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Choosing goals that express the true self: A novel mechanism of the effect of self-control on goal attainment

Why is trait self-control associated with successful goal progress? Existing
research has attempted to answer this question by focusing on individual
differences in the process of goal pursuit. Herein, we propose and test a
novel mechanism suggesting that self-control facilitates goal attainment not
only by affecting the process of goal pursuit but also the type of goals peo-
ple select in the first place. Three studies showed that high (vs. low) self-
control individuals are more likely to report successful goal attainment and
this association was mediated by their tendency to select the goals that
reflect their true/authentic self. These results were obtained using cross-sectional and longitudinal designs and were robust against controlling for
previously established mechanisms of the effect of trait self-control on
goal attainment (habit strength, experiences of goal-conflicting desires).
Overall, there findings contribute to the literatures on self-regulation,
authenticity and goal management.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:VIENNA/oai:epub.wu-wien.ac.at:6880
Date11 1900
CreatorsStavrova, Olga, Pronk, Tila, Kokkoris, Michail
PublisherWiley
Source SetsWirtschaftsuniversität Wien
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeArticle, PeerReviewed
Formatapplication/pdf, application/pdf
RightsCreative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Relationhttps://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2559, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/, https://osf.io/nmb4d/?view_only=f0bda1a6c1c4493684df85b713ffee4f, http://epub.wu.ac.at/6880/

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