The effects of achievement goals and feedback on performance: with a prologue on an individual search for meaning
Year: 2012
Type: dissertation
Abstract: What does it mean to be an individual? The development of an individual is not something that occurs instantaneously. Instead, over time we use our experiences and life stories to help us define and elaborate on our identities. Goals entice people toward action. Actions are given meaning, direction, and purpose by the goals we seek. Every goal is a desired outcome situated in the future. By examining goals, we better understand a person's needs and their motivation for their behavior. Our needs, and thus our goals, vary based on the situations we find ourselves in throughout our lives. By identifying our traits and knowing our goals, both past and present, we are able to weave together our storied self. Our storied self is our narrative identity. It is what separates us from every single other person who is currently living, has lived, or ever will live. Along each stage of life development, we add more experiences to our life stories in the hope that by the end of our lives we will have "written" a story that is personally meaningful and memorable. Thus, being an individual means writing a meaningful story, having the potential to live life with purpose, and, in the author's case, living to seek the magis.
Author: James Estes
Institution: Regis University
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2417455715