ABSTRACT
There are many cogent reasons to think that the goals concept is a critical one in personality and social psychology: Goals are the individual's cognitive representation of personal motivation (Markus, 1983; Bandura, 1986; Emmons, 1986); goals are critical components in social cognition (Trzebinski, this volume); goals serve as standards in action control (Kuhl & Beckmann, 1985). As such, it can be argued that an understanding of goals-their form, function, and interindividual variation-is essential to explicating the cognitive basis of both interpersonal interaction and self-regulation (Pervin, 1983, 1985; Sorrentino & Higgins, 1986). Recent conceptualizations of social intelligence provide one fruitful orientation toward the study of goals and problem solving (Cantor & Kihlstrom, 1987; 1988). In particular, intelligence can be viewed as a multifaceted repertoire of social knowledge, developed within, and fine tuned to meet the demands of, personal, social, and cultural life contexts (e.g., Sternberg, 1984). Individuals bring their social intelligence to bear in the hopes of solving their currently pressing life tasks (i.e., to reach their desired self-goals).
