Focusing on Desirability versus Feasibility: The Influence of Fit between Goal Progress and Construal Level on Subsequent Self-Regulation

According to control theory (Carver and Scheier 1990), high goal progress induces a sense of goal attainment and signals that less effort is needed. Thus, people tend to decrease their effort when perceiving sufficient goal progress. However, other work indicates that people tend to disengage from a focal goal when facing adversity in the course of goal pursuit because lack of progress indicates that continued investments in effort are unlikely to pay off in the end (Schmidt et al. 2009). Furthermore, expectancy value theories of motivation postulate a curvilinear relationship between goal expectancy and motivation, with motivation being lowest at low and high levels of goal expectancy respectively (Atkinson 1957; Louro et al. 2007). Combined, these studies led to seemingly inconsistent predictions about how goal progress will affect motivation, raising questions about how high (low) goal progress can lead to both increased and decreased motivation as well as how to best motivate people.