ON MEANS AND ENDS - 2 On Means and Ends : The Role of Goal Focus in Successful Goal Pursuit

When pursuing a goal, one can focus more on the process or on the outcome of goal pursuit. We take a closer look at the hypothesis that when one pursues goals that are demanding in terms of the level of skill or self-regulation required to achieve them, focusing on the process is more adaptive and focusing on the outcome can even be detrimental to goal achievement. We summarize the evidence from the emerging literature on the adaptiveness of process focus and outcome focus for goal pursuit and attainment. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721414559774 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-110355 Accepted Version Originally published at: Freund, Alexandra M; Hennecke, Marie (2015). On means and ends: the role of goal focus in successful goal pursuit. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(2):149-153. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721414559774 Running Head: ON MEANS AND ENDS Corresponding author: Alexandra M. Freund, Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Binzmuehlestrasse 14, P.O. Box 11, CH-8050 Zurich, Switzerland, email: [email protected] Word count: 2715 (Abstract and text) Number of references: 35 ON MEANS AND ENDS 2 On Means and Ends: The Role of Goal Focus in Successful Goal Pursuit Alexandra M. Freund & Marie Hennecke Department of Psychology and University Research Priority Program Dynamics of Healthy Aging, University of Zurich, Switzerland ON MEANS AND ENDS 3