Goal-Setting Theory
Locke, Latham · 1990 · GST
Summary
Goal-Setting Theory holds that specific, difficult goals produce higher task performance than vague ("do your best") or easy goals — provided the goals are accepted and the actor has the ability to reach them. The theory specifies four moderators (commitment, importance, task complexity, feedback) and four mediating mechanisms (direction of attention, effort, persistence, strategy development). With over a thousand empirical studies, goal-setting is among the most-replicated motivational interventions in I/O psychology, though its prescriptions interact with task complexity and learning-vs-performance contexts.
Canonical constructs
- construct.goal_difficulty (unresolved)
- construct.goal_specificity (unresolved)
- construct.goal_commitment (unresolved)
- construct.task_complexity (unresolved)
- construct.feedback_on_progress (unresolved)
- Task Performance
Canonical relations
| From | Predicate | To | Central | Mechanism |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| construct.goal_difficulty | predicts | construct.task_performance | yes | Higher difficulty → higher performance, monotonically up to ability ceiling. |
| construct.goal_specificity | predicts | construct.task_performance | yes | |
| construct.goal_commitment | moderates | construct.goal_difficulty | yes | |
| construct.task_complexity | moderates | construct.goal_difficulty | yes | |
| construct.feedback_on_progress | moderates | construct.goal_difficulty | yes |
Synthesized priors (where available) live under /registry/priors/{from}/{predicate}/{to}.
Related theories
Theories sharing one or more canonical constructs with this one.