Motives, goals, and emotional well-being

Dual-systems model of implicit motives and explicit values and goals (Schultheiss & Strasser, 2012)

Description / Outline

According to our own and others' consistent research findings, the goals that people set and pursue in their daily lives are statistically independent of the affectively charged motives that color their emotional lives; thus, wheras some people happen to pursue goals that fit their motives and that make them happy, about as many people pursue goals that do not fit their motives and thus prevent them from attaining happiness. Our research therefore examines (a) the precursors of and reasons for the independence between implicit motives and personal goals, (b) the consequences of this independence for emotional well-being, behavior, and the development of competencies, and (c) the development of interventions to increase congruence between motives and goals.

Faculty/Institution