In their target article, Huang & Bargh (H&B) describe goals as autonomously operating motivational structures that direct human cognition and behavior. Such goals often operate unconsciously, shaping an individual's experience of the world without any explicit awareness. Importantly, these goals are argued to function in a “selfish” manner, as if each goal structure was concerned only with its own completion. The present commentary examines the implications of Selfish Goal Theory for models of personality integration and highlights the importance of the integrative process for H&B's framework.

Personality integration, reflecting the extent to which the various aspects of one's psyche function as an integrated whole, has long been regarded as a core process in psychodynamic and humanistic theories of development (Allport Reference Allport1937; Jung Reference Jung and Dell1939; Maslow Reference Maslow1970; Rogers Reference Rogers1951). The developmental process of recognizing one's diverse motives and incorporating them into a fully elaborated self-concept has been described variously as individuation, self-actualization, self-realization, or self-discovery. More recent formulations of personality integration define it as the extent to which an individual's explicit goals are aligned with each other and with basic human needs (Emmons Reference Emmons1986; Sheldon & Kasser Reference Sheldon and Kasser1995). The integrative process of identifying and aligning one's goals is important to understand because it is directly related to psychological well-being: greater personality integration and goal alignment can reduce conflict-related stress while increasing vitality, motivation, and personal meaning (Emmons & King Reference Emmons and King1988; Hirsh et al. Reference Hirsh, Mar and Peterson2012; McGregor & Little Reference McGregor and Little1998).

Integrating personal goals into a coherent self-system can require a great deal of effort and self-reflection. Because implicit motives are often pursued in the absence of explicit goal representations, many people have only a partial understanding of the goals that shape their behavior (Bargh & Barndollar Reference Bargh, Barndollar, Gollwitzer and Bargh1996). During development, children only gradually come to a conscious understanding of their implicit motives as the self-concept is elaborated over time (Damon & Hart Reference Damon and Hart1982). Prior to the explicit recognition of these desires, an individual's motives will be pursued largely unconsciously (Hoffree & Winkielman Reference Hoffree, Winkielman, Vazire and Wilson2012). Even among adults, the elaboration of implicit goals into a fully articulated self-understanding can be a lifelong learning process. Within any given person, some goals will have been clearly articulated and incorporated into the self-concept, while others will remain outside the realm of conscious awareness (where they nonetheless have a strong impact, as H&B argue).

By emphasizing the central role that goal constructs play in shaping human thought and action, Selfish Goal Theory provides a useful platform for modeling the process of personality integration and self-development. In particular, this process can be fruitfully understood as the gradual mapping of implicit goal space and the alignment of these goals within the self-system. An individual thus begins his or her journey to personhood as a jumble of motivational impulses that direct cognition and behavior with minimal self-awareness. Such a person would clearly demonstrate H&B's “selfish” goal effects, including behavioral inconsistency and poor self-insight, amid the multitude of implicit goals vying for control of the behavioral system. As the process of self-development and personality integration unfolds, however, these implicit goals will eventually be elaborated into explicit representations that are incorporated into the self-concept. This developmental process is equivalent to the psychodynamic integration of the unconscious mind into the conscious mind (Jung Reference Jung and Dell1939) and the humanistic striving for authenticity as reflected in congruence between organismic needs and conscious behavior (Rogers Reference Rogers1951).

An important implication of this process is that individual goals will become less “selfish” after being integrated within a larger self-system. In its current form, Selfish Goal Theory focuses on the competition between autonomous goals, each of which operates as a functionally segregated behavioral control system. Although a completely unintegrated person might indeed shift from one salient goal to the next with no behavioral consistency, the coordination of human goals can be characterized by a much greater degree of order and self-regulation. In particular, the process of personality integration binds an individual's disparate motives into a single integrated goal structure, such that the engagement of various goals can be regulated in the service of long-term plans and higher-order values (Austin & Vancouver Reference Austin and Vancouver1996; Carver & Scheier Reference Carver and Scheier1998; Peterson Reference Peterson1999). These higher-order goal systems can influence the relative salience of different lower-order goals and are thus critical for understanding the self-regulation of human thought and behavior (Kruglanski et al. Reference Kruglanski, Shah, Fishbach, Friedman, Chun, Sleeth-Keppler and Zanna2002). For example, the distinct goals of being productive at work and sticking to a fitