Considering the Automatic Pursuit and Management of Goals

My talk will discuss recent research on the automatic activation and management of goals that considers the sources of goal priming in everyday settings as well as the manner in which primed goals may interact with our consciously chosen intentions. In particular, I will focus on the possibility that goals may become implicitly associated with significant others, with implications for both goal pursuit and social relations.  I will address, for instance, how our relation to significant others may cause us to automatically consider, and be influenced by, what these individuals want for us.  Alternatively,  I will also consider how our momentary or chronic goal commitments may cause us to associate goals to those individuals who may help or hinder goal attainment, affecting the way in which we relate to these individuals. Finally, given that goals may often be primed when we are consciously pursuing something else, I will briefly discuss research examining how goal priming may influence our consciously chosen goal pursuits with broader implications for self-regulation.