the incongruity between themselves and their desired state. This acts as a motivating force. When creating a goal, it is important to weigh several aspects. Knowing things like how hard a goal is to accomplish and specifying clearly, exactly what you want to accomplish is essential when making goals. Not all goals produce results. In order to have increased performance on whatever you are trying to accomplish goals need to be relatively challenging and specific. Challenging, difficult goals can “energize” the individual. If you have a goal that is harder to achieve, chances are that you are going to work harder in order to achieve that goal, contrary to something that doesn’t challenge you. Being clear what you want to achieve is important because it drives your behavior to a particular course of action. For example, a person has a goal of graduating college with a 4.0 in Biology. That is a specific, very challenging goal that they have set. Specifying that they want a 4.0, they would have to study on a regular basis every day. An important aspect of setting and reaching goals is getting feedback from your peers. Feedback, allows us to see how we are doing in relation to accomplishing our goal. It allows the individual to see if they are doing enough work or need to put in more effort to attain the ideal state. For example, you take a math exam in college. The teacher would give you feedback by telling you how you did on the test, usually by a letter grade or points. If you got an A on the test, you would know you are studying the right way and you would follow the same procedure next time. If you didn’t do as well on the exam, then you would change the way you study, or study harder. Maybe you could ask the professor for help on how to study. This would be feedback. Without feedback, there is no point in performance. What if you took the math exam and the teacher didn’t tell you how you did. It would be difficult to move forward not knowing whether your performance meets your ideal state performance level or not.
The most interesting thing I learned in the text were implementation intentions. In order to achieve goals, a plan of action must be devised on exactly how you are going to do this. Implementation intentions are how you remove the incongruity between the present and ideal states. People often fail to achieve goals because they don’t use implementation intentions. Implementation intentions contribute to our goal pursuit, encouraging both persistent effort and engagement. For example, the student who wants to graduate with a 4.0 would plan out study sessions in their daily schedule. Another aspect of accomplishing goals are mental simulations. These are visualizations that center on planning behavior. Outcome simulations, we imagine ourselves in the ideal state, which could be graduating with a 4.0. Process simulations focus on the implementation intentions, or our behavior to attaining those goals. Imagining ourselves studying at the library would be an example if process simulations.
This chapter helps me because I will be able to devise a plan of action that will help me achieve my goals. I will be able to establish an implementation intention for each goal that I set, which will help me attain whatever it is that I aspire to do. By forming a long term goal, it will help keep me intrinsically motivated throughout the course of removing incongruities I find between myself and my desired state. I realize that I should break my long term goals down into several short-term goals. By getting feedback on my short term goals, it will allow me to evaluate my own performances, and make changes to my behavior accordingly.
Terms: implementation intentions, goal pursuit, outcome simulations, process simulations, feedback, goal specificity, goal difficulty, goal, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, TOTE Model, incongruity, goals, intrinsic motivation
Chapter 8 is all about goal setting and goal striving. The chapter has three main sections which are plans, goal setting, and goal striving. The chapter first starts discussing plans and the TOTE model. The cognitive mechanism by which plans energize and direct behavior is the test-operate-test-exit (TOTE) model. Test means to compare the present state against the ideal state. The mismatch motives the individual to operate on the environment via a planned sequence of action. Corrective motivation was discussed next. Corrective motivation activates a decision-making process in which the individual considers many different possible ways for reducing the present-ideal incongruity: change the plan, change behavior, or withdraw from the plan altogether. Ending the section on planning was discrepancy. There are two types of discrepancy. The first discrepancy reduction which means some aspect of the environment provides feedback about how well or how poorly the person’s current performance level matches up with the ideal performance level. The second type is discrepancy creation. Discrepancy creation is when the person deliberately sets a higher goal and does not require feedback from the environment to impose on it.
The next section discussed in chapter 8 is goal setting. People who set goals outperform those without goals and people who have those goals perform better than if they didn’t have that goal. As a goal increases in difficulty, performance increases in a linear fashion. When a person sets a difficult goal for themselves, the more energized the person is to accomplish it. Goal specificity refers to how clearly a goal informs the performer precisely what they need to do. Goal specificity is important because specific goals draw attention to what one needs to do and reduces ambiguity in thought and variability in performance. One additional variable that is crucial in making goal setting effective is feedback. Feedback documents the performer’s progress in relation to the goal and helps them make progress toward that goal.
Chapter 8 ends with a discussion on goal striving. Once a goal has been set, it does not inevitably and automatically translate itself into effective performance. People fail to act on the goals they set for themselves. An 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.
The most surprising thing I learned in this chapter was about goal difficulty. In the book it says “as goals increase in difficulty, performance increases in a linear fashion.” I was surprised by this because I thought it would be kind of opposite. If a goal is more difficult I would think more people would fail at accomplishing that goal because they are less motivated and the performance would decrease. I guess it depends on how difficult the goal is though.
This chapter will help me to motivate myself toward my goals because I learned effective ways to help keep me motivated. I seem to set a lot of goals that I always seem to never follow through with. This chapter has taught me that breaking down long-term goals into short-term goals and setting specific, difficult goals with all help me accomplish any goal I have.
Terms: TOTE model, goal setting, plans, goal striving, corrective motivation, discrepancy, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, goal specificity, feedback, implementation intention.
Chapter 8 is a really good view on how our motivation is affected by our goals. The chapter begins to talk about the beginning studies on goals and it seemed like they were on the right track with the TOTE model. Which stands for “Test, Operate, Test and Exit” this means that while someone is setting a goal into action they test the environment and if it doesn’t match up to what they think, they begin to act on the environment to find the adjustment needed. Then you go back and test it make sure if it works and if it does then your state of mind is where it needs and wants to be and you're done. But this is an older model and is not used exactly as we have noticed we aren't as fixed or mechanical as this model presents. Corrective motivation activates a decision making process which a person considers different possible present ideal incongruities. Discrepancy has a key part in motivational construct, as it deals with the mismatch between the ideal state and the present state. It creates the sense of wanting to change the present state so that it will move closer and closer toward the ideal state.
Now there are two different types of discrepancy: discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. Discrepancy reduction detects feedback that underlies plans and corrective motivation. For example it shows what a person needs compared to what they have and begins the standard of the environment to successfully perform a task! Discrepancy creation is pretty much where someone sets a goal and strive to achieve it purposely setting an ideal state that does not yet exist. The best part of this goal is it doesn't require feedback rather just intrinsic motivation from oneself. A goal is all about identifying what in the now is bothering you and setting a set position that will change that thing in a positive manner. Bringing up the point of how valid a goal actually is, because it motivates the person for a specific task so they might not feel as overwhelmed as someone without said goal. This is what is known as goal-performance discrepancy, which points to a positive notion that; GOALS ARE IMPORTANT, besides the fact that it enhances our performances in said activity! Goal difficulty refers to really how difficult the set plan of change is. The reason this simple definition is important to identify is for the very reason that with difficulty comes a linear fashion of increase of performance. By knowing this we can slowly increase our difficulty as we know we can step up to the challenge and metaphorically speaking hit the ball out of the park! Goal specificity is important as well, because the better you are informed about a goal, you have a better idea what you need to do.
The most surprising thing about this chapter to me was this whole idea of goals itself and how important they could be. Like I look back at my life and realize now how much better I achieved at goal oriented tasks it is not even funny. Like a really good example was I was in band and when I was younger I really wanted to be good at the baritone, and eventually made it to all state and scored well overall. But going into highschool my parents forced me to continue playing as the first couple years I made all state but after awhile the motivation completely ceased and by senior year, people could tell I was just dead weight and didn't care as much as I used to. What the coolest thing about goals is the ability to set a difficult one and being able to step up to the challenge and tackle it like it was an easier one but with more vigorous stature.
This chapter not only helps me set goals but understand that they are really important for my future if I even want one. Because without goals I will just lag behind the competition and become a problem and eventually not be able to achieve at the things I want to. Goals will help me get an extra leg up on people as I can identify all the conflicts around me and rightfully resolute them!
Terms: TOTE model, Corrective motivation, Discrepancy, discrepancy reduction and creation, goal difficulty
Chapter 8 dissected setting goals and goal striving. It began by explaining the cognitive perspective on motivation through the motivational agents in the cognition --> action sequence: plans, goals, implementation intentions, and mental stimulations. Defining plans, the text stated that people have knowledge of both their present and ideal states and any perceived incongruity between the two makes people uncomfortable enough to formulate and act on a plan of action to remove the incongruity so that the present state will change and become the ideal state. To further describe this model, one can reference the TOTE model – test-operate-test-exit. An example the text uses to describe this model is that when you comb your hair you (test) look into the mirror to see if it looks right and if not you (operate) continue combing your hair and (test) looking in the mirror until it is how you want your hair to look (exit). The plan action sequence portrays individuals as (1) detecting present-ideal inconsistencies, (2) generating a plan to eliminate incongruity, (3) instigating plan-regulated behavior, and (4) monitoring feedback as to the extent of any remaining present-ideal incongruity. The present state is the person’s current status of how life is going whereas the ideal state is how the person wishes life was going. (It is to be noted that discrepancy can be used as a synonym for incongruity). An example would be being stuck in traffic (present state) versus driving without interference (ideal state). The text describes two different types of discrepancy. Discrepancy reduction is based on discrepancy-detecting feedback that underlies plans and corrective motivation where some aspect of the environment provides feedback about how well or poorly someone’s current performance level matches up with the ideal performance level. Discrepancy creation is based on a “feed-forward” system in which the person looks forward and proactively sets a future, higher goal where a person deliberately sets a higher goal and does not require any feedback from environment to impose the goal.
Goal setting is when an individual strives to accomplish a goal. It is interesting to note that goal setting generally enhances performance, but the type of goal a person sets is the key determinant in the extent to which a goal translates into performance gains, as goals vary in how specific they are. Difficult goals energize behavior whereas specific goals direct attention and strategic planning. Tying more into the course, goals generate motivation, but motivation is only one of the causes that underlie performance. Goal setting translates into increased performance only in the context of timely feedback that documents performer’s progress in relation to the goal. The performer needs both a goal and feedback to maximize performance. For goals to be accepted by an individual, they must be: difficult and specific, coupled with feedback, and accepted. The four factors that determine whether someone will accept or reject a goal are: (1) the perceived difficulty of the imposed goal, (2) the participation in the goal setting process, (3) the credibility of the person assigning the goal, and (4) the extrinsic incentives involved. Long-term goals increase intrinsic motivation by giving a sense of autonomy and they typically exist as complex cognitive structures (as opposed to short-term goals that are specific behavior targets).
