PROGRESS THAT MOTIVATES -WHEN WE WANT TO: PERCEIVED PROGRESS AS A MEDIATOR OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF-CONCORDANCE AND ONGOING EFFORT EXPENDITURE

The present study examines the proposal that perceived progress mediates the relationship between self-concordance and continued effort expenditure. According to Sheldon and Elliot (1999), goal-striving consists of a positive relationship between motivation, effort and goal attainment. There is a positive influence of motivation on the applied effort which is reflected in the progress in goal attainment. The main aim of the present study was to verify the relationship between autonomous vs. controlled motivation and exerted effort in continuing goal achievement at the stage where the monitoring of goal progress is part of further goal attainment. This focus on motivation can shed some light on why the achievement of partial progress sometimes leads to an increase and sometimes to a decrease in the consequent effort towards a goal. In our study, it was hypothesized that our data are in line with a simple mediation model proposing that perceived progress accounts for the variance between self-concordance and effort expenditure. The results were in line with the prediction that perceived progress mediates the relationship between self-concordance and consequent effort. Furthermore, both self-concordance and perceived progress were positively related to effort expenditure.