PURSUING PERSONAL GOALS - SKILLS ENABLE PROGRESS, BUT NOT ALL PROGRESS IS BENEFICIAL

Although goal theorists have speculated about the causes and consequen ces of making progress at personal goals, little longitudinal research has examined these issues. In the current prospective study, particip ants with stronger social and self-regulatory skills made more progres s in their goals over the course of a semester In turn, goal progress predicted increases in psychological well-being, both in short-term (5 -day) increments and across the whole semester. At both short- and lon g-term levels of analysis, however, the amount that well-being increas ed depended on the ''organismic congruence'' of participants' goals. T hat is, participants benefited most from goal attainment when the goal s that they pursued were consistent with inherent psycho logical needs . We conclude that a fuller understanding of the relations between goa ls, performance, and psychological well-being requires recourse to bot h cybernetic and organismic theories of motivation.