In accordance to goal striving, the text states that focusing on the goal itself actually interferes with attaining that goal. In order to facilitate goal attainment, one must instead focus on how to accomplish the goal itself. An 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. The text also states that the key reason people fail to attain their goals is that they often fail to develop specific action plans for how they will attain their goals. The main problems that occur once a goal is set and the person is committed to the goal are: getting started, persisting, and resuming once an interruption occurs.
Finally, the text “sums up” how to create an effective goal-setting program. The first four steps occur within in the goal-setting process whereas the last four steps occur within the goal-striving process. The steps are as follows: (1) specify the objective/goal to be accomplished, (2) define the difficulty of the goal, (3) clarify the goal specificity, (4) specify the time span when the performance will be assessed, (5) check on goal acceptance, (6) discuss goal-attainment strategies, (7) create implementation intentions, and (8) provide feedback on performance.
The most surprising thing I learned while reading chapter 8 was the fact that if someone focuses on just the goal itself that it will interfere with goal attainment, versus if someone focuses more so on how to accomplish the goal, that it will facilitate goal attainment. This was surprising to me for the reason that it seems like a logical notion/thought, but when I read the chapter I thought to myself, “Oh, okay. That really makes sense to me. I wonder why I have never specifically thought about that in relation to goal attainment.” I found this so interesting that I brought it up to two of my roommates and their reactions were about the same as mine (“Oh that makes sense! That’s cool!”). I found many other things in this chapter to be surprising, but this is the thing that stuck out to me the most and has caused me to ponder my goals differently if I am serious about attaining them.
Knowledge from this chapter helps me motivate myself towards my desired goals through the use of the eight-step process about creating an effective goal-setting program. I am now able to take my goals step-by-step to make certain that I am on the right path to attaining them. I will keep the eight-step process in mind for my future goals as it definitely seems like a plausible method for everyone to follow in order to setting and attain their goals.
Terms: cognition --> action sequence, plans, TOTE model, present state, ideal state, discrepancy, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, goal setting, goal difficulty, goal specificity, feedback, accepted/rejected goals, long-term goals, short-term goals, goal striving, focusing on goal, implementation intentions, and creating effective goal-setting program
Chapter 8 defines and explains what a goal is and all the steps that it takes to have success in accomplishing a goal. The chapter starts off by explaining that goals come from planning. Three psychologists in 1960 did research on how plans motivate behavior. They found that people use plans by mentally picturing what they ideally want and compare it to what they presently already have. If what they image and what they have are not the same, a person is said to be experiencing incongruity. Once someone knows that have incongruent ideas this makes them take a plan of action so that the two ideas can be similar. This is called corrective motivation when a person feels the need to change or modify the present or ideal state to make them no longer incongruent. Another way that researchers describe this incongruity is called discrepancy. This is a larger view than incongruity was in the past. Researchers believe that if the present state falls short of the ideal state it is discrepancy and this is in fact what motivates people to take action. There are two different kinds of discrepancy: reduction and creation. Discrepancy reduction is when a person gets feedback from the environmental setting as some form of a standard of excellence to see if the person is performing well enough. Discrepancy creation is a type of a feed-forward system. This person will look ahead to the future to see where they want to be based on their own higher goal setting.
Goal setting is the next part of this chapter and it shows how a person can take the initiative to set difficult and specific goals for themselves. Research has shown that people who set goals for themselves tend to perform better than those who do not. Now goals are not just stating once that a person is going to do something like “I am going to college someday.” This is not a good goal. To make a goal a successful one it needs to be more specific. Making a goal specific directs the person towards a plan of action that is more likely to be achieved. By saying something more like “I am going to start college at UNI in 1 year and major in psychology,” a person has a better sense of direction and is more likely to actually try to go for this goal. Another way to make a goal better is by making it one that is difficult and challenging for the person. This can energize the person and make them want to try even harder to accomplish their goal. Overall, people with specific and difficult goals will perform even better than the people who just state something they want to do.
Another one of the steps to making and achieving a goal is to get feedback. Feedback is when a person has knowledge of the results of their goals. If a person did not know how something may turn out they are not motivated to even try. Without any feedback the goal can be emotionally unimportant and make the person feel like they are wasting their time. The last step talked about in chapter eight is goal acceptance. This is when a person is on board with what they have planned or what someone else has planned for them. If the person does not accept a goal, they will not want to go for it at all. They will question why they are even trying.
The last part of chapter 8 discusses goal striving. This is when a person envisions what they want and then takes action to get it. It all starts off with picturing the goal a person wants to attain and the picturing how they are going to accomplish it. A goal cannot be achieve though by just picturing it. A person needs to act on that envision and be persistent in performing well. A person needs to use implementation intentions when striving for a goal. This is when a person acts upon a goal and puts effort into trying to achieve it by setting smaller goals to accomplishing a big goal. This will help the person perform a lot better when it comes to achieving a bigger long term goal. Overall, chapter 8 breaks down goals step by step to insure that a person knows how to set good goals and to be able to actually accomplish a set goal.
What I found to be the most surprising in this chapter was the section on goal difficulty. I actually never really thought about goals needing to be difficult for a person to be a good goal. I have always been the person that sets easy goals for myself so that I feel better about accomplishing a bunch of easy goals. By making the goal a more difficult one, a person may want to give up if they do not have the persistence to keep going. I know that I give up easily when something seems to take up too much of my time and stresses me out. I do see though why difficult goals make a person want to perform better. Accomplishing something that is challenging makes the person feel a lot better about achieving the goal than accomplishing one that was easy. I guess that I am the type of person that does not like too much of a challenge, but enough of one that will be motivating to want to try for.
This chapter has helped me learn that I need to make my goals more specific and difficult if I want to perform better at them. I usually would set a simple and easy goal such as getting my homework done for class. I now know that I need to set a goal that is more like “I will get my motivation and emotion essay for chapter 8 done by 8pm on Wednesday.” This way I may actually get the essays done when I want them to be done and not at the last minute because I kept putting them off. I also had learned that I need be accepting of goals that other people may set for me or else I will not even try to get that goal done. In the past my parents had always set goals for me like you are going to try out for the basketball team this year and I would just say sure and then the next thing I know I forgot to go try out and my parents wanted to know why I didn’t do it. At the time I could not think of a reason why other than I forgot. Now I can say to them that I did not feel like I accepted that goal in my life because I did not think I would enjoy or be good at basketball, that’s why I “forgot” to try out for the team. Overall, this chapter helped me see how I can better myself at making goals that I will be more likely to achieve. All I need to do is make sure I plan, set, and strive for that desired goal.
Terms: Incongruity, corrective motivation, discrepancy, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, goal setting, feedback, goal striving, implementation intention, goal difficulty
Chapter 8 is all about goal setting and goal planning. The chapter starts out by discussing the cognitive perspective on motivation, which states that cognitive sources of motivation revolve around a person's way of thinking and believing. Our cognitions effect the way that we plan. The text states that, "The cognitive mechanism by which plans energize and direct behavior is the test-operate-test-exit. (TOTE) model." Test means to compare the present state against the idea.If there is a mismatch between the two then that motivates the individual to operate on the environment by a planned sequence of action. The book gives the example of a bad hair day. You look in the mirror to see if you hair matches your idea hair style. If it does not match then you "operate" by combing your hair or doing what ever it takes to make it match your ideal. You then test again by checking it, and if your hair matches your ideal then you "exit."
Next the text discusses corrective motivation. The text states that, " The plan -> action sequence portrays individuals as detecting present ideal inconsistencies, generating a plan t oeliminate the incongruity, instigating plan regulated behavior, and monitoring feedback as to the extent of any remaining present ideal incongruity." More contemporary researchers believe though, that plans are adjustable and subject to revision. The text goes on to say that from this point of view any present ideal incongruity does not instigate an automatic discrepancy motivated action sequence. Incongruity actually gives rise to a more general "corrective motivation." Corrective motivation activates a decision making process in which the individual considers many different possible ways for reducing the present ideal incongruity. Corrective motivation means that you either change the plan, change behavior, or withdraw from the plan altogether.
Next the text describes two types of discrepancy relavent to planning. The first type is discrepancy reduction, which is based on the discrepancy detecting feedback that underlies plans and corrective motivation. The second type of discrepancy is discrepancy creation, which is based on a "feed forward" system in which the person looks forward and proactively sets a future, higher goal. Both of these types of discrepancy provide the motivational basis for action.
Next, goal setting is discussed. According to the text, a goal is whatever an individual is striving to accomplish which motivates us to engage in goal directed bahavior. Just like plans, goals motivate us by focusing our attention on the discrepancy between their present level of accomplishment and their ideal level of accomplishment. The text goes on to explain that people perform better when they have a goal. Goal difficulty is described as how hard it is to achieve a desired goal. The more difficult a goal is the more it energizes the performer. Easy goals generate little effort from the performer, which is why it is good to set high goals for yourself. Goal specificity is how clearly a goal informs the performer precisely what they are to do. This is important because specific goals draw attention to what one needs to do and reduces ambiguity in thought and variability in performance. The text also states that difficult, specific goals increase performance while easy and vague ones do not. This is because difficult goals energize the performer, while specific goals direct the performer toward a particular course of action.
Next the chapter explains why feedback is important to goal setting. Feedback allows people to keep track of progress toward their goal. Having both a goal and feedback helps to maximize performance. Without feedback performance can be emotionally unimportant and uninvolving. Feedback also has to have a goal of helping the performer to achieve what they are trying to achieve. Goal acceptance is also something that motivates people to succeed. Accepting a goal givin to you by another person pushes you to succeed in that goal. Not only for yourself, but for the person that asked you to achieve that goal. Long term goals are successful after achieving multiple short term goals, and they typically exist as complex cognitive structures. Finally a reason that people do not acieve thier goal is becuase they fail to develop a specific action plan.
The part of this chapter that I found most interesting was the TOTE model. It seems basic when you really think about it. I guess that I never thought of having an ideal about something like your hair. It really is true though because I do this almost every morning! I fix my hair then check it more than once before i leave the house. I check, then fix, usually multiple times through out the day. I like to make sure that my hair that day matches my "ideal" hairstyle. This chapter also helped me realize that I need to develop a specific action plan for my long term goal, which is to get into grad school. I really need to get moving with it and get my stuff figured out!
Terms: Goal, cognitive mechanism, TOTE model, corrective motivation, ideal, ideal inconcruity, discrepancy, discrepancy reduction/creation, goal specificity, feedback.
