ABSTRACT
A constant challenge of everyday living is the management of our significant, and often conflicting pursuits. How do we make time for our family, for instance, when an important deadline looms for completing a project? Our daily successes may substantially depend on our successful juggling of important but disparate concerns such as getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, and writing a chapter for a volume such as this one. Challenging us still further are the available options we may have of pursuing each of our goals. For just as we have many different goals, we often have more than one road to these psychological destinations (McDougal, 1923; Heider, 1958). Thus, although many of us may have the intention of “getting fit” we may have very different ideas about how this can be accomplished. Some of us may think our daily trek from the parking garage constitutes something of a “workout” whereas others may opt for more traditional and varied means of exercise (as tennis, swimming, weights training, or jogging). Certainly, the manner wherein specific goals are pursued can vary quite considerably across individuals and situations yet the need to exercise choice among different means of pursuit is a ubiquitous fact of life.
