The overarching aim of this project is to answer the question: “Can people become strategic in their goal pursuits by deciding early in their goal striving whether to persist on a difficult goal or give up and strive for a compatible goal?”

Through a series of lab and field based studies will aim to test how we can help individuals to realize whether a goal is attainable or not, and whether this can support them in making the right decision (e.g. whether to persist with, abandon, or change the goal).

The goal of the STAR Project is to make novel contributions to theories of motivation and goal regulation. The project will also have significant public benefit, as it will provide the necessary evidence for the development of brief interventions that maximize the efficient use of individuals’ limited resources to help them achieve their goals and improve their well-being.

Project Objectives:

• Study goal persistence with difficult but attainable goals
  
• Explore how to facilitate goal disengagement and goal re-engagement when faced with
  unattainable goals
• Advance basic knowledge, by providing empirical data, using a variety of methodologies, tasks, and samples, for a new conceptual model of goal motivation and goal regulation
• Provide innovative knowledge regarding strategic goal setting, which will have direct and indirect implications for the wider public in contexts where individuals engage in the pursuit of difficult or unattainable goals
• Work with key stakeholders to outline ways in which our methods can be implemented in the future (e.g., new mobile apps, online access to goal striving advice, intervention programs)