Two studies examined the importance of motive dispositions in determining the extent to which the pursuit of personal goals accounts for interindividual differences in emotional well-being. Within the domains of agency and communion, motives were assessed with a picture–story test, whereas self-report measures were used to assess goal attributes. Study 1 found that progress toward motive-congruent goals, in contrast to progress toward motive-incongruent goals, accounted for students’ daily experiences of emotional well-being. Study 2 found that the combination of high commitment to and high attainability of motive-congruent goals predicted an increase in students’ emotional well-being over 1 semester. In contrast, high commitment to motive-incongruent goals predicted a decline in emotional well-being. Results are discussed with reference to a 2-system approach to human motivation.

Telic theories of well-being rest on the assumption that a sense of happiness or satisfaction is achieved when a person successfully strives for the attainment of desired outcomes or end states (Diener, 1984). These end states, however, can be conceptualized in terms of different motivational constructs, such as an individual's motive dispositions or his...