“Every moment of waking life, our behavior, thinking, and emotions are oriented and regulated by goals—whether we are aware of it or not. Goals are the system units of human functioning. This book offers the most definitive, state-of-the-art treatment of the topic that I have seen in decades, from a collection of stellar researchers and thinkers. It is a field-renewing book that will launch a flotilla of new research.”

—Claude Steele, PhD, Director, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences, Stanford University


“The study of goals is at the heart of understanding human behavior in a social context. This unique, timely book surveys the cognitive and motivational components of goal-directed behavior. Distinguished scientists and researchers contribute state-of-the-art presentations in their respective areas of expertise. Chapters provide insightful and challenging perspectives on central topics in contemporary research on goals, such as evolution, brain, affect, perception, memory, representation of knowledge, executive control, and conscious versus nonconscious processes.”

—Henk Aarts, PhD, Department of Psychology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands


“'Do you know what you want?' This is not just a question posed by an impatient restaurant server. Knowing what we want is the center of our psychological life, and the degree to which we are conscious or unconscious of our goals is an issue of enduring concern. This book chronicles emerging breakthroughs in several fields to offer striking new insights on how goals operate in the mind.”

—Daniel M. Wegner, PhD, Department of Psychology, Harvard University


“This handbook of goals research is an idea whose time has come. This comprehensive work will inform psychological scientists of all stripes: neuro-, behavioral, cognitive, social, personality, and clinical scientists all will find something useful and new here. Everyone from students to experts will want to have this readable and authoritative source in their classes, in their libraries, and on their desks.”

—Susan T. Fiske, PhD, Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology, Princeton University