Further Reading — Chapter 22: Goals, Intrinsic Motivation, and Achievement

Foundational Texts

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. Plenum Press. The original comprehensive statement of Self-Determination Theory. Dense and technical, but the foundational text for understanding why the field moved away from purely behavioral accounts of motivation. Deci's earlier work on the Soma puzzle experiments is summarized here in full, along with the theoretical apparatus that explains the overjustification effect and the distinction between informational and controlling feedback. Chapters 3–5 are the essential core.

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2017). Self-Determination Theory: Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation, Development, and Wellness. Guilford Press. The definitive modern statement of SDT, incorporating forty years of research. Comprehensive, empirically rigorous, and broader in scope than the 1985 volume — covering not only work and education but healthcare, sport, parenting, and psychotherapy. The chapter on autonomy-supportive management (Chapter 16) is particularly practical. Recommended for anyone who works in an environment where motivation and engagement matter.

Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (1990). A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance. Prentice-Hall. The systematic empirical treatment of goal-setting theory. Locke and Latham's research spanning over two decades is assembled here with extensive review of the mechanisms by which specific, difficult goals produce better performance. The practical chapters on goal commitment, feedback, and task complexity translate directly to applied settings.

Research Articles and Academic Sources

Deci, E. L., Koestner, R., & Ryan, R. M. (1999). A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 126(6), 627–668. The definitive meta-analysis of over 100 experimental studies on the overjustification effect. Establishes with high confidence that tangible, expected, contingent rewards undermine intrinsic motivation, while verbal rewards that communicate competence do not (and may enhance it). Addresses the controversy generated by Cameron and Pierce's competing meta-analysis, which the authors show was methodologically flawed.

Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54(7), 493–503. The primary statement of implementation intention theory and its effects. Reviews ten studies showing that if-then planning approximately doubles goal completion rates across a range of domains including voting behavior, health screening, and academic performance. Introduces the mechanism of prospective memory and pre-loaded behavioral responses.

Oettingen, G., Pak, H., & Schnetter, K. (2001). Self-regulation of goal-setting: Turning free fantasies about the future into binding goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(5), 736–753. The foundational empirical demonstration that mental contrasting (imagining the desired outcome and the obstacle) produces more binding goal commitment and better goal pursuit than either pure positive visualization or pure obstacle focus. Three studies across different goal domains establish the pattern.

Kasser, T., & Ryan, R. M. (1993). A dark side of the American dream: Correlates of financial success as a central life aspiration. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65(2), 410–422. The original study establishing that prioritization of extrinsic goals (financial success, fame, image) is associated with lower wellbeing, more anxiety, and more depression relative to prioritizing intrinsic goals (personal growth, community, relationships). Influential in shifting the research conversation from whether goals are achieved to whether goals are worth pursuing.

Dweck, C. S., & Leggett, E. L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review, 95(2), 256–273. The theoretical paper establishing the distinction between learning goals (mastery orientation) and performance goals (ego orientation). Predicts, and subsequently demonstrates, that learning goals produce more resilience after failure, more intrinsic motivation, and better long-term learning than performance goals — even when the performance outcomes are identical in the short term.

Brickman, P., & Campbell, D. T. (1971). Hedonic relativism and planning the good society. In M. H. Appley (Ed.), Adaptation-Level Theory (pp. 287–302). Academic Press. The theoretical paper introducing hedonic adaptation and the treadmill metaphor. Not empirical in the modern sense, but the conceptual apparatus here — the idea that humans adapt rapidly to improved circumstances and return to a hedonic baseline — proved enormously generative for subsequent research. The 1978 Brickman et al. lottery winner/paraplegic comparison study (cited in the chapter) is the most famous empirical test of these ideas.

Accessible Books

Pink, D. H. (2009). Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Riverhead Books. A journalistic treatment of SDT's key findings for a general audience. Pink's core claim — that carrots and sticks work for simple mechanical tasks but undermine performance for complex, cognitive work — draws on Deci and Ryan's research and Gollwitzer's implementation intentions. Readable, engaging, and well-organized around the three needs (which he terms "autonomy, mastery, and purpose"). The appendix summarizing the research base is useful for readers who want to go deeper without reading academic papers.

