Does monitoring goal progress promote goal attainment? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence.
- Submitting institution
-
Manchester Metropolitan University
- Unit of assessment
- 3 - Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy
- Output identifier
- 1634
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
-
10.1037/bul0000025
- Title of journal
- Psychological Bulletin
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 198
- Volume
- 142
- Issue
- 2
- ISSN
- 1939-1455
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- October
- Year of publication
- 2015
- URL
-
http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/87431/
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
7
- Research group(s)
-
I - Stress, Health and Performance
- Citation count
- 149
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This research is original as it is the first meta-analysis to quantify the impact of progress monitoring interventions on rates of behavioural performance and goal attainment. The analysis showed that monitoring behaviour is more likely to lead to changes in behaviour than monitoring outcomes, whereas changes in outcomes are more likely to occur when people monitor outcomes rather than behaviours. It also demonstrated that monitoring progress publicly and physically recording progress had larger effects on goal attainment than monitoring that was done in private and not recorded. The study suggested that monitoring goal progress is an effective self-regulation strategy, and that interventions that increase the frequency of progress monitoring are likely to promote behaviour change. The meta-analysis concluded that progress monitoring has a robust effect on goal attainment and constitutes a key component of effective self-regulation. Therefore, theoretical accounts of goal setting and intention formation should be extended to embrace the role of progress monitoring in goal striving, and behaviour change practitioners should consider this technique in future interventions. The research had a significant impact on public discourse. It has been reported in 45 separate news stories in the worldwide media, including recent articles in Science related to hand-washing and behaviour change around the COVID-19 pandemic. It is the top 5% of all outputs for 'attention' as ranked by Altmetric.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
