Goal choices and planning: Distinct expectancy and value effects in two goal processes

•We examine the motivational effects of expectancy and value across goal choice and goal planning processes.•Expectancy and value positively and jointly predicted goal choice.•Expectancy and value played independent and opposite roles in affecting effort during the goal-planning process.•Value played a positive role on motivation beyond its effects on goal choices.•Relative, rather than absolute, value was more critical in determining goal choice and resources allocated.

Expectancy and value have emerged as two major determinants of motivation. However, the exact nature of their functioning is less clear given that previous research failed to test adequately different goal processes. Based on the recent nonmonotonic, discontinuous model of expectancy elaborated by Vancouver, More, and Yoder (2008), two studies were conducted and found that expectancy and value functions in different forms during the goal choice versus goal planning processes. Specifically, the two constructs positively and jointly predicted one’s goal choice, whereas they played independent and opposite roles in affecting the allocation of effort during the goal-planning process. These findings address gaps in theories of motivation, allow for more precise specifications of the roles for expectancy and value within such models, and further efforts toward integrating theories of motivation within a goal-centered, self-regulation framework.