Dynamics of multiple-goal pursuit
Louro, Pieters and Zeelenberg's 2007 paper develops a model of how people allocate effort across several goals. Whether a person increases effort, eases off, abandons a goal or switches depends on the emotions produced by earlier progress and on closeness to the goal. A diary study and two experiments showed that positive and negative goal-related emotions can push behaviour in opposite directions depending on closeness, and the authors present the model as a refinement of the goal gradient hypothesis.
Louro, Pieters and Zeelenberg's 2007 paper develops a model of how people allocate effort across several goals. Whether a person increases effort, eases off, abandons a goal or switches depends on the emotions produced by earlier progress and on closeness to the goal. A diary study and two experiments showed that positive and negative goal-related emotions can push behaviour in opposite directions depending on closeness, and the authors present the model as a refinement of the goal gradient hypothesis.
Written from the abstract, PubMed record 17645394, 2026-11-02.
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Louro, M. J., Pieters, R., & Zeelenberg, M. (2007). “Dynamics of multiple-goal pursuit.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(2), 174-193. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.93.2.174 https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.93.2.174