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Goal progress makes one happy, or does it? Longitudinal findings from the work domain
Author(s) -
Wiese Bettina,
Freund Alexandra
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of occupational and organizational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.257
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 2044-8325
pISSN - 0963-1798
DOI - 10.1348/096317905x26714
Subject(s) - psychology , life satisfaction , goal pursuit , affect (linguistics) , work (physics) , longitudinal study , positive psychology , well being , goal orientation , job satisfaction , social psychology , developmental psychology , psychotherapist , mechanical engineering , statistics , mathematics , communication , engineering
In a 3‐year longitudinal study with a sample of N =82 young professionals (44% male; age range: 28–39 years), self‐reported progress in the pursuit of personal goals was associated with affective well‐being, work satisfaction, and subjective developmental success in the work domain. Goal progress, however, did not predict an increase in affective well‐being and work satisfaction. Four constructs – goal difficulty, current work involvement, positive fantasies, and goal progress in the private domain – were selected to analyse their potentially moderating effect on the link between goal progress and well‐being increases. Goal difficulty evinced the clearest moderating effects. Goal difficulty predicted change in all outcome criteria, that is, only adults who perceived their goals as difficult to reach also reported a change in positive and negative affect, job satisfaction, and subjective developmental success over a period of 3 years.