Goal Setting

A topic within Motivation & Emotion, itself one of 10 topics in that field and part of Psychology.

Reading on Goal Setting

2 works

Paper2002

Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation: A 35-Year Odyssey

Edwin A. Locke & Gary P. Latham

Summarising decades of studies, argues that specific, difficult goals reliably produce higher performance than vague or easy ones, provided the person is committed to the goal and gets feedback on progress toward it.

link checked 17 Sept 2026

Psychology · Motivation & Emotion

FreeIntermediate

Paper2009

Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Overprescribing Goal Setting

Lisa D. Ordóñez, Maurice E. Schweitzer, Adam D. Galinsky & Max H. Bazerman

Argues that specific, difficult goals - the same prescription found to boost performance - also reliably produce narrow focus, unethical shortcuts, excessive risk-taking and eroded intrinsic motivation, side effects the goal-setting literature had systematically failed to report.

Psychology · Motivation & Emotion

FreeIntermediate

Reading on Goal Setting

Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation: A 35-Year Odyssey

Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Overprescribing Goal Setting

Other topics in Motivation & Emotion