title: Perceived goal ownership, regulatory goal cognition, and health behavior change.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the links among perceived goal ownership, regulatory goal cognition, and health behavior change.
  
  
  METHODS
  A sample of 390 college students completed measures of (a) perceived goal ownership for a goal related to a health behavior that they, their dating partner, or both were seeking to change, (b) 9 aspects of regulatory goal cognition, and (c) health behavior change.
  
  
  RESULTS
  As compared to participants with self-set and joint-set goals, participants with partner-set goals reported less adaptive regulatory goal cognition and were less likely to report positive changes in health behavior.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Efforts to change dating partner's health behaviors should be framed as joint-set goals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1104, USA. okun@asu.edu
authors.forename: Morris A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Okun
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Karoly
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends / Q000523:psychology; D006040:Goals; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D012056:Reinforcement, Social; D012718:Set, Psychology; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology