Goal Contents Across Cultures 1 Running head : GOAL CONTENTS ACROSS CULTURES

We investigated the structure of goal contents in a group of 1,854 undergraduates from 15 cultures around the world. Results suggested that the 11 types of goals we assessed were consistently organized in a circumplex fashion across the 15 cultures. The circumplex was welldescribed by positing two primary dimensions underlying the goals: Intrinsic (e.g., selfacceptance, affiliation) vs. Extrinsic (e.g., financial success, image), and Self-transcendent (e.g., spirituality) vs. Physical (e.g., hedonism). The circumplex model of goal contents was also quite similar in both wealthier and poorer nations, although there were some slight cross-cultural variations. The relevance of these results for several theories of motivation and personality are discussed. Goal