Goal Striving Within Agentic and Communal Roles: Separate but Functionally Similar Pathways to Enhanced Well‐Being

Kennon M. Sheldon · M. Lynne Cooper

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Motivation and Self-Concept in Sports Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction Human Behavior and Motivation

Abstract

Do agency and communion strivings provide functionally similar but predictively independent pathways to enhanced well-being? We tested this idea via a year-long study of 493 diverse community adults. Our process model, based on self-determination and motive disposition theories, fit the data well. First, the need for achievement predicted initial autonomous motivation for agentic (work and school) role-goals and the need for intimacy predicted felt autonomy for communal (relationship and parenting) goals. For both agentic and communal goals, autonomous motivation predicted corresponding initial expectancies that predicted later goal attainment. Finally, each type of attainment predicted improved adjustment or role-satisfaction over the year. Besides being similar across agency and communion, the model was also similar across race and gender, except that the beneficial effects of communal goal attainment were stronger for high need for intimacy women and Blacks. Implications for agency/communion theories, motivation theories, and theories of well-being are discussed.

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References

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2009Linking personality states, current social roles and major life goals 2010Goal attainment, goal striving, and well-being during the transition to adulthood: A ten-year U.S. national longitudinal study 2021Gender role identity and gender intensification: Agency and communion in adolescents’ spontaneous self-descriptions 2018Relational mechanisms in the goal pursuit process 2020Investigating the Unified Motive Scales

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