Motivation is a complex phenomenon. It is not just an emotional urge or an act of will. Human motivation results from the organized patterning of several closely interrelated psychological processes:

• Personal goals - thoughts about desired and undesired outcomes
• Personal agency beliefs - a combination of two types of thoughts about the anticipated consequences of pursuing personal goals:
• Capability beliefs - thoughts about ability (e.g., "Can I do this?")
• Context beliefs - thoughts about opportunity (e.g., "Do I have the resources?")
• Emotions - feelings that energize and regulate personal goal pursuit

These cognitive and emotional processes work together, usually beneath awareness, to help people imagine future possibilities and then decide, based on a combination of evaluative thoughts and feelings, whether and how vigorously to pursue (or try to avoid) those imagined futures.

Personal goals are the leaders in "motivational headquarters." They mentally represent the outcomes we want to achieve (or avoid) and then direct the rest of the person system to try to produce those outcomes (or prevent them from occurring). To understand motivation, therefore, one must start by trying to understand the nature and impact of an individual's personal goals.

Strong leadership from motivational headquarters is the key to a productive and fulfilling life. That leadership potential needs to be realized, however. Sometimes goals are not realistic ("wishes") or they don't fit the opportunities available to you at the present time. Sometimes your goal thoughts are simply too vague to direct and organize your actions effectively or they lack sufficient emotional energy to motivate action. But when your goals are clear and you believe they are attainable and meaningful, they will focus your attention and direct your thoughts and actions to achieve the results you desire.

You do not have to be conscious of your goals for them to have an impact. In fact, we are not conscious of most of the thoughts that guide our actions on a daily basis. But it can help a lot if you do consciously think about your goals from time to time as a way of insuring that you are investing yourself in the goals that matter the most - the goals that are truly the most important and meaningful to you.

We invite you to take the APG and discover the most basic elements of your implicit self – your personal goal profile.

An optional next step

As an optional next step and follow-up to your free APG results, you can purchase the APG Personal Application Guide, which will show you how to apply your APG results using a customized step-by-step process designed to help you make better everyday choices and major life decisions. Learn more about this option.

Researchers:
Click here to learn about our Qualified Research Use Program for the APG Personal Application Guide.

 

Motivational
Systems Theory

Major advances in the science of human motivation were made in the 1970s and 1980s, as evidenced by an outpouring of research on topics like goal setting, self-efficacy, learned helplessness, self-determination, and "flow." More than 20 new motivation theories were developed during this period!

This created a need to synthesize the profound new insights, which Martin Ford accomplished as a faculty member at Stanford University in the form of a unified framework called Motivational Systems Theory (MST). MST encourages people to improve their lives through the thoughtful application of scientific principles of motivation.

Knowledge is Power

Identifying the internal, psychological goals that are of greatest interest and concern to you is of enormous value. That is one of the main reasons that Martin Ford and his colleague Nick Nichols created the Assessment of Personal Goals © (APG). It is only by connecting your core personal goals with the choices you make in your relationships, career, and everyday life that enduring happiness can be achieved.

Personal Goal Categories

To help people with this personal goal identification task, Ford and Nichols combined their scientific and clinical expertise to develop a comprehensive Taxonomy of Human Goals that includes 24 distinct goal categories. These categories range from affective goals like tranquility and physical well being to cognitive goals like understanding and intellectual creativity to task goals like mastery and material gain. They also encompass a broad range of social relationship goals, including self-enhancing goals like superiority and self-determination and other-enhancing goals like belongingness and social responsibility.