Chapter 8 on goals talks about the motivational significance of four elements in the cognition to action sequence. The four elements are plans, goals, implementation intentions, and mental stimulations. Plans and goals rely on discrepancy as their driving motivational force. There are two types of discrepancies that exist. Discrepancy reduction is based on the discrepancy-detecting feedback that underlies plans and corrective motivation. This means that some aspect of the environment provides feedback about how well or how poorly a person’s current performance level matches up with the ideal performance level. The second type of discrepancy is discrepancy creation. This is based on a feed-forward system in which a person looks forward and sets a future, higher goal. The person deliberately sets a higher goal, an ideal state, and does not require feedback. In my case, my goal of raising my GPA is created for myself. There are two important distinctions between discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. First, discrepancy reduction corresponds to plan-based corrective motivation, and discrepancy creation corresponds to goal-setting motivation. Second, discrepancy reduction is reaction and involves feedback, and discrepancy creation is proactive, and growth pursuing.
This chapter has helped me understand many of my own goals. I have many long-term goals that all go hand in hand, such as a getting married a year from now, getting into graduate school, getting a master’s degree etc. One problem with my first goal, that of getting married, is that there is not much goal specificity. Obviously I know that I’m getting married next October, and hope this leads to a fulfilling marriage, but this ambiguous thought is hard to put into a specific goal. My other goals, however, can be more specific. The goal I have to be accepted into a graduate program of my choice is a more specific goal.
For me, my current performance in school does not match up with my ideal performance level. For the first three years of college, I did not think that I was going to graduate school, and did not take classes and grades as seriously as I should have. Therefore, my GPA is just below a 3.0, and I know that I need at least that to get into graduate school. So now I need to work harder than ever to bring it up this year. This environment brings a standard of excellence to my awareness and I know that my performance is not at the ideal level.
Difficult goals increase the performer’s effort and persistence. The harder the goal, the greater the effort. If I had been a straight A student, I would probably not be working as hard to get into graduate school, because I wouldn’t need to. However, that not being the case, I have to work a lot harder now to make up for my laziness. Specific goals focus the individual’s attention toward the task at hand and away from tasks that are incidental. My goal of getting into graduate school requires specific tasks to be completed. I need to study for the GRE, take the GRE in the spring, get letters of recommendation, etc.
Goal acceptance is also critical when goal setting takes place within the context of interpersonal relationships. I did not plan on going to graduate school, even when my parents told me that it would be the best idea for me. After getting involved with my fiancé, he also told me that graduate school would be a good idea. I finally accepted this goal, which is going to affect both me and my fiance’s lives. Goal acceptance is related to goal difficulty. Goals that are easy to accomplish generally breed goal acceptance. Goals that are difficult breed goal rejection. I knew that getting into graduate school was going to be difficult, therefore at first I rejected this goal.
Terms: plan, implementation intention, mental stimulation, goal specificity, discrepancy reduction, corrective motivation, discrepancy creation, goal, goal acceptance
Chapter eight was about goal setting and striving. At the beginning of the chapter, we are introduced to our ideal state. The ideal state is simply what something is supposed to look, act or feel like. We usually compare our ideal states with our present state, how it actually looks, acts or feels. We tend to realize where we actually are in the world and where we want to be, when this occurs we form a plan so that way our present state looks like our ideal state. The book gives an example of people having an ideal state of what a tennis serve looks like, we tend to know when we see professionals play, and what their present serve is and they try to modify it in order for their present serve to look like their ideal one. After we form a plan, we have to spring this plan into action. We use corrective motivation which is, test (we compare the present state with the ideal), operate (act on environment to realize ideal state), test (compare present state to ideal state). If our present state looks like our ideal we stop, if not we operate a new plan and test again. While we are forming this plan we see discrepancy, discrepancy creates the sense of wanting to change he present state so that it will move closer and closer toward the ideal state. There are two types of discrepancy, discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. After reading this section of the chapter I think discrepancy reduction is when the environment bring so sort of standard of excellence, like requirements. Discrepancy creation on the other hand, is like the person, him/herself, creates the higher goal, for example if I am required a GPA of a 2.6 to stay on my scholarship I feel like I want to do better so I tell myself that I want to make a 3.0 GPA. There are several things put into goal setting, like goal difficulty (how hard a goal is to accomplish) the more difficult the goal, the more it energizes the performer. There is also goal specificity, (how a goal informs the performer precisely what he/she needs to do) specific goals draw attention and reduces uncertainty in the thought and inconsistency in the performance. Feedback lets the performer the result of where they stand and a performer needs this to maximize performance. Overall a person needs to accept their goal. This is what needs to be considered when setting a goal. I think the most surprising thing to learn about was goal striving. A lot of people set goals but most people tend to not follow through with them. Goal striving is a process which a person needs to focus on the action, which means focusing on how to accomplish the goal. To facilitate action, people need to mentally simulate a goal process. I think reading this section of the chapter helped me acknowledge that the goals I set are achievable. I will put this chapter to use by striving for my goal. I am trying to make all A’s for the semester. In doing so I decided to plan out my week and divide up my hours and acknowledge specific house I need to study a day, which will allow me to do homework, and stay on track in order to get my work done and understand the material I need for test.
Terms: Goal Setting, Goal Striving, Ideal State, Present State, Discrepancy, Discrepancy Reduction, Discrepancy Creation, Goal Difficulty, Goal Specificity, Feedback, Goal Acceptance,
The chapter first describes how plans function in motivation and the effect of corrective motivation. People adjust their plans according to the results of their actions. The motivation behind plans is the discrepancy between ideal goal and present state. There are two types of motivated approach, namely discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation, depending on the type of goal. The reduction reacts on the feedback of actions, while the creation looks for goals that promote personal growth. A goal improves performance when it is difficult, specific, and giving timely feedback. For an external goal to be effective it also needs to gain internal acceptance from people. Finally the text describes how implementation intention helps to realize the planned actions. Table 8.1 provides a summary of the chapter.
I did not see any surprise in the chapter, but I can say that the reduction and creation of discrepancy are somewhat impressive. These concepts show both the passive and the active aspects of setting a goal. I learned a new way to look at personal goals objectively.
After reading the chapter, I know that I need to be more conscious of carrying out plans. That table in the chapter is a good checklist for doing so. I need to have more specific goals and prepare a feedback mechanism. I also need to think about exactly when and where I will act on my plans.
Terms: corrective motivation, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, implementation intention
Chapter 8 deals with the things that we incorporate into everything we do: goals. Goals are the finish line of motivation and emotion. Why are we motivated to do something? The answer to this question can probably relate very closely to a goal. People that are goal setting can be observed everywhere, even here on campus. The runners that frequent our campus’ sidewalk are examples of goal setters. They could be running for many different purposes such as: losing 10 pounds or shaving 20 seconds off their best time. This can also be seen in bike riders. Maybe they want to maintain an active lifestyle or they simply want to do their part in maintaining a clean environment.
Achieving your goals starts off with planning. Planning is like the beginning of the race; your plan on how to race your best. In the 1960’s George Miller, Eugene Galanter, and Karl Pribram researched how planning affects your behavior. The conclusion that they came up with is that planning involves people imagining their ideal states of mind, body, and environment. Planning involves the person knowing their present behavior, their present object, and their present event. Any incongruity between the person’s present state and their ideal state creates them to plan to remove that incongruity.
So if the goal is the finish line and planning is the beginning of the race, what is in the middle? Well that is where goal setting comes into play. Goal setting is when the person is actively striving to achieve that goal. If someone has a goal to lose 10 pounds and their plan is to go to the wellness center, then actively going to the wellness center is goal striving. This is where the goal-setter focuses on removing the incongruity. The goal setter also has to focus on the goal difficulty. As goals increase in difficulty, it energizes the person. This is because the person has to exert more effort to achieve the goal. Setting a goal also has to be specific. If a coach tells his runners to “run their best,” that is not giving much direction. Giving someone clearer goals like “knock 30 seconds off your last time” would be a better goal.
The information from this chapter will help me achieve my goals because it will show me the process that is involved in achieving a goal. Goals will not be achieved overnight, but knowing the steps to use will help provide guidance for completing a goal. Sometimes achieving a goal like overcoming an addiction can be very overwhelming. This chapter can really help give guidance.
Terms: goal, goal setting, plan, George Miller, Eugene Galanter, Karl Pribram, present behavior, present object, present event, incongruity
Chapter 8 was centered on the ideas of goal setting and goal striving. The chapter began by discussing plans. The textbook states that any mismatch perceived between one’s present state and one’s ideal state instigates an experience of incongruity, which has motivational properties. People then formulate a plan to remove that incongruity (p.207). Plans become the means of organizing our behavior toward the pursuit of the ideal state, or in other words provide direction.
The chapter then delves into corrective motivation, which discusses how plans are adjustable and subject to revision. Plans are modifiable. Corrective motivation activates a decision-making process in which the individual considers many different possible ways for reducing the present-ideal incongruity (p.209). It is a dynamic process.
Next, the chapter focuses on discrepancy and the two different types, discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. Discrepancy reduction is based on the discrepancy-detecting feedback that underlies plans and corrective motivation, whereas discrepancy creation is based on a “feed-forward” system in which the person looks forward and proactively sets a future, higher goal (p.211).
After that comes goal setting, and the underlying topics include goal-performance discrepancy (goal difficulty, goal specificity), difficult, specific goals enhance performance, feedback, goal acceptance, criticisms, and long-term goal setting. This section basically states that goals need to be difficult to energize the performer, yet specific enough to draw attention to what needs to be done and reduce ambiguity. Difficulty and specificity truly do enhance performance. Feedback is also important so that performance is important and involving to someone. This knowledge of results allows people to track their progress toward their ultimate goal, which will in turn maximize performance. Goal acceptance is critical, especially if the goal in question is an externally imposed one. Acceptance can breed goal commitment (p.217). There are definitely criticisms, cautions, and pitfalls when it comes to goal setting, but it also has its advantages. There are ups and downs, just like any other concept. The last subsection of this part of the chapter is about long-term goal setting, and it discusses how it is easier for one to stay intrinsically motivated by completing a series of short-term goals that will ultimately lead to the long-term goal.
