• DOI:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2008.00519.x
• Corpus ID: 22618654

Autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and goal progress.

@article{Koestner2008AutonomousMC,
  title={Autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and goal progress.},
  author={Richard Koestner and Nancy Otis and Theodore A Powers and L. G. Pelletier and Hugo Gagnon},
  journal={Journal of personality},
  year={2008},
  volume={76 5},
  pages={
          1201-30
        }
}

• R. Koestner, Nancy Otis, +2 authors Hugo Gagnon
• Published 1 October 2008
• Psychology, Business
• Journal of personality

Although the self-concordance of goals has been repeatedly shown to predict better goal progress, recent research suggests potential problems with aggregating autonomous and controlled motivations to form a summary index of self-concordance (Judge, Bono, Erez, & Locke, 2005). The purpose of the present investigation was to further examine the relations among autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and goal progress to determine the relative importance of autonomous motivation and controlled motivation in the pursuit of personal goals. The results of three studies and a meta-analysis indicated that autonomous motivation was substantially related to goal progress whereas controlled motivation was not. Additionally, the relation of autonomous motivation to goal progress was shown to involve implementation planning. Together, the three studies highlight the importance for goal setters of having autonomous motivation and developing implementation plans, especially ones formulated in terms of approach strategies rather than avoidance strategies. The present research suggests that individuals pursuing goals should focus relatively greater attention on enhancing their autonomous motivation rather than reducing their controlled motivation.