Concrete, challenging goals are powerful motivators and boost performance more than abstract goals (Locke & Latham, 2002, 2013). To illustrate, the concrete goal of “exercising on Wednesday evening for 60 minutes” should boost performance more than the abstract goal of “be healthy.” So far, research has mostly focused on concrete goals. While achieving concrete goals is seen as something positive, many of today’s social, environmental, and economic challenges require more than achieving a concrete goal. For example, exercising once does not lead to a healthy life; recycling glass bottles does not make you an environmentally friendly person. In these cases, a concrete goal—i.e., a subordinate goal—is only one of many steps that contribute to what people ultimately aspire to: an abstract, superordinate goal. Accordingly, successful goal pursuit requires not only the achievement of single steps, but also effort over the long term and across various situations, overcoming setbacks, resisting the pull of competing goals and temptations (Rothman, Baldwin, Hertel, & Fuglestad, 2004). In light of these challenges, focusing solely on a subordinate goal may not be the best solution (Ordóñez, Schweitzer, Galinsky, & Bazerman, 2009).
An idea that might help overcome these difficulties is to focus additionally on superordinate goals. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate possible benefits of superordinate goals (which have received less attention in research than subordinate goals), and to explore the idea that focusing on a combination of goals at different levels of abstraction fosters broad, long-term goal pursuit more than focusing on either a superordinate or subordinate goal alone.
This research project consists of several studies that all adopt a goal-theoretical perspective to explore how superordinate goals and a combination of goals at different levels of abstraction influence goal pursuit in different contexts.
References
Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705–717. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.57.9.705
Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (Eds.). (2013). New developments in goal setting and task performance. New York, NY: Routledge.
Ordóñez, L. D., Schweitzer, M. E., Galinsky, A. D., & Bazerman, M. H. (2009). Goals gone wild: The systematic side effects of overprescribing goal setting. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 23(1), 6–16. doi: 10.5465/AMP.2009.37007999
Rothman, A. J., Baldwin, A. S., Hertel, A. W., & Fuglestad, P. T. (2004). Self-regulation and behavior change: Disentangling behavioral initiation and behavioral maintenance. In R. F. Baumeister & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory, and applications (pp. 130–148). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Scientific Publications / Wissenschaftliche Publikationen
Brügger, A., & Höchli, B. (2019). The Role of Attitude Strength in Behavioral Spillover: Attitude Matters—But Not Necessarily as a Moderator. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1018. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01018
Höchli, B., Brügger, A., Abegglen, R., & Messner, C. (2019). Using a Goal Theoretical Perspective to Reduce Negative and Promote Positive Spillover After a Bike-to-Work Campaign. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 433. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00433
Höchli, B., Brügger, A., & Messner, C. (2018). How Focusing on Superordinate Goals Motivates Broad, Long-Term Goal Pursuit: A Theoretical Perspective. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1664–1078. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01879
Höchli, B., Brügger, A., & Messner, C. (2019). Making New Year’s Resolutions that Stick: Exploring how Superordinate and Subordinate Goals Motivate Goal Pursuit. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being. doi: 10.1111/aphw.12172