The next big section of the chapter is goal striving, and the subsections of this part include mental simulations: focusing on action, implementation intentions, goal pursuit: getting started, and goal pursuit: persisting and finishing. Mental simulations: focusing on action discusses how focusing on the goal itself actually interferes with goal attainment. However, if the focus is instead on how to accomplish the goal, it will facilitate goal attainment. Mental simulations draw out the difference between the content of a goal and the process for attaining that goal. The next subsection on implementation intentions states that a key reason people fail to attain their goals is that they often fail to develop specific action plans for how they will attain their goals (p.223). If one plans how they will carry out their goal it will allow them to overcome volitional problems (getting started, despite daily distractions, persisting, in spite of difficulties and setbacks, and resuming, once an interruption occurs) that are associated with goal-directed behavior. Implementation intentions ensure that goals, once set, are effectively acted on. The next subsections discuss how deciding in advance when and where a person will enact their goal-directed behavior facilitates getting started and that implementation intentions are key factors in persisting and finishing a goal.
Finally, Chapter 8 winds up with a section on how to put it all together and create an effective goal-setting program. It goes into detail about an eight-step process, with four sequential steps within the goal-setting process and then four sequential steps within the goal-striving process. If these steps are followed, one should be able to attain their goal.
The most surprising thing that I learned from reading this chapter is that a goal needs to be difficult to increase performance. This seemed odd to me at first because I assumed that people would want to work on easy goals to feel competent. Instead, the more difficult the goal, the more it energizes the performer (p.212). This is because of the fact that people exert effort in proportion to what the goal requires of them. Therefore, a harder goal will stimulate higher effort than a medium or an easy goal would. This was very interesting to me, but I was happy to learn about it!
The knowledge that I gained from reading Chapter 8 will definitely help motivate me towards desired goals. For one, it made me realize why I hadn’t attained certain goals in the past. There were things missing, such as intrinsic motivation, positive feedback, and implementation intentions. Now that I know what is all involved in attaining a goal, whether long-term or short-term, I should be able to follow the eight-step program and achieve whatever I set my mind to! I certainly have goals for the future, so I want to make sure I get things right this time! This chapter truly taught me so much about what goes into the goal setting and goal striving procedures.
Terms: goal setting, goal striving, plans, motivation, behavior, corrective motivation, discrepancy, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, discrepancy-detecting feedback, goal-performance discrepancy, difficulty, specificity, feedback, goal acceptance, long-term goal, intrinsic motivation, short-term goal, mental simulations, implementation intentions, volitional problems, competence
This chapter discusses the motivational significance of four elements in the cognition action sequence: plans, goals, implementation intentions, and mental simulations. Plans and goals rely on discrepancy as their driving motivational force to action. Discrepancies explain motivations by showing how mismatches between a person’s present state versus their ideal state energizes and directs their behavior to accomplish their goals. When these mismatches exist, incongruity produces corrective motivation that directs behavior to reduce or eliminate discrepancy, making it easier for an individual to accomplish a desired goal. When striving for a goal, goals that are both difficult and specific generally improve performance by producing motivational effectiveness. However, two conditions are necessary before goals will enhance performance: feedback and goal acceptance. Feedback allows a performer to evaluate their performance and determine whether or not they are meeting their goal standard. Goal acceptance refers to the process in which a person accepts another person’s goal assigned goal as their own. Once a goal has been set, it does not automatically get put into effect. This means people must formulate implementation intentions that specify a plan as to how a performer must go about accomplishing their goals. These implementations help people overcome the difficulties of starting to pursue a goal and help them strive to accomplish it.
Something that surprised me about this chapter was that increasing difficulty of a goal also increases performance. This means that easy goals stimulate less effort while difficult goals stimulate high effort. Therefore, the more difficult the goal, the more it energizes the behavior of the performer. This was interesting to me because I always thought that by making a goal more difficult, you were likely to fail at accomplishing it by setting the bar too high. However, this chapter helped me understand the concept. Just because you increase the difficulty of your goal, that doesn’t mean you are guaranteed greater performance. When you make a goal more difficult, you must also make it more specific. Once you’ve set the difficulty and specificity of the goal, you can then begin to assess the level of performance needed to accomplish said goal. This assessment will motivate you to perform and work towards accomplishing your goal.
For me personally, this chapter has taught me how to become a more efficient goal setter. I was previously unaware of all the key factors that can really help when it comes to setting and accomplishing goals. For example, I have been making goals throughout my life for a long time; however, sometimes I lose interest in them and don’t motivate myself to accomplish them. All in all, I feel like this chapter has provided me with eight crucial steps that if followed, will give me access to the tools needed to accomplish both my short and long term goals.
Terms: cognition -> action sequence, plans, goals, implementation intentions, mental simulations, present versus ideal state, difficulty, specificity, goal acceptance, goal striving, feedback, long/short term goals, discrepancy, incongruity, motivation, behavior
Chapter 8 is all about goal setting and goal striving. The chapter starts out by discussing the concepts of plan. The idea of a plan is broken down into the TOTE model. This model is set-up to test-operate-test-exit. In other terms, the individual constantly compares the present state against the ideal state in a back and forth rhythm. This occurs repeatedly until the present state is consistent with the ideal state. The idea of corrective motivation now comes into play. This motivation allows the individual to consider many possible outcomes for reducing the present-ideal incongruity.
The chapter continues onto the main two concepts of goal setting and goal striving. A goal is whatever an individual is striving to accomplish. This may be to earn a 4.0 GPA or go undefeated in an athletic season. Anybody is capable of making goals and every goal is different. Goals generate motivation by focusing people’s attention on the discrepancy between their present level of accomplishment and their ideal level of accomplishment. Goals can vary with difficulty. Some goals can produce stress and opportunities for failure. This can put intrinsic motivation at risk. The easier the goal, the less effort it requires. Some goals may be considered “long-term” which will require much work. In the process of long-term goals, you may make “short-term” goals. These goals help an individual make baby steps and help make the person feel like they are making strides toward the long-term goal.
Goal striving is an act to make great efforts to achieve at the goal you have made. This is totally different than goal setting. Goal setting is making the goals, whereas, goal striving is laying the foundation to figure out a game plan on how to achieve this goal. This includes specific action plans as to when, where, and how the goal will be attained.
The most surprising thing from this chapter that I learned was the difficult goals increase the enhancement of performance. In my eyes, you would think the easier/moderate goals would be most promising to a person’s psyche because they are the most attainable to achieve. Everyone likes to feel satisfaction. But the book states that the more difficult the goal is, the more is “boosts” us to perform the desired goal. In essence, this means that when we are setting goals, set goals that are hard. Set something to strive for. With this, however tough the goal is, we proportionally put that amount of effort in to reaching it. If something is pretty easy to achieve, chances are a person is going to put minimal effort into reaching it because they know it does not take much effort.
The information about goals only helps motivate me toward achieving my goals even more. When reading this chapter, I almost felt like this was a pre-game speech trying to pump me up toward achieving my own goals. This chapter has been an eye-opener. I understand to break down long-term goals into small-term goals so that I can feel like I have been making progress toward the “big” goal. And with these goals, I know to be very specific when making them. Do not be vague and leave the goal wide-open. I know to make them very precise so that I know what I have to achieve.
Key Terms: goal setting, goal striving, plan, TOTE model, corrective motivation, intrinsic motivation, long-term goal, short-term goal
Chapter 8 is about goal setting and many things involved in the process of setting and achieving goals. Similar to goals, the chapter starts off with plans. A plan is the process by which an incongruity is removed. An incongruity is the difference between some present state and the ideal for that state. There is a model called the test-operate-test-exit (TOTE) model that represents this in a series of actions. Testing current status, finding incongruity we operate upon that to change it, test again, exit if present is ideal. However, there is another concept that is similar to incongruity, a synonym called discrepancy. Discrepancy is a bigger picture that has a reduction form and creation form. Discrepancy reduction is based upon feedback from the environment and is plan based. Discrepancy creation is a proactive, self-made, future ideal based upon goal setting. A goal is anything one wants to accomplish. These goals focus on discrepancies; they exist to remove a given discrepancy. There are two factors that impact goal setting. Goal difficulty, the level of challenge to the goal, is the energizing factor. Effort and goal difficulty are positively correlated, when difficulty goes up, so does effort. Goal specificity, the clear description of a goal, is the direction of motivation. A clear, concise goal gets more accomplished than one that is vague. Only goals that fit the high level of difficulty and specificity will increase performance.
Feedback is also an important part of goal setting. Feedback is the knowledge of results. It is necessary to measure success, or failure, and maximize performance. Goals need feedback to be validated and feedback needs a goal to be important. Feedback can lead to emotion; satisfaction in achievement, or dissatisfaction in a lack thereof. Yet another important piece in goal setting is goal acceptance. Many times, goals are not set by the individual expected to carry them out. Goal acceptance is the level of internalization involved in a goal given by another person. Perceived difficulty of this goal is inversely related to acceptance; easy goals are most accepted and difficult goals are typically least accepted. Input, or participation in decision making, increases acceptance as does the credibility of the person giving the goal. Many extrinsic incentives can increase acceptance, as well.
There are some major criticisms for goal setting. Mainly, it evolved from business and intends to increase worker productivity and performance. This means that it does not actually increase motivation, just the performance. It can bring about a lot of stress and opportunities for failure with the high level of difficulty. Goal setting seems to work best with uninteresting tasks that are relatively straightforward or simple. With interesting tasks, it actually undermines creativity and autonomy.
Long term goal setting can be beneficial as well as short term. When broken up into short term goals, a longer goal is easier to accomplish due to increased feedback and reinforcement. It can be difficult to go long periods without any feedback and that can discourage and lead to abandonment of a goal. Long term goals seem to work best with interesting things that have a high level of autonomy to support them. Uninteresting tasks work better with short term goals. Lastly, implementation intentions are the final discussion of the chapter. An implementation intention is a plan to actually do a goal directed behavior. It is making a when, where, and how type plan to accomplish a specific goal. Getting started, persisting with the goal striving, and resuming when distracted are all impacted by this simple planning.
The most interesting part of this chapter for me came in two parts. The first was the little laugh I got out of the mention of Weight Watchers without using its name. For copyright reasons, I’m sure, they had to describe it without naming it and, for some reason, I found that very funny. The other part is actually a part of the chapter’s emphasis. Focusing on the goal actually negatively impacts the achievement of that goal. Focusing on how to accomplish it makes sense but I never would have guessed that it makes so much more of a difference and focusing just on the accomplishment is a bad thing.
This chapter has so much good information on how we can impact our own goals. The idea of making an implementation intention is so beneficial to all future goals. Just making a starting point and laying out how it will be done seems so simple yet increases goal accomplishment. The parts to increasing goal acceptance can come in handy a lot in the future, with my boyfriend or future offspring or just anyone else I have to deal with (like group project members!).
