Notes on Self-Concordance Model and Well-Being

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1999, Vol. 76, No. 3, 482-497

Goal Striving, Need Satisfaction, and Longitudinal Well-Being: The Self-Concordance Model

Authors: Kennon M. Sheldon, University of Missouri—Columbia; Andrew J. Elliot, University of Rochester
Overview of the Self-Concordance Model

  • This innovative model discusses the conative process, which plays a crucial role in psychological need satisfaction leading to individual well-being.

  • Central to the model is the concept of self-concordance, which refers to the alignment of a person's goals with their interests and core values.

  • The model proposes two primary mechanisms of self-concordance:

    1. Individuals pursuing self-concordant goals tend to exert more sustained effort, enhancing their likelihood of achieving these goals.

    2. Achieving self-concordant goals leads to greater psychological well-being, mediated by need satisfaction derived from fulfilling experiences of autonomy, competence, and relatedness during goal striving.

  • The model demonstrates robust fit with three longitudinal data sets and is not reliant on self-efficacy, implementation intentions, avoidance framing, or life skills to explain the effects of self-concordance.

Discussion of Goal Pursuit Failures

  • People commonly set goals but often fail to follow through or experience happiness upon attainment. These outcomes indicate shortcomings in the conative process - the journey encompassing goal inception, pursuit, and its implications for happiness and future motivation.

  • The article mobilizes findings from previous studies (including works by Reis, Sheldon, Gable, Roscoe, & Ryan; and Sheldon & Elliot) to piece together a comprehensive understanding of this conative journey.

The Self-Concordance Model

  • Conation refers to the exercise of will and the efforts of individuals to reach their outcomes, addressing psychological needs.

  • The self-concordance model maps the complete journey from setting goals to achieving them and assesses how these achievements relate to psychological needs and well-being.

  • The model offers important insights regarding the self-concordance of individuals' goal systems — ensuring stated goals reflect enduring values is key to success.

Self-Concept and Self-Concordance

  • The term "self" as used in contemporary psychology encompasses an integrated center of agency rather than fragmented self-concepts. This perspective is rooted in historical concepts from theorists such as Mead, James, and Jung.

  • Effective goal choice pertains to identifying goals reflective of one's holistic self, which requires awareness of one’s core values and interests.

  • Individuals may misalign their true self with chosen goals if swayed by external expectations or transient motivations.

Self-Concordance in Action

  • Goals are self-concordant when pursued from intrinsic desire or self-identified reasons, leading to greater engagement and fulfillment.

  • The model encapsulates that feeling ownership during the pursuit, even in challenging tasks (e.g., parenting) can be driven by a personal connection to the values represented by those goals.

  • Controlled motivations (goals driven by external pressures or guilt) are less sustainable compared to self-concordant motivations.

The Relationship of Attainment to Well-Being

  • Attaining goals can lead to enhanced well-being; however, not all progress is beneficial. Goals that are not self-integrated can yield no significant improvement in well-being upon attainment.

  • Self-concordant goals satisfy essential psychological needs (competence, autonomy, relatedness), which are critical to fostering well-being.

  • Failure to achieve self-concordant goals conversely leads to a decrease in well-being, highlighting the emotional investment associated with those goals.

Psychological Need Satisfaction

  • Psychological needs, according to self-determination theory, are defined as universal requirements of human beings for thriving and are identified as:

    1. Competence: The experience of being effective in interactions with the environment (White, 1959).

    2. Autonomy: The feeling that one’s actions are self-endorsed and meaningful (deCharms, 1968).

    3. Relatedness: The sense of connectedness with others (Baumeister & Leary, 1995).

  • These needs are argued to be fundamental in psychological functioning, contributing to motivation and overall life satisfaction.

  • Researchers showed that experiences fulfilling these needs lead to positive daily outcomes.

  • The model posits that such need satisfaction not only occurs concurrently with well-being but builds over time, strengthening overall psychological health.

Study 1: Methodology and Findings

Objectives

  • Study 1 focused on three key areas: replicating and extending the relationship between self-concordance and goal attainment, analyzing well-being changes due to goal attainment based on self-concordance, and integrating both halves of the self-concordance model.

Participants and Procedure

  • Participants included 169 psychology students from the University of Rochester (75 men, 94 women) who engaged in a semester-long study.

  • They listed personal goals and rated their well-being and reasons for goal pursuit across various assessments over the semester.

Measures

  1. Personal Goals: Goals were assessed via the personal striving construct (Emmons, 1986), with examples like academic success and personal health.

  2. Self-Concordance: Participants rated their goal motivations on a scale from external to intrinsic. A self-concordance score was derived from these assessments.

  3. Effort and Attainment: An effort measure averaged from ratings across three assessments, while an attainment measure gauged performance achievement.

  4. Well-Being: Assessed using the PANAS for moods and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) at the start and end of the semester.

Results

  • Correlations indicated significant relationships among self-concordance, semester effort, and attainment. Effort was the mediating factor between self-concordance and attainment.

  • The study ultimately provided significant support for the entire self-concordance model.

Study 2: Understanding Need Satisfaction

Purpose

  • The aim was to investigate longitudinally the relationship between need-satisfying experiences and well-being through the accumulation of autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Participants and Procedure

  • 152 students participated, completing assessments for well-being as well as ratings of need satisfaction at designated intervals.

Measures

  1. Initial Need Satisfaction: Participants rated their current experiences of competence, autonomy, and relatedness.

  2. Daily Experiences: Participants listed activities and rated their degree of competence, autonomy, and relatedness throughout the semester, contributing to semester need satisfaction variables.

  3. Well-Being Assessment: Utilized similar measures as Study 1 to reflect subjective well-being.

Findings

  • All three types of need-satisfaction experiences were shown to predict concurrent well-being. More significantly, these cumulative experiences significantly enhanced well-being from start to finish.

Study 3: Examining the Complete Model

Methodology

  • Study 3 aimed to replicate earlier findings while testing the entire self-concordance model encompassing goal attainment and its effects on well-being, incorporating other motivational constructs.

Participants and Period

  • Sample included 73 psychology students, who engaged in similar longitudinal assessments as in prior studies.

Measures

  • Participants rated their projects, effort, attainment, need satisfaction, and well-being over the course of the semester, profiling comprehensive experiences and outcomes.

Results

  • Findings reiterated relationships between self-concordance and sustained effort, goal attainment and enhanced well-being were validated - showing that self-concordance moderated the outcomes.

Conclusion

  • The research combines multiple studies showcasing the self-concordance model's validity. It emphasizes sustained effort's role in achieving goals and the importance of aligning goals with personal values for optimal well-being and satisfaction.

Implications and Future Directions

  • The self-concordance model opens avenues for examining motivational dynamics and strategies optimizing goal-setting. Future research should expand beyond student populations and incorporate diverse goal contents to enrich understanding of goal alignment and its broader implications for well-being.