Assigned versus self-set goals and their impact on the performance of brain-damaged patients

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role played by goal difficulty and goal origin (i.e., self-set vs. assigned) on the performance of patients with brain injuries in a simple arithmetic task. Eighty-seven patients with either cerebral vascular accidents or traumatic brain injuries were investigated. Patients were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) one in which a specific, high goal was assigned. (2) one in which a "do your best" goal was given. and (3) one in which a personal goal has to be stated. The results indicate that both goal difficulty and goal origin had an influence on performance. Assigned difficult goals lead to better performance than assigned easy goals. Self-setting a goal did not increase performance to the same level than the assignment of a difficult goal. This lower performance increase with self-set goals can he explained by the fact that participants selected goals which were not as difficult as the assigned difficult goal. Self-set goals were attained by most of the patients and only 1 patient showed a high discrepancy between self-set goal and actual performance. These findings suggest that goal origin and goal difficulty are important moderators in the goal setting process. Furthermore, patients with brain injuries do not necessarily set unrealistic high goals.