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A daily diary study was used to examine the relationships between goal distance, goal velocity, affect, expectancies, and effort from the perspective of Carver and Scheier's (1998) control theory of self-regulation. Fifteen social workers completed a diary at the end of each working day for four weeks. Multi-level analysis found little support for the precice predictions of Carver and Scheier's theory, but did support the idea that discrepancy reduction plays a role in regulating behavior. Expectancies had a strong association with effort, and affect moderated this relationship. The interaction indicated that high expectancies suppress the signalling effects of affect, preventing the individual from being consumed by immediate reactions to situational events and enabling effort to be sustained.

Daniel J. Beal is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He received his Ph.D. in social psychology from Tulane University. His primary area of research interest examines the affective, cognitive, and motivational processes underlying within-person performance. In addition, he has interests in several methodological topics, including multilevel and longitudinal modeling and meta-analytic techniques. His work has appeared in the Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Research Methods, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.