You Oughta Know Richard Koestner

You Oughta Know: The Motivation Series

In this episode of You Oughta Know: The Motivation Series, Matt is joined by Richard Koestner, professor of psychology from McGill University.

Today, we talk all things goals. Goal setting, goal achievement, tactics for successful goal attainment, how goals can get undermined, and more.

SHOW NOTES:

Richard mentions the work of Ken Sheldon, Andy Eliot, and Tim Kasser and their respective studies from the 90s and early 2000s.

Sheldon, K. M., & Elliot, A. J. (1998). Not all personal goals are “personal”: Comparing autonomous and controlling goals on effort and attainment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 546- 557.

Sheldon, K. M., & Elliot, A. J. (1999). Goal striving, need satisfaction, and longitudinal well-being: The self-concordance model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 546-557.

Sheldon, K. M., & Elliot, A. J. (2000). Personal goals in social roles: Divergences and convergences across roles and levels of analysis. Journal of Personality, 68, 51-84.

Sheldon, K. M., & Kasser, T. (1998). Pursuing personal goals: Skills enable progress but not all progress is beneficial. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 1319-1331.

He mentions Ed Deci’s popular book, WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO.

He also mentions goal and self-regulation failure from the work of Roy Baumeister, and others.

Matt references Cognitive Load Theory by John Sweller.

Richard mentions Bob Vallerand’s work on Harmonious Passion versus Obsessive Passion. Vallerand, R.J. The role of passion in sustainable psychological well-being. Psych Well-Being 2, 1 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1186/2211-1522-2-1.

Richard talks about the Big Five Personality Traits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits.

MORE ABOUT RICHARD:

Richard is a professor of Psychology at McGill University where he has conducted research on personality and human motivation for over 30 years. Richard did his PhD research at the University of Rochester with Edward Deci and Richard Ryan and subsequently completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University with David McClelland. Richard has published over 250 scientific articles, and his recent work focuses on how to effectively set and pursue personal goals.

You can learn more about, or contact Richard here: https://www.mcgill.ca/psychology/richard-koestner