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Psychology

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Theses/Dissertations

1981

Goal setting

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The Relationship Of Goal Setting, Extrinsic Motivation And Performance Outcome To Expectancies, Causal Attributions, And Goal Acceptance And Commitment, Nelson Adrian Jul 1981

The Relationship Of Goal Setting, Extrinsic Motivation And Performance Outcome To Expectancies, Causal Attributions, And Goal Acceptance And Commitment, Nelson Adrian

Student Work

Locke’s (1968) theory of goal setting stipulates that specific, hard goals, if accepted, lead to better performance than do less difficult goals. Locke suggests that conscious intentions are the underlying determinants of performance. However, Locke was more concerned with testing the results of these conscious intentions (goals) than with understanding the cognitions and motivation behind them. While some research has begun to consider the motivational components of goal setting (e.g., Terborg, 1976) very little attention has been given to the factors which determine goal acceptance.

Recently, Mento, Cartledge, and Locke (1980) have suggested that Valence-Instrumentality-Expectancy (VIE) theory may provide a …