Development of goal-directed behaviour and related self-processes in toddlers

During toddlerhood the ability to organise actions for accomplishing goals rapidly increases. The developmental changes in actions and self-process that become part of this motivational system have seldom been studied simultaneously. Fifty-seven toddlers between the ages of 15 and 35 months were observed for two sessions while working on mastery tasks. These tasks varied in the degree to which the goal was implicit in the task materials and consequently in how much representation of the goal was necessary to carry out the task. Younger toddlers were just as engaged as older toddlers in tasks with implicit (i.e., proximal) goals but less engaged on tasks with less implicit (i.e., more distal) goals. Older toddlers were more successful in reaching goals (i.e., carrying tasks to completion), and they showed more investment in their own agency (e.g., more pride when goals were reached and more insistence on completing the last step of a task). These broad behavioural changes document the increasing propensity of toddlers to use goals to organise their behaviours and the increasing importance of self-processes in the organisation of action and motivation.