A Hierarchical Taxonomy Of Human Goals.pdf

C Motivation and Emotion, Vol. 25, No. 3, September 2001 ( 2001) A Hierarchical Taxonomy of Human Goals1 Ada S. Chulef,2 Stephen J. Read,23 and David A. Walsh2 This paper presents a hierarchical taxonomy of human goals, based on similar- ity judgments of 135 goals gleaned from the literature. Women and men in 3 age groups—17–30, 25–62, and 65 and older—sorted the goals into conceptually sim- ilar groups. These were cluster analyzed and a taxonomy of 30 goal clusters was developed for each age group separately and for the total sample. The clusters were conceptually meaningful and consistent across the 3 samples. The broad- est distinction in each sample was between interpersonal or social goals and intrapersonal or individual goals, with interpersonal goals divided into family- related and more general social goals. Further, the 30 clusters were organized into meaningful higher order clusters. The role of such a taxonomy in promot- ing theory development and research is discussed, as is its relationship to other organizations of human goals and to the Big Five structure of personality. Goals are fundamental to human behavior, playing a central role in both its en- actment and its understanding. Consistent with this centrality, wants and needs are among the earliest things that children communicate (Gelman, 1990), and goals are basic concepts across all cultures (Wierzbicka, 1991, 1992). Further- more, goals seem to be central elements underlying a host of social concepts, including traits (Borkenau, 1990; Fleeson, Zirkel, & Smith, 1995; Read, Jones, & Miller, 1990), roles (Read, 1987; Schank & Abelson, 1977) and situations (Miller, Cody, & McLaughlin, 1994; Read & Miller, 1989). Yet despite this fundamental role in human behavior and understanding, we have only the sketchiest idea of how human goals are structured and organized (Austin & Vancouver, 1