Terms: plan, incongruity, discrepancy, goal, goal difficulty, goal specificity, feedback, goal acceptance, implementation intention
Chapter 8 discusses goal setting and goal striving. It is the first chapter in the cognitive section and talks about the cognitive perspective on motivation. There are three sections in the chapter. They are plans, goal setting, and implementation intentions, and mental stimulations (the latter two make up goal striving). All of these things make up the cognitive -> action sequence.
The motivational driving force behind plans and goals is discrepancy. Cognitive discrepancies explain by showing the differences between an individual's present state and their ideal state and then it directs toward an action. There are two types of discrepancies: discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. Discrepancy reduction is related to plans and corrective motivation while discrepancy creation is related to goals and the goal-setting process.
People are aware of their current behavior, the environment, and the events in their life. People also have a view of their ideal state. So when the present state and ideal state does not match up, there is a discrepancy. This makes a corrective motivation that gives rise to plan-directed behavior to reduce the discrepancy. For example, if i see that my room is messy, but I want it clean and it bothers me. So I make a plan to clean my room. When discrepancies appear, people will either make a plan that will make their present state more like their ideal state or will make changes to their current plan to make their ideal state more like their present state.
Goals are the objectives people strive to accomplish. All types of goals typically improve performance by producing motivational effects. Difficult goals bring forth effort and increase persistence. Specific goals direct attention and promote strategic acceptance. Feedback allows an individual to evaluate their performance compared to their goal standard. Performing below the standard creates dissatisfaction that underlies a desire to improve. Performing above the standard creates satisfaction that underlies the willingness to make more difficult goals in the future. Goal acceptance is the process in which the performer accepts another person's assigned goal as his own.
Just because a goal has been set, it doesn't mean that it will translate into effective performance. The reason for this is because people have trouble getting started and also have trouble persisting and finishing when they encounter and obstacle in the way of the goal.
Toward the end of the chapter, it gave an 8 step guide to effective goal-setting. I can use this in my life to help me achieve my goals. The 8 steps are divided in two parts. The first is the goal-setting process (four steps) and goal-striving process (four steps). With these steps, I can apply them throughout my life. I can create more goals once I accomplish one goal. I can also use it to help me persist to my goals.
terms: plans, goals, implementation intentions, mental stimulations, present/ideal states, corrective motivation, discrepancies (creation/reduction), goal acceptance, goal setting, goal striving,
Chapter 8 discussed how goals contribute to motivation. Goals are personal individual aspirations, something that an individual is striving to accomplish. It first addressed how plans motivate behavior. Plans are based on incongruities between an individual’s present state of behavior and their ideal state of behavior. When incongruities are noticed, individuals formulate a plan of action to eliminate or lessen the incongruity. In this case, the incongruity is the main motivator. Formulating a plan gives direction to the energy created by the motivator. Plans typically follow a test-operate-test-exit model. That is, individuals test/evaluate their current state, operate to eliminate the incongruity between their present state and ideal state, test/evaluate their new present state and if they have achieved their ideal state, they exit the process. Plans are not set in stone; they can change.
Corrective motivation is what drives us to change the plan. According to the chapter, corrective motivation “activates a decision-making process in which the individual considers many different possible ways for reducing the present-ideal incongruity: change the plan, change the behavior, or withdraw from the plan altogether.”
The chapter went on to address discrepancies, which are essentially the same as incongruities. It discussed two kinds of discrepancies: discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. Discrepancy reduction is what its name implies—reducing the discrepancy between the present state and the environmentally driven ideal state. Discrepancy creation is the discrepancy that drives us to set new, higher goals for ourselves. Discrepancy reduction is more environmental, while discrepancy creation is more personal.
Next, the chapter discussed goal setting. Much like plans have discrepancies, goals have discrepancies as well, known as goal-performance discrepancy. Goal-performance discrepancy suggests that those who have goals perform better than those who do not have set goals. The type of goal is important to determine the strength of performance. Having difficult goals, ones that are hard but within out abilities, that are specific and clear about what an individual is to do are the best goals that enhance performance. Goal difficulty provides energy and goal specificity provides direction, which are important aspects of increasing performance level. But still, individuals need timely feedback, information showing an individual’s progress toward the goal, in order to further increase performance. Feedback provides motivation in that it allows a person to see his or her progress, which can give emotional and psychological satisfaction driving them to continue to increase performance.
Not all goals are personal. Some are given to us and we must either accept or reject them. The chapter pointed out four factors that determine goal acceptance, whether 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. If these four factors are all high, an individual is much more likely to accept the goal, whereas if most or all of the factors are low, an individual is more likely to reject the proposed goal. An important point that the chapter made was that goals are meant to enhance performance, not to motivate.
Generally, people have both long-term and short-term goals. Short-term goals can be goals on their own, but many are goals set with the intention of achieving a larger, long-term goal. Setting short-term goals that will progress you toward your long-term goal is a beneficial way to keep yourself on track toward that final goal. Short-term goals provide “repeated commitment-boosting opportunities for reinforcement.” This helps to keep people driven toward their larger goal. Also, individuals are more likely to keep striving toward their goal if they visual action rather than the end result. Focusing on action is helpful when implementing intentions, “plans to carry out one’s goal directed behavior.”
Something that I learned that I found surprising was that goals are not meant to motivate. They are just meant to enhance performance toward goal achievement. I guess I always thought/ I was taught that setting goals are what motivates you because you have a final destination of sorts. You are motivated to reach that destination. However, as the chapter pointed out, goals are put into place to increase performance. This actually does make sense because just having a random goal set does not mean we are going to be motivated to achieve it. Motivation comes from other psychological and environmental factors that may appear along the way toward achieving the goal, but we must perform, or operate and take action, in order to reach a goal.
The knowledge from this chapter helps to motivate me towards desired goals because it provides valuable information about how to approach a goal and what is sort of goal is going to appeal to me and help drive me toward accomplishing it. I must set specific and difficult goals that are attainable. I should set short-term goals along the way that will boost my energy and reaffirm my commitment to achieving my larger, long-term goal. I must not think about the goal in and of itself. I must focus on what I will do, the actions that I will take in order to accomplish my goals.
Term: Goal, plan, test-operate-test-exit, corrective motivation, goal-performance discrepancy, goal difficulty, goal specificity, feedback, short-term goal, long-term goal, goal acceptance, goal striving, implementing intention.
In Chapter eight plans, goals, implementation intentions, and mental simulations are the four step in cognition that we find in an action sequence. The T-O-T-E model is brought up and it means test-operate-test-exit. Here you compare your present with your ideal states, act on your ideal state, then go back to comparing present to ideal states once again. Removing of our incongruity state, helps us to feel or become closer to our ideal state. Back to the elements in cognition, in plans in order for the motivational force of action to have a drive, it needs discrepancy. There are two types of discrepancies. The first one is discrepancy reduction that matches up your ideal performance level. The second is discrepancy creation where the person is able to continue to look ahead in their lives, no back peddling, and they continue to raise the bar for themselves the goals they’d like to accomplish. Then there are goals where these are the objects or things that everyone strives to complete. Goals can be very challenging and downright difficult, or sometimes they can even be very specific and can be accomplished in no time. There are two things that need to happen when or if you want to accomplish your goals. The first one is feedback. Feedback can be an positive or negative, here you can go over your plans and goals you are striving for. While the second one is goal acceptance, here is where you accept someone elses goals as if they are or were your own to begin with. Implementations intentions is basically when or if you have set what your intention of what you’d want to accomplish, before, than you have a higher chance of achieve that goal, more so than the ones who don’t. In the mental simulations part your focus is on three different things, first you can focus on the goal that you are wishing to attain, second, you can focus on how that goal will be attained, and thirdly, you don’t have to focus on anything.
Something that surprised me in this chapter would be the part that discussed that when people set their own goals, they will outperform the people who don’t. Having the knowledge that you want to set and achieve that goal is great, but you need to make sure you finish that goal out and not just take the easy way out. There is a difference between wanting to score a goal in soccer compared to actually believing in yourself to score that goal. As long as we continue to keep on striving to do better and better with our goals and our performances, then we all can have a better chance of meeting our ideal standard.
After reading this chapter, I have now become more motivated to accomplish my own personal goals, with the right set of mind. An example of this would be losing weight. I know due to implementation intentions I have always gone into exercising believing I will lose enough weight to look a certain way, but I now know that I just need to continue to eat healthier and exercising, and eventually the results will show. Also, I need to be very specific on setting my goals, so that I can stick with them, otherwise they won’t be goals I’ll have the chance to achieve. I just need to continue to be positive and keep on wanting to achieve goals, even when they are difficult, because they will enhance my performance. So I need to keep a good rounded head on my shoulders, not go too over board on my goals, and continue to keep on striving for more and more goals to be completed throughout my lifetime.
Terms: plans, goals, implementation intentions, mental simulations, the T-O-T-E model, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, feedback, goal acceptance, & specific goals
Chapter eight: GOALS. Goals are personal individual aspirations, something that an individual is striving to accomplish. There are four steps involving cognition that we find in an action sequence: plans, goals, implementation intentions, and mental simulations.
Plans are based on incongruities between an individual’s present state of behavior and their ideal state of behavior. When incongruities are noticed, individuals formulate a plan of action to eliminate or lessen the incongruity. In this case, the incongruity is the main motivator. Formulating a plan gives direction to the energy created by the motivator. Plans follow a TOTE model: test, operate, test, and exit. Individuals test their current state, operate to eliminate the incongruity between their present state and ideal state, test their new present state and if they have achieved their ideal state, they exit the process. Plans are not set in stone; they can change.
Corrective motivation is what drives us to change the plan. This activates a decision-making process where the individual considers the possible ways for reducing the present-ideal incongruity: change the plan, change the behavior, or withdraw from the plan altogether. The motivational driving force behind plans and goals is discrepancy. Cognitive discrepancies show the differences between an individual's present state and their ideal state and then it directs toward an action. There are two types of discrepancies: discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. Discrepancy reduction is related to plans and corrective motivation while discrepancy creation is related to goals and the goal-setting process.
There are two factors that impact goal setting. Goal difficulty, the level of challenge to the goal, is the energizing factor. Effort and goal difficulty are positively correlated, when difficulty goes up, so does effort. Goal specificity is the clear description of a goal, and is the direction of motivation. A clear, concise goal is more likely to be accomplished than one that is vague. Only goals that fit the high level of difficulty and specificity will increase performance. Goal striving is an act to make great efforts to achieve at the goal you have made. This is different than goal setting. Goal setting is making the goals, but goal striving is laying the foundation to figure out a game plan on how to achieve this goal. This includes specific action plans as to when, where, and how the goal will be attained.
Something that surprised me about this chapter was that goal difficulty is directly related to performance. Easy goals stimulate less effort while difficult goals stimulate high effort. Therefore, the more difficult the goal, the more it energizes the behavior of the performer. This surprised me because I thought making the goal more difficult increased the likelihood of failure. However, I also learned that just because you increase the goal difficulty, that does not mean you are guaranteed a better performance and likelihood of reaching your goal. When you increase the difficulty, you must also increase the specificity of the goal. Difficult goals energize us, and specific goals direct us toward a particular course of action.
This chapter has helped to motivate me toward my own personal goals. I now know how important goals are, and how to make them as effective as possible. I know that I need to break long-term goals into multiple short-term goals to satisfy my competence and increase my intrinsic motivation. I also know the importance of focusing on implementation intentions, rather than the final goal. I know that I need to be very specific when making my goals, especially for difficult ones. Most importantly, I now know that simply setting goals while enhance my performance.
Terms: goals, cognition, plans, implementation intentions, mental simulations, TOTE model, corrective motivation, cognitive discrepancies, goal difficulty, goal specificity, goal setting, goal striving, competence, intrinsic motivation
Chapet 8 is obviously about goal setting and accomplishing those goals set, we usually don’t just set a goal without some internal or even external motivation. We often decide to set a particular goal based on our present behavior not matching up with our ideal behavior, this is also known at incongruity. Being incongruent causes someone to have uneasiness about their current life situations; which then leads to a goal setting and a striving behavior; a “spring in to action” behavior. The book gave a great every day and relatable example of a present to ideal behavior. When we look in the mirror and see that our hair isn’t up to our standards, or ideal look, we emit the behavior of fixing our hair until it meets those standards. There are essentially three types of plans, short term, medium, and long term. A short term plan obviously has a quick pay off but they often have an external motivation whereas a long term goal is going to come from an intrinsic motivation because this goal is much further down the road so it requires a personal commitment. The plans we make to accomplish a goal are all adjustable and subject to revision (modified plans) because just like our life behaviors change so do our plans. No matter how many goals we set, if you don’t have the want to change then odds are your goals won’t get accomplished, discrepancy is what puts us in the state of mind to change our current situations. There are two types of discrepancy, reduction and creation. Reduction is when we receive feedback that is not our ideal feedback, example being receiving an F on a paper instead of the A that you had strived for. Creation is more along the lines of creating a higher goal to accomplish, something to reach in the future; and example being running a mile in five minutes instead of six.
Goal setting is a very common thing, but the factor that determines the success of the goal is the difficulty of the goal because it shows how enthused or energized a person is about reaching that goal. When someone sets a date by when they want their goal to be met, they are more likely to meet that goal than someone who just wishes to try their best and hopefully they reach the goal.
Something I found interesting or surprising about this chapter was the fact that there are actually many factors that go into a goal being met, first off we need to set a difficult goal in order to motivate ourselves to reach it, we need to lay out a “game” plan in our way of achieving the goal, we need to surround ourselves with people who will help us meet our goal, and finally we need to have an incentive to help us strive for our goal. Goal striving is important because its where there is a miscommunication between goal directed thinking and goal direction. It’s kind of like being stuck in a dream land, it’s easy to think up of what we want to happen, but going out and actually taking the physical steps to get to that goal is difficult.
After reading this chapter I realized that I need to sit down and write out my goals, I have an at tendency to put things off, especially when it’s such a big goal as my future career because I’m not sure what I want to do and I really don’t want to face reality. I have all these dreams and goals in my mind, but I have no plan for them, and without a plan they are simply going to just stay where they are.
Terms:
Goals, internal motivation, external motivation, incongruity, spring into action, short term, long term, plans, modified plans, discrepancy, goal striving, present state, goal difficulty, feedback.
Chapter 8 discussed aspect s of plans, goal setting, and goal striving. All of these concepts are very important in our live because we all make plans and goals. If we make goals or plans we are more likely to complete the task compared to if we don’t. This chapter taught me that plans are much more complex than I had originally thought. The process of a plan is; people have knowledge of both their present and ideal states and any perceived incongruity between the two make people uncomfortable enough to formulate and act on a plan of action to remove the incongruity so that the present state will change. Thus incongruity acts as the motivational energy and the plan becomes the means of organizing our behavior toward the ideal state.
An aspect of plans is the TOTE model which energizes and directs behavior. First is the test stage where an individual compare the present state against the ideal. Any incongruity that is found motivates the individual to operate on the environment though a plan. After a while the individual tests the present stage again, and then the process ends or continues into feedback which cause an operation again. An example of this would be fixing your hair, first you look in the mirror to find that it is messed up, then you fix it, once you have done that you check again and if it looks ok the process ends.
An important aspect of plans is the idea of corrective motivation. Corrective motivation activates a decision making process in which the individual considers many different possible ways for reducing the present-ideal incongruity. Basically decide to change the plan, change behavior, or withdraw from the plan. I view discrepancy as relating to this idea as well because a discrepancy is found when the present state falls short of the hoped or idea state. Thus discrepancy creates a sense of wanting to change the present state so that it will move closer and closer toward the ideal state. For example my present state is my current GPA and my ideal state is a GPA that is needed to make the dean’s list.
I found the section about goal setting to be the most interesting because it impacts me more directly because I am constantly setting goals and hoping to or accomplishing them. Like plans goals generate motivation by focusing on people’s attention on the discrepancy between their present level of accomplishment and their ideal level. It is found that individuals who have goals outperform those without goals. Thus it is very important to set goals because you will be more successful. The main reason I found goal setting to be interesting because they can range in difficulty and specificity. The more difficult a goal the more it energizes the individual; this is very true for me. I tend to make goals that seem very difficult to accomplish however once I accomplish them I feel even more proud of myself. Goal specificity refers to how clearly a goal informs the performer precisely what one is to do. I find this to be very important for an individual to do because you don’t want to make you goal even more confusing. There are long-term and short-term goals that help individuals accomplish a goal. Usually there are several short-term goals that help an individual accomplish a long-term goal.
Goal striving simply discusses how individuals can motivate themselves to accomplish a goal. Typically you see self-help books that try to motivate individuals to set goals and they try to teach individuals how they can motivate themselves.
Overall this chapter taught me that it is very important to take time to set goals and plans because I am more likely to accomplish my goals. This chapter helped me notice how I motivate myself to set goals and accomplish them as well. I found the concept of goal setting to be interesting because it is a very important aspect of our lives that several people do not take time to do.
Terms: Plans, Goal Setting, Goal Striving, TOTE Model, Corrective Motivation, Discrepancy, Goal Difficulty, Goal Specificity, Feedback, Long-Term Goals, Short-Term Goals
Chapter eight focuses on goals and develops the idea of the process of making and achieving goals. A plan is the first aspect of goal making. Plans motivate behavior based on an ideal event or object. A person must be aware of there current state to make further progress on their ideal state. When there is issues between ideal and current state, incongruity happens. Incongruity forces people to change their behaviors and motivate in a new way to achieve ideal state. Motivation is another key to achieving a goal.Corrective motivation helps the process with decision making and evaluation of all outcomes available. When there is a gap between corrective motivation and ideal state the area of discrepancy grows. The two types of discrepancy are discrepancy reduction, and discrepancy creation. Reduction is based on feedback while creation is based on the future.
Goal Setting is when an individual is striving to achieve and ideal state. Goal setting changes based on the difficulty and specificity. When an individual focus on a a specific goal they are clear about each aspect of how they are going to achieve the goal and exactly what the goal is. Feedback plays a large role in the planing of goals. Progress is based on feedback. The overall idea of feedback surprised me in this chapter. The idea of how much it impacts a goal and the plan is very large. It made sense to me after thinking of my goals and how much feedback is present. Goal acceptance plays into the early making of goals. The transfer of goal making and goal process has much to do with acceptance. Goal acceptance is all about how you perceive your goal and evaluate it. Overall this chapter was informational. I think many areas of goal making is subconscious, however when analyzing all goals contain these parts. This chapter helps me think further in-depth about my goals. From this chapter it is clear the more you think about a goal the more likely it is to come true. It will help me strive to meet my goals by thinking of every aspect and all possible outcomes to motivate my behavior. It will also help me be a supporter of those around me with feedback.
Key Terms: Goals, plan, feedback, motivation, behavior, corrective motivation, goal acceptance.
Chapter 8 talks about the aspect s of plans, goal setting, and goal striving. This is the first chapter in the cognitive section of the book. Cognitions are mental events that revolve around a person’s way of thinking and believing. The T-O-T-E model (TOTE) emphasizes plans and direct behavior. The book uses the example that you look into the mirror to check your hair, you “test” or compare the way your hair looks to the way you want it to look. If your hair looks the way you want it to than you are good to go. If your hair doesn’t look the way you want it to then you “operate”, you take some sort of action to change it. After the action to change it you “test” the way it looks in the mirror again. If it looks the way you want it to be than you leave or “exit”. If it doesn’t look the way you want it to you can continue to “test” and “operate” until you get the desired outcome.
Discrepancy is the difference between an individual’s present state and their ideal state. There are two different types of discrepancy, discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation. Discrepancy reduction is based on feedback that motivates plans and corrective motivation. An example the book gave is that if you only have a 2.0 GPA but want a scholarship that requires a 3.0 GPA. The individual is aware of the ideal state. Discrepancy creation is based on a moving forward system. A person looks forward and sets a future goal. Using the example from above the student with the low GPA tries for a 3.0 GPA.
A goal is something an individual strives to accomplish. It can be anything from earning more money or getting a 4.0 GPA. A personal goal I have for myself is to lose weight. Only goals that are difficult increase performance while easy goals require no motivation.
Feedback allows people to keep track of their progress. If you’re trying to lose weight weighing yourself to see if you have made any progress is feedback. Feedback can be both satisfying and dissatisfying.
One thing that surprised me is that people who set goals outperform those without goals. The book also stated that an individual performs better when they have a goal than when they don’t. This surprised me because many people who set goals don’t even complete their goal. I guess I learned that setting goals and falling short is better than not setting goals at all and to set more goals for myself!
Terms used: cognitions, T-O-T-E, discrepancy, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, goals, feedback
This chapter is all about something everyone should have…GOALS! Goals can be short term such as earning $20 by the end of the week to long term, graduating college. The chapter starts off by eliciting a plan. This plan can consist of what you want to accomplish. The chapter then talks about what you need to think about with your goal, is it going to be an easy goal to accomplish or a more difficult one? The level of difficulty can make it easier for you to accomplish or not accomplish this goal. You want to be able to look at possible obstacles along the way and thing about if you will still have motivation to accomplish your goal if they occur. Once you have a basic goal set up the chapter explains how you need to get as specific as you can with your goal. If your basic goal is to lose weight, your more specific goal would be to lose 3 pounds a week for 10 weeks by running once a day. This specific goal also gives a specific time on how long it will take you to reach the goal. The chapter explains that there can be criticisms along the way. These criticisms can make you lose focus on your goal and deter you from accomplishing it. You need to have enough drive and motivation to persist to this goal. Although there will be criticisms, there will also be feedback. If you are trying to lose weight, and you stick to your plan, after 4 weeks you my notice your stomach has shrunk. This is positive feedback that tells you to keep doing what you have been. The feedback could also be negative. You may notice 4 weeks have gone by and you haven’t lost any weight. This tells you that you may need to change up your goal plan because the one in place isn’t working. If you feel strongly about your goal and are persistent, making your goal a reality shouldn’t be a problem. Self-regulation is key as well.
The most surprising thing I read in the chapter was about obstacles. When I make a goal I never think about the obstacles that are involved. I automatically think it will be nothing for me to accomplish it and it won’t take much time. Looking at obstacles and thinking about what you can do if they occur, help you plan more successful.
I have learned that I need to become more specific in my goal plan. My plans tend to be simple and basic but if I make specific plans such as, run in the morning and night to lose 3 pounds a day, it tells me exactly what I need to do and stick to.
Terms: self-regulation, goals, motivation, persistence, goal plan, feedback, drive, short term goals, long term goals
Chapter 8 discussed the topics of planning, setting goals, and the most effective ways to achieve those goals. The chapter first discussed plans and when people attempt to make plans. Plans are made when a person’s mental representation of their behavior does not match the ideal behavior for the situation. Everyone has an idea of what they want a certain behavior to look like and if the actual and the ideal do not match, one is motivated to create a plan to correct this. When the two don’t match, the person experiences “incongruity” and this state motivates an individual to create a plan to change their behavior. To accomplish this, the individual will use the TOTE model. TOTE stands for test, operate, test, exit. More specifically, the person will test the behavior, if he or she is not satisfied, they will act on the environment to attempt to achieve the ideal behavior. After this, the person will test the behavior again and if it is satisfactory, the process is done. If not, it is repeated until the individual behaves in the ideal way and then they can exit the process. The incongruity, or discrepancy, is the root of the motivation, not the actual undesired state. Although, the undesired state does create the discrepancy which in turn creates the motivation.
To achieve a goal, one must set the goal correctly. This takes some work, but it has been proven that people with goals outperform people who do not set goals for themselves. There are a variety of variables to consider when setting goals. One of these variables is the difficulty of the goal. The more difficult a goal is, the more energized and motivated the individual will be to complete the goal. The specificity of the goal is also very important because if a goal is not specific, the person does not know exactly what they are striving for and therefore will be less motivated to achieve the desired behavior. Only goals that possess difficulty and specificity increase performance. A third factor that is present in the importance of goal setting is feedback. Feedback is the information obtained after attempting to make progress on a goal. The feedback tells the individual what they need to improve and how close they are to reaching a goal. If the goal was to shoot under 80 for 18 holes, sufficient feedback would consist of the score for the day.
Goal acceptance is another important factor in success. This is not a huge issue for internally imposed goals, but it does factor into goals that are externally imposed. Often, difficult externally imposed goals are not desirable and if the person does not accept the goal set by someone else, they will not be motivated to accomplish the desired behavior.
The thing that surprised me the most was the criticisms of goals. I had never really considered goal-setting to have any negative ramifications, but the text does bring up some valid criticisms. One of the issues is that goals do not improve performance, only motivation. If you don’t have the skill set, all the goal-setting in the world won’t allow you to achieve an unrealistic goal. Another criticism is discouragement could lead to decreased motivation if the goal is continuously unsuccessful.
This chapter reinforced what I had already been practicing in my goal setting habits. I really enjoy setting short-term goals on the way to achieving a long-term goal. I also now know that internally imposed goals are usually more successful than externally imposed goals so I will continue to impose my own goals.
Incongruity, motivate, TOTE model, discrepancy, plans, goals, goal setting, present vs ideal state, feedback, externally imposed goals, internally imposed goals
Chapter 8 is a short chapter compared to the previous chapters. Even though it is short is has lots of information about goal. I feel like a lot of it was common sense information but it does have some good points. The chapter has three main parts. They are plans, goal setting, and goal striving.
I love how the book says, “A goal without a plan is just a dream.” This so true. A person can wish and hope for something to happen but if they do not try or have an idea how to achieve it, it will never come to pass. I think of Disney movies, many princesses what something to happen but never have a plan, and then a fairy-god-mother shows up and gives her what she has been dreaming about. That is a fairy tale, in real life people have to set goals and work to get what they want.
The first step is to take the dream and turn it into a goal. You do this by making a plan. A plan needs to be well thought out, and be doing able. If you give yourself an unreasonable goal, lose 30 pounds in a month, which is never going to happen. You will fail and then stop trying. A more reasonable goal might be 5 to 10 pounds in a month. So now you have a reasonable goal, but what so you have to do to get there. You need a detailed plan on the steps you are going to use. For losing weight it would be an eating journal, and a workout schedule. This is now goal setting.
Other parts of goal setting include, goal discrepancy. There is discrepancy reduction; this is when you need to improve to meet a standard set by someone else. Like selling a certain amount of cookies. Then there is discrepancy creation, this is when you make a goal from what you want. You want to above and beyond. This would be striving for a certain grade in a class or GPA. Earlier I said a goal must me reasonable. It cannot be too hard; it also cannot be too easy. A person needs challenge to get more energy for the task. They must find their flow, what hard but something that does not stress them out. This is Csikszentmihalyi theory of flow.
Feedback is really important and what others around you say and do greatly increases or decreases you motivation for the task. You must have the support if the people in your life or it will be really hard and a major struggle.
The last main topic is goal striving. You have your plan and your goal, now you just have to focus on it. Things will come up in your life that hinder the goal or stand in your way. Your goal might even contradict. Example might be you want to get good grades so you need time to study. Yet you also need money which is a quasi-need, meaning it is a need that when met will go away. I believe the most important part of this section is the implementation intentions. They are getting starts, persisting, and resuming. Getting started is starting your goal despite all the distractions, Persisting is to keep going through the hard times and setbacks, Last is resuming, if you end up having to stop of goal, start it as soon as you can again.
This chapter did not really surprise me at all. I feel like I have learned and been taught about goals my whole life and I regularly set goals. The thing I knew but still gets me every time is how much better people do when they have goals compared to people who do not. They will work harder and focus more with a goal. They want a sense of achievement which is doing something to their standard of excellence.
As said I always have goals. My biggest problem is resuming after something has interfered, I feel like a failure and want to quit. Life gets in the way and often throws you off track. When I do not get a good grade, I often just feel stupid and want to give up. Yet I then use that frustration to push myself harder to get a better grade. I just need to remember that everyone makes mistakes and one bad grade is not the end of the world.
Term: Csikszentmihalyi theory of flow, plans, goals, goal striving, achievement, persisting, resuming, goal discrepancy, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation
The concept of planning and ideal states was of particular interest to me. That part of the chapter seems to think that successfully executing a plan is based on pursuing the ideal end goal. It should probably call out that the present only really needs to fall within a range of acceptable states before reaching the ideal state.
Using the example given in the book, even if given infinite amounts of time, many people would be fine with reaching an "okay" hairstyle rather than an ideal one. The amount of this time spent toward reaching an acceptable hair style would differ based on personal preferences and values. Only those seeking hair styling mastery would continually strive to reach the ideal.
Naturally, this applies to most tasks that are not considered valuable to that individual. The more important the activity to that particular person, the nearer their actions would become to mimicking the TOTE model. If pressured for time from outside sources, the amount of value the individual puts on these smaller behaviors is usually co-opted in favor of more personally valuable tasks.
In effect, there are actions that would exist between important TOTE model actions, that are inversely proportional to the time necessary for all of a day's TOTE model actions.
I feel more like specific types of goal setting inhibit creativity and intrinsic motivations. It's a valid criticism and a problem that comes up, but for instance, you could set the goal of impress me, or impress a crowd to a musician without sacrificing their autonomy, flexibility and personal passions. For this specific example, the goal could be administered from outside but it isn't strictly necessary. The goal of impressing an individual or individuals is inherent to the goal of most musicians.
Maybe any goal that is congruent with the intrinsic goals of the individual within a creative field is less likely to interfere with their processes. Efforts at goal-setting within creative fields should be aimed at finding the narrowest gap between the desired outcome and the creators' personal goals.
If this is true, then the way most people learn and practice music is inherently bad for learning to be creative when it comes to composing. Learning a classic symphony has an incredibly rigid structure, but doing so is considered to be essential to the mastery of classical instruments. It would essentially teach an individual to ape bygone years by programming them mentally to follow patterns of classical composers.
Terms
Ideal State- The best conceivable outcome for an action or set of actions.
Mastery-The drive to perfect a given skill set.
TOTE Model-Test-Operate-Test-Exit, the idea that we act to reach ideal states in our behaviors by measuring the present versus the ideal and tweaking actions until the ideal outcome is met.
Chapter 8 is all about goals, which is something that we all have. Goals are what we hope to achieve, and what motivates us and drives our emotions. Goal setting is something that can be observed anywhere. We do this with the cognition to action sequence. There is three main sections in this chapter, Plans, Goal Setting, and Goal Striving. It starts off with explaining the TOTE model, or the test-operate-test-exit model. By test, we look at our current situation versus our ideal situation, then operate by trying to reach our ideal situation, and then if we do, we have satisfied that goal. Goal setting was discussed next, and people who set goals do better than those who do not set goals. The more difficult the goal, the better the performance is. Goal specificity tells us exactly what needs to be don’t in order to accomplish a goal. If an individual sets their own goal, they are more likely to want to do it. Feedback is what tells us how we are doing in relation to achieving our goal.
The most surprising thing I learned about in this chapter was goal difficulty, and how the harder a goal is, the more someone is willing to try and work for it; if a goal is too simplistic, they won’t be as motivated. But I guess my thinking here is if a goal is too hard, won’t the person just give up then? For example, I may want to be a size 3, but realistically, that’s just not going to happen, unless I develop some really bad habits with my eating and exercising.
Reading this chapter can help me reach my goals by helping me to see how to set a goal with specifics, by difficulty, and what else I need to be able to achieve my goal, by using the steps as shown in table 8.1.
Terms: Goals, cognition to action sequence, TOTE model, Goal Setting, Goal Striving, Feedback, Goal Difficulty, Goal Specificity
Chapter 8 discusses goal setting and striving. It discusses present state and ideal state. That is the state that you are currently in and the state that you would like to be. The chapter also discusses energizing behavior and directing behavior. When someone increases the effort of their behavior the person works harder. When someone increases persistence of the behavior they work longer. As for directing behavior, when someone increases their attention the person works with focus. When someone increases their planning then they work smarter. The next stage in the goal setting process is feedback. If the feedback shows performance at or above the goal level then the person feels satisfaction. On the other side, if the person shows performance below the goal level then they feel dissatisfaction. There are two options at the end of the goal setting process. If the goal is successful then there is discrepancy creation. Discrepancy creation is basically when the person creates a more difficult goal. Then there is discrepancy reduction. Discrepancy reduction is when the person’s goal is unsuccessful and they continue to strive to achieve their goal.
Most everything that was discussed in this chapter was pretty easy to follow. The only thing that really surprised me was the discrepancy reduction. I understand that some people that feel dissatisfaction after not achieving their goal may feel the increased desire to continuing working on their goal. The thing that surprised me was that there was another option because some people may feel so discouraged that they do not wish to continue working on that specific goal. They may choose to go after a different goal.
I think that the information that I learned will help me achieve my own future goals. I can use the ideas in this chapter to help keep myself motivated and help make appropriate goals. I think I will definitely use the present state and ideal state. I think that is a really important to look at the two states when trying to come up with your specific goal.
Terms: goal setting, present state, ideal state, energizing behavior, directing behavior, discrepancy, discrepancy creation, discrepancy reduction
Chapter 8 was all about goals, setting goals and how to obtain and successfully achieve your goals. Out of all of the chapters that we have covered thus far, this is by far the one that I could easily relate to. I am a very goal oriented person. I need to be, if I don’t have something that I am working towards, I tend to tread water…for a reeeeeeeally long time. As I wrote about in the blog earlier this week, I have a very big goal that I have been working towards for the last 4 years and will probably continue working towards for the next 4 years. The fact that I am only half way there after 4 years with another 4 years ahead of me would normally be an extremely depressing thing to admit, except for my approach (and the correct approach according to chapter 8) of creating short term goals for me to achieve to step closer to the ultimate goals. This way, I have an ultimate big goal that I am always striving for but am still left with a satisfied feeling by achieving my short term goals that lead to that outcome. When I get frustrated or I feel like giving up (which is an easy feeling to get…that feeling and I are best buds depending on the day) I look to all that I have accomplished (short term goals) and look at the goals I still have to attain and it pushes me to continue working hard. Because I work with more short term goals, corrective motivation is always being used. My goals, though seemingly concrete, are very much flexible. I have a 4 year old son and am a non-traditional student so things are always popping up out of the blue that force me to have to change either my current short term goal or how I go about achieving it. Goal difficulty effects the individual’s performance. Difficult and specific goals enhance performance. This I can completely relate to. Because my goal is a difficult one, it makes me try harder. Try harder in school, try harder to be organized, try harder to be focused, try harder to do anything and everything. If a goal is too easy then I wouldn’t have to try that hard and I would probably lose interest on it. These short term goals that I had to make myself a better candidate for grad school were based on discrepancy reduction that I had found on requirements for graduate school candidates in the individual universities I was applying to. Discrepancy reduction is when the environment gives you some sort of feedback in order to match current performance with ideal performance. In this way, you can see if you need to kick it up a notch to stay on track to achieve your goal. Discrepancy creation is when a person looks forward passed what any boss or anyone can give feedback to achieve and works towards that. The book gave a sales example but since it’s football season, I like to think of it in terms of that. Say an athlete wants to rush for 150 touchdowns in one season. They have something that they can work towards that is so high that they continue to push. Feedback is an essential component of goal achievement. In order to know or measure their progress or even to be able to get verbalized feedback in the form of a coach or professor, the goal is useless and the individual loses interest all together. If a goal is set by a coach, teacher, parent, etc. then goal acceptance is critical. The individual must accept the goal as something they want to achieve if the performance of that individual is to increase. If they get a goal that they are not interested in or do not want to achieve then why would they try hard or even at all to achieve that goal. The extent to which the performer is involved in the goal setting process is also important. Performers usually perform better when they have a hand in setting their own goal. Goal striving is when an individual works hard for that goal, so hard that they focus completely on being successful. The book talked about self help books, motivational speakers, workshops, etc. to help the individual strive for completing that goal. Achievement is just that, when the individual achieves the desired goal they were working towards. Goal setting can be an invaluable tool to enhance performance if done properly.
TERMS: short term goal, goal difficulty, feedback, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, goal specificity, achievement, corrective motivation, goal acceptance, goal striving
Chapter 8 focuses on goal setting and goal striving. The cognitive mechanism by which plans energize and direct behavior is the test-operate-test-exit model. This model includes an "exit" when the plans has been executed and accomplished. The second example of this is a never-ending cycle of test-operate-test-operate... in which one keeps pushing themselves further in a task. A goal is whatever an individual is trying to accomplish. Goal setting generally enhances performance, but the type of goal that one sets is a key determinant in the extent to which a goal translates into performance gains. For example, goal difficulty, goal specificity, feedback, and goal acceptance. Goal difficulty refers to how hard a goal is to accomplish. It is ideal to set difficult goals because effort responds to the magnitude of goal difficulty. Goal specificity refers to how clearly a goal informs the performer precisely what he is to do. This refers to time deadlines and a specific task; both are required for goal specificity and both contribute to making one's goal more attainable and motivate performance and accomplishment. Feedback is the knowledge of results that allows people to keep track of any progress toward their goal. It is only within a goal that one can utilize feedback information to judge performance as below, at, or above goal. Goal acceptance involves the person's decision either to reject or accept the goal. If the goal is accepted, the goal-setting process continues, but if the goal is rejected then the goal-setting process does not continue and a negative relationship often exists between the rejected goal and the person ensuing performance. Some criticisms of goal setting are when too high of goals are set, making one work to achieve this outside of their capabilities which builds stress, not having enough (or any) feedback, and when goals are controlling and intrusive. Goals can be short term, long term, or a series of short-term goals that form one long-term goal. Goal proximity affects persistence and intrinsic motivation. Short-term goals provide repeated commitment-boosting opportunities for reinforcement that long-term goals cannot provide. Mental simulations focus on planning and problem solving. Implementation intentions involve the process of deciding in advance when, where, and how long. This helps carry out one's goal-directed behavior. When setting a goal, make sure that it is difficult enough, specific, feedback will be attainable, and accepted. Then persist to achieve this goal until it is accomplished.
The most surprising part about this chapter was the criticisms. I understand them, but I never would have thought that there would be downfalls to setting goals, especially considering that the chapter repeats that people that set goals are much more likely to be successful than those that do not. But after reading and understanding this chapter, I now know how to set appropriate goals for myself, both short-term and long-term, in order to be the most successful that I can be. I have goals set for before I graduate college, all the way into my life in the real world. This chapter was very interesting and helpful.
Terms: cognitive mechanism, TOTE model, goal, goal difficulty, goal specificity, feedback, goal acceptance, mental simulations, implementation intentions,
Chapter 8 examined goals and how one can be motivated to achieve them. The book described a goal as an object an individual strives to acomplish. People who set goals tend to out perform others who don’t set goals and have a sense of intrinsic motivation. This can also be known as goal-performance discrepancy. This is interesting to me because sometimes people don't realize their setting a goal at all. Goals can be long term or short term. Long term goals are those in which elapse a longer period of time and are often comprised of many short term goals to reach the final end goal.
Sometimes it's hard for people to set a specific goal. One theory known as the goal setting theory is to increase performance of a person’s efforts, persistence, attention, and strategic planning. Although this theory is designed to enhance only performace and not a persons motivation. Along with goal setting, there are steps in which one can set up and accomlish goals. This is knownn as the goal setting process. The steps are 1. specify the objective/goal to be accomplished 2. define the difficulty of the goal 3. clarify the goal specificity 4. specify the time span when the performance will be assessed 5. check on goal acceptance 6. discuss goal-attainment strategies 7. create implementation intentions and finally 8. provide feedback on performance. All of these steps can be helpful when thinking about setting up a goal.
The chapter also talks about the two different types of discrepancys (discrepancy reduction and discrepancy creation). Discrepancy reduction is based on the discrepancy-detecting feedback that underlies plans and corrective motivation. This type of discrepancy gives us feedback of how well or poor we perform. Discrepancy creation is based on a “feed-forward” system in which the person looks forward and proactively sets a future, higher goal. Goals must be difficult enough in order to energize and motivate the performer or individual trying to accomplish their goal. They must also be specific as well. Goal-specificity directs our behavior. If I just wanted to lose 10 lbs and had no specific way of how I was going to do that, I wouldn't be motivated to do it and wouldn't have any direction of where to start whereas if I had a plan on the specifics of how I wanted to lose 10 lbs and charted how much I exercise, and what I eat, I would have a better sense of direction in how to achieve my goal.
Another type of great motivation for accomplishing a goal is receiving goal feedback. Feedback is what allows people to keep track of and mark the progress they are making towards their goals. Positive feedback usually enhances goal performance. In intramural softball, I hated going up to bat because I wasn't a strong hitter and usually got out. My peers would give me positive feedback and encourage me to have a more positive attitude which made me want to get up to bat and hit the ball even harder. By the end of the season I was batting a lot better because of everyones feedback.
This chapter didn't really surprise me because I learned a lot of about goals from Otto's behavior modification class. We had gone over this information quite a bit in that class but I still think it's interesting. Actually, after that class I have set more goals than before and found that I do tend to be more motivated and perform better than when I didn't set specific goals. One instant would be getting an internship. It wasn't mandatory for college to get an internship but I wanted one for the experience and because I enjoy work and being busy and making money. I worked at a part-time job in the summertime and I had a goal of connecting with the people I worked for and had a set time on when I wanted to have an internship by (schoolyear). I ended up talking to a few of the people I serviced and a man actually offered me an interview with his company for an internship and of course I said yes. Everything just fell into place after that and now I have an internship and will be graduating in December in which I'll be working full time after I do. I made it happen because I had a goal. Goal setting is very important and learning about the aspects to help achieve a goal and doing it right has helped me thus far in life.
Terms: Goals, Goal-discrepancy performance, goal-setting theory. goal-setting process, discrepancy reduction, discrepancy creation, goal difficulty, goal specificity, feedback