Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Task Interruption and Resumption Paradigm for Testing the Activation and Pursuit of an Abstract Thinking Goal
Published on: April 18, 2017
Perceived goal ownership, regulatory goal cognition, and health behavior change
1Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1104, USA. okun@asu.edu
Objective:
To investigate the links among perceived goal ownership, regulatory goal cognition, and health behavior change.
Methods:
A sample of 390 college students completed measures of (a) perceived goal ownership for a goal related to a health behavior that they, their dating partner, or both were seeking to change, (b) 9 aspects of regulatory goal cognition, and (c) health behavior change.
Results:
As compared to participants with self-set and joint-set goals, participants with partner-set goals reported less adaptive regulatory goal cognition and were less likely to report positive changes in health behavior.
Conclusion:
Efforts to change dating partner's health behaviors should be framed as joint-set goals.
Related Concept Videos
Stress Prevention and Stress Management Techniques VI
Motivation and Self-Determination
Motivation, the driving force behind behavior, plays a pivotal role at every stage of the change process. The research...
Self-Regulation
Self-Discrepancy Theory
Models of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention I
The health belief model (HBM) attempts to predict health-related behavior in specific belief patterns. According to the HBM, a person's...
Concepts of Health and Illness
Self-Awareness and Its Effects
