Review of: “The Psychology of goals", ed. by Gordon B. Moskowitz and Heidi Grant (Guilford, 2009)

The first exhaustive treatment of the psychology of goals, this book looks at the structure, roots, process, and psychic consequences of goals. Moskowitz and Grant (both, Lehigh Univ.) set out to create a book they could use as a textbook, and certainly, taken together, the chapters provide an intelligent, comprehensive, and extremely well-researched treatise on the nature of goals. The editors divide the 19 chapters into four sections. The chapters in the first section examine the cognitive nature of goals, along with the neural and evolutionary bases of the processes. Section 2 addresses how individuals form goals--i.e., how they go from not having a goal to having that goal. Section 3 looks at the processes by which goals, once established, are pursued. And section 4 focuses on the psychic consequences of goals pursuits. Overall, an excellent resource for scholars, both in the classroom and in the library.