Chapter 11: Possible Selves: Identity-Based Motivation and School Success

The idea that the self is temporal and that the future-oriented components of the self are critical to understanding well-being can be traced to William James (1890/1950), who proposed that the selves we strive to become focus motivational attention, guide behavior, and are an important source of positive selfregard. James proposed that the future, as represented by one’s self-relevant goals for the future, is likely to exert a major influence on current behavior. In a review of the literature, Karniol & Ross (1996) note the ubiquity of this assumption as well as the idea that these future self-relevant goals matter because they shape the strategies one chooses to achieve one’s goals. Following from these models, it seems reasonable to suppose that possible self-goals play a motivational and self-regulatory role in shaping future behavior.