Oettingen, G. (2014). Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation. Current/Penguin. Oettingen's accessible account of the research program that produced WOOP. The early chapters explain why the positive thinking industry is, in the author's framing, "the wrong positive thinking" — and what the research shows actually works. The middle section introduces mental contrasting through the research. The final chapters apply WOOP across personal and professional domains. Practical and well-written; the strongest popular introduction to the concepts covered in this chapter's goal-setting section.

Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. Scribner. Duckworth's research on grit — the combination of passion and perseverance — is adjacent to this chapter's material and illuminates the long-term sustained motivation dimension. Her distinction between "top-level goals" (the enduring purpose) and "lower-level goals" (the specific actions in service of it) clarifies what it means for a goal to be genuinely integrated rather than merely important. Chapter 8 on purpose is particularly relevant.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper & Row. The foundational treatment of intrinsic motivation at its most complete expression. Flow — the state of full absorption in a challenging activity that stretches but does not overwhelm one's capacities — is the experiential dimension of intrinsic motivation that SDT describes theoretically. The research on the conditions that produce flow (challenge-skill balance, clear goals, immediate feedback) maps directly onto the chapter's competence need. The chapter on work is especially applicable to adult readers.

Kasser, T. (2002). The High Price of Materialism. MIT Press. A concise, accessible treatment of the extrinsic/intrinsic goal content research and its implications. Kasser reviews the evidence that prioritizing money, possessions, and image is associated with lower wellbeing and then explores why — examining the cultural messages that push people toward extrinsic goal pursuit and the psychological mechanisms that explain the wellbeing cost. Short (under 200 pages) and well-suited to readers who want to think seriously about what they're working for and why.

For Practitioners and Educators

Niemiec, C. P., & Ryan, R. M. (2009). Autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the classroom: Applying self-determination theory to educational practice. Theory and Research in Education, 7(2), 133–144. A practical review of how SDT applies specifically to educational contexts. Reviews research on autonomy-supportive teaching (explaining rationale, acknowledging student perspective, offering meaningful choice) versus controlling teaching, and summarizes what the evidence shows about learning outcomes, intrinsic motivation, and student wellbeing. Directly applicable to anyone teaching or designing learning experiences.

Gagné, M., & Deci, E. L. (2005). Self-determination theory and work motivation. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26(4), 331–362. A comprehensive review of SDT's applications in organizational settings. Covers the research on autonomy-supportive management, the effects of performance-contingent rewards, need satisfaction in the workplace, and the implications for goal-setting and performance management practices. More technical than the popular books but not inaccessible, and directly useful for managers and HR professionals.

Deeper Inquiry

Reeve, J. (2018). Understanding Motivation and Emotion (7th ed.). Wiley. The most comprehensive undergraduate-level textbook covering motivation theory. SDT is treated in depth, but the volume also covers expectancy-value theory, goal-setting theory, achievement motivation, and the neuroscience of motivation in a manner that allows motivated readers to understand how the frameworks in this chapter relate to the broader field. A reliable reference for readers who want to go beyond any single framework.

Sansone, C., & Harackiewicz, J. M. (Eds.). (2000). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation: The Search for Optimal Motivation and Performance. Academic Press. A scholarly edited volume that assembles the leading researchers in motivation — including Deci, Ryan, Dweck, Ames, Lepper, and Harackiewicz herself — to debate and extend the core issues in intrinsic motivation research. The introduction and the chapters by Deci and Ryan are particularly useful for understanding the ongoing theoretical debate about when external rewards are and are not harmful. For readers who want academic depth.

The Character Reading Lists

Jordan is working through: - Drive (Pink) — prompted by Sandra's recommendation before the initiative - Rethinking Positive Thinking (Oettingen) — picked up after the WOOP conversation with himself produced clearer thinking than expected

Amara is working through: - SDT journal articles (for a seminar paper on intrinsic motivation in clinical settings) - Flow (Csikszentmihalyi) — Dr. Okafor recommended it, unexpectedly