What Constitutes Successful Goal Pursuit? Exploring the Relation Between Subjective and Objective Measures of Goal Progress

Authors

  • Aidan Smyth Orcid
    Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
  • Marina Milyavsksaya Orcid
    Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
  • Malte Friese Orcid
    Department of Psychology, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
  • Kaitlyn Werner Orcid
    Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
  • Marie-Lena Frech Orcid
    Institute for Management and Organization, Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany
  • David Loschelder Orcid
    Institute for Management and Organization, Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany
  • Joanne Anderson
    Faunalytics, Olympia, WA, USA
  • Michael Inzlicht Orcid
    Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
  • Marta Kolbuszewska
    Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
  • Kelly Wang
    Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

Abstract

Despite a rich literature on goals, the notion of successful goal pursuit remains somewhat unclear. Most research on personal goal pursuit relies on subjective measures of goal progress and research that uses objective measures (e.g., grade point average) often ignores individuals’ idiosyncratic goals. The present research investigated the relation between diverse measures of goal progress in the context of academic and weight loss goals using four datasets (total sample = 351). Overall, subjective measures were positively related to objective measures. The magnitudes of these associations varied across studies and were generally smaller than would be expected if the measures assessed the same construct (R² = .05–.39). These findings suggest that subjective and objective measures may reflect related but distinct constructs. The present research draws attention to an important topic in the goals literature and highlights the need for additional research on the conceptualization and operationalization of successful goal pursuit.