"Goal Pursuit"

Making New Year's Resolutions That Stick: Exploring How Superordinate and Subordinate Goals Motivate Goal Pursuit

Background New Year's Eve is a time when people make resolutions, but, more often than not, fail to achieve them. Previous research highlighted the positive effect of subordinate goals in goal pursuit. We argue that combining superordinate and …

Using a Goal Theoretical Perspective to Reduce Negative and Promote Positive Spillover after a Bike-to-Work Campaign

Behavioral change interventions often focus on a specific behavior over a limited time period; for example, a bike-to-work intervention that incentivizes cycling to work over two months. While such interventions can successfully initiate behavior, …

How Focusing on Superordinate Goals Motivates Broad, Long-Term Goal Pursuit: A Theoretical Perspective

Goal-setting theory states that challenging, specific, and concrete goals (i.e., subordinate goals) are powerful motivators and boost performance in goal pursuit more than vague or abstract goals (i.e., superordinate goals). Goal-setting theory …