Table 2.

Goal Constructs, Conceptual Definitions, and Instruments

Goal Construct	Study	Author’s Terminology and Conceptual Definition	Instrument Used
Goal Characteristics
Content
	Harden [16]	Life goals None	Author-developed, semi-structured interviews[16]
	Kin & Fung [37]	Selves: The kind of people we might become, the way we might feel, or the actions we might take Hoped-for: The selves that we hoped for the most Feared: The selves that we were afraid that we might eventually become.	Hoped-for selves and feared selves[43]
	Lauver [17]	Health-related goals: What you would like to be able to do in the future that you are not able to do now; goals for your future that may be related to your health	Author-developed, open-ended questions to elicit health-related goals[17]
	Morganstern [15]	Goal content: None	Brief Quality of Life Appraisal Profile[15]
	Palmer [47]	Health-promotion goals: None	Author-developed, semi-structured interview[47]
	Pinquart [9]	Goals: Future-oriented representations of what individuals are striving for in their current life situations, what they try to attain or avoid in various life domains	Mixed idiographic-nomothetic goal interview[9]
	Pinquart [11]	Goals: What they were currently pursuing, what they wanted to achieve in the future	Mixed idiographic-nomothetic goal interview[11]
	Stefanic [38]	Personal goals: Important goals or objectives they were currently pursuing in their life and wanted to achieve in the future	Mixed idiographic-nomothetic assessment[38]
	Street [49]	Life goals: Most important things people want to have, to keep, to pursue in their lives	Listed life goals[49]
	Schwartz & Drotar [12]	Life goals: Plans, undertakings, or activities in the pursuit of some valued goal/outcome	HRHI[12]
	Thompson [40]	Life goals: None	Author-developed, semi-structured interview[51]
Life domains
	Bellizzi [28]	Plans for various life domains: None	Modified Life Impact Checklist[28]
	Pinquart [9]	Goal categories: Achievement-related goals (e.g., career success, gaining material possessions), health-related goals (e.g., improving one’s health), social goals (e.g., spending time with friends and relatives), and transcendental goal (e.g., coming closer to God), and other goals	Mixed idiographic-nomothetic goal interview[9]
	Pinquart [11]	Goal categories: (a) achievement-related goals that include gain in prosperity and material possessions, improvement in one’s material conditions, career development, and gain in social prestige; (b) health-related goals that focus on maintenance and improvement of one’s physical health; (c) social goals that focus on interpersonal relations, such as enlargement and maintenance of one’s present social relationships; (d) leisure goals that focus on intrinsically meaningful and self-rewarding activity in which people engage by choice rather than necessity; and (e) psychological goals that focus on inner psychological states	Mixed idiographic-nomothetic goal interview[11]
	von Blanckenburg [52]	Life goal domains: affiliation, altruism, intimacy, achievement, power, and variation	Life Goals Questionnaire[53]
Extrinsic goals
	Ransom [35]	Extrinsic personal goals: Goals related to desires for wealth, popularity, beauty	AI[48]
	Street [49]	Social conditional goal setting: Social norms influence a need to achieve specific goals	Social CGS Scale[50]
	Thompson & Pitts [33]	External goals: Materialistic goals	Goal questionnaire[33]
Intrinsic goals
	Ransom [35]	Intrinsic personal goals: Goals related to personal development, relationship building, community enhancement	AI[48]
	Street [49]	Personal conditional goal setting: Personal happiness/well-being are dependent on the achievement of specific goals	Personal CGS Scale[50]
	Thompson & Pitts [33]	Internal goals: Nonmaterialistic goals (living life one day at a time, appreciating family/friends, acquiring self-knowledge)	Goal Questionnaire[33]
Importance
	Lampic [13], Nordin [34]	Life values importance: None	Life values questionnaire[44]
	Offerman [29]	Goal importance: None	GFI[45]
	Pinquart [11]	Life goal importance: None	Striving to attain 13 life goals[11]
	Stefanic [38]	Importance: None	Visual analog scale[38]
	von Blanckenburg [52]	Importance: None	Life Goals Questionnaire[53]
Attainability
	Pinquart [11]	Likelihood of goal attainment: None	Mixed idiographic-nomothetic goal interview[11]
	von Blanckenburg [52]	General attainability: None	Life Goals Questionnaire[53]
Difficulty
	Pinquart [9]	Perceived difficulty of goal: None	Mixed idiographic-nomothetic goal interview[9]
Temporal range
	Pinquart [9]	Time of goal attainment: Number of weeks estimated as necessary to fulfill a goal	Mixed idiographic-nomothetic goal interview[9]
	Pinquart [11]	Time of goal attainment: Number of months estimated as necessary to fulfill a goal	Mixed idiographic-nomothetic goal interview[11]
Goal Processes
Self-efficacy
	Offerman [29]	Goal-related self-efficacy: A person’s belief and confidence to perform certain behavior leading to a desired outcome in a particular situation	GAPI-H[46]
	Schwartz & Drotar [12]	Goal self-efficacy: None	HRHI[12]
Effort
	Pinquart [9], Pinquart [11]	Perceived effort to attain goal: None	Mixed idiographic-nomothetic goal interview[9]
Pursuit
	Gagliese[2]	None	N/A; life goal constructs emerged from inductive interviews
Attainment
	Lampic [13], Nordin [34]	Life values attainment: None	Life values questionnaire[44]
	Morganstern [15]	Goal attainment: Sense of progress toward fulfillment of goal	Brief Quality of Life Appraisal Profile[15]
	Pastore [30]	Social life goals: None	Life goal questionnaire[30]
	Punyko [31]	Life goals: None	Self-report of social adaptation outcomes[31]
	von Blanckenburg [52]	Life goal attainment: Present success at attaining	Life Goals Questionnaire[53]
Disturbance
	Gagliese [2]	None	N/A; life goal constructs emerged from inductive interviews
	George & Park [36]	Goal violations due to cancer: None	Meaning Assessment Scale, Goals subscale[42]
	Harden [16]	None	N/A; life goal constructs emerged from inductive interviews
	Offerman [29]	Goal disturbance: None	GFI[45]
	Pinquart [9], Pinquart [11]	Perceived influence of health status on goal attainment: None	Mixed idiographic-nomothetic goal interview[9]
	Schwartz & Drotar [12]	Health-related hindrance: Impact of specific aspects of health on self-identified personal goals	HRHI[12]
	Stefanic [38]	Cancer-related interference: Perceived current cancer-related interference of each goal	Visual analog scale[38]
Goal loss
	Gagliese [2]	None	N/A; life goal constructs emerged from inductive interviews
	Harden [16]	None	N/A; life goal constructs emerged from inductive interviews
Goal adjustment
	Harden [16]	None	N/A; life goal constructs emerged from inductive interviews
	Roberts [32]	Change in life goals: None	Problem Checklist[32]
Disengagement
	Schroevers [39]	Goal disengagement: Ease with which patients were able to reduce effort/commitment towards an unattainable goal	GAS, Goal Disengagement Subscale[14]
	Thompson [40]	Situational goal disengagement: Ability to give up blocked goals in specific situational contexts	Author-developed, semi-structured interview[51]
	Thompson [40]	Dispositional goal disengagement: Ability to give up blocked goals	GAS, Goal Disengagement Subscale[14]
	Wrosch & Sabiston [54]	Goal disengagement: Reduction of effort/commitment from goals that are no longer feasible/maladaptive	GAS, Goal Disengagement Subscale[14]
Reengagement
	Offerman [29]	Goal reengagement: Being able to find renewed purpose in life elsewhere when goals are unattainable	GAS, Goal Reengagement Subscale[14]
	Schroevers [39,41]	Goal reengagement: Extent to which patients reengaged in other new goals when they faced an unattainable goal	GAS, Goal Reengagement Subscale[14]
	Thompson [40]	Situational goal reengagement: Ability to engage in new or preexisting alternative goals in specific situational contexts	Author-developed, semi-structured interview[51]
	Thompson [40]	Dispositional goal reengagement: Ability to engage in new or preexisting alternative goals	GAS, Goal Reengagement Subscale[14]
	Wrosch & Sabiston [54]	Goal reengagement: Identification of, commitment to, and pursuit of new goals when unattainable goals are encountered	GAS, Goal Reengagement Subscale[14]

Note. AI = Aspirations Index; CGS = Conditional Goal Setting GAS = Goal Adjustment Scale; GFI = Goal Facilitation Inventory; GAPI-H = Goal and Processes Inventory-Health; HRHI = Health-Related Hindrance Inventory; N/A = not applicable.