Type of Document	Thesis
Author	Masicampo, E. J.
Author's Email Address	masicampo@psy.fsu.edu
URN	etd-04032008-100336
Title	Unfulfilled Goals Interfere with Other, Unrelated Pursuits
Degree	Master of Science
Department	Psychology, Department of
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Roy F. Baumeister Committee Chair Jon K. Maner Committee Member Michael P. Kaschak Committee Member
Keywords	Self-regulation Goal Pursuit
Date of Defense	2008-03-27
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract Evidence of an automatic tendency to think about and attend to one’s unfulfilled goals led us to examine whether unfulfilled goals can distract from other, unrelated pursuits. In three studies, we manipulated goal frustration or goal failure in an initial task and then measured pursuit of an ostensibly unrelated goal during a second task. A goal to achieve, when frustrated, interfered with the unrelated goal to diet (Study 1). Failure to fulfill an honesty goal led to decrements in intellectual performance (Study 2). Furthermore, results from Study 2 suggest that unfulfilled goals remain active through later tasks and that this activation causes decrements in task performance. While goal frustration interfered with other pursuits, fulfilling a goal after an initial period of frustration eliminated this interference effect (Study 3). These studies show that the ability to pursue a goal may be hampered when one’s prior goals have been left unfulfilled.
Files	Filename       Size       Approximate Download Time (Hours:Minutes:Seconds)     28.8 Modem   56K Modem   ISDN (64 Kb)   ISDN (128 Kb)   Higher-speed Access    MasicampoESpring2008.pdf 474.43 Kb 00:02:11 00:01:07 00:00:59 00:00:29 00:00:02