The effect of Goal-Setting Strategy on Goal Pursuit: Why “I will weigh 150 pounds” is more effective than “I will lose 20 pounds?’
(A2019-8264)

AUTHORS

Sanyoung Hwang, School of Business, Korea University; Kwanho Suk, School of Business, Korea University

KEYWORDS

goal-setting strategy; construal level; the level of the goal

ABSTRACT

People can set goals in several different ways such as nonspecific goals, specific and extent goals, or specific and final-state goals. However, despite considerable interest in consequences of setting a goal in the way of either extent or a final state, most research has focused on the influence of specificity of a goal. In this research, we concern about two different types of the way of setting specific goals: extent goals (e.g., “I will lose 20 pounds,” “I would like to further increase 15 scores”) and final-state goals (e.g., “I will weigh 120 pounds,” “I would like to obtain 90 scores”). We propose and investigate that the different types of goal-setting strategies (extent goals vs. final-state goals) influence goal pursuit (i.e., the level of the goal) by altering construal level and motivation for goal pursuit.