I will talk about the new goal psychology that adopts a cognitive approach to motivation. Whereas traditionally in social psychology motivation was treated as separate from cognition, and was often juxtaposed to cognition in the last fifteen year or so several research programs have begun that treat motivation in terms of its cognitive (representational) aspect and to explore the possibility of new understanding of classic problems in motivation and self regulation from a cognitive vantage point and through the use of cognitive methodologies (e.g. subliminal priming).