Some goals just feel easier: Self-concordance leads to goal progress through subjective ease, not effort ☆

By K. Werner, M. Milyavskaya, Emily Foxen-Craft, R. Koestner. 2016

122 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The objective of the present study was to examine whether subjective ease of goal pursuit would mediate the relation between an individual's motivation for pursuing a goal and their subsequent goal progress. Toward the beginning of a university semester, participants (n = 176) identified three goals they planned to pursue throughout the semester and reported their motivation for pursuing each of them. Participants then indicated, at two monthly follow-ups, how easy and natural it felt to pursue these goals and how much effort they were putting into attaining them. At the end of the semester, participants reported on their goal progress. Within-person analyses indicated that self-concordant goals were perceived as being easier to pursue relative to an individual's other goals. Using multilevel structural equation modeling, results indicated that subjective ease, but not effort, mediated the relation between motivation and goal progress, such that people were more likely to successfully accomplish self-concordant goals because pursuing those goals was perceived as being more effortless, and not because more effort was exerted. Discussion focuses on the implications and future directions for research on subjective effort and goal pursuit.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/16fae80a9a3e818b2daaee2a70f2d9fbfd598cf5

How researchers see this paper

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In Applied Psychology

1. Jonathan W. Schooler
2. Elliott Ihm
3. Daniel C. Molden
4. E. Usher
5. Carol S. Dweck

In Social Psychology

1. Jonathan W. Schooler
2. Elliott Ihm
3. Daniel C. Molden
4. Claire M. Zedelius
5. E. Usher
6. Carol S. Dweck

In Sociology and Political Science

1. Jonathan W. Schooler
2. Elliott Ihm
3. Daniel C. Molden
4. E. Usher
5. Carol S. Dweck

Citations in the corpus

• Expanding minds: Growth mindsets of self-regulation and the influences on effort and perseverance (2018, background): “…of effort that suggest that sometimes the perception of difficulty and necessary effort can play a more influential role in behavior than actual difficulty and necessary effort (Dunn et al., 2010; Marcora, Staiano, & Manning, 2009; Miele et al., 2011; Miele & Molden, 2010; Werner et al., 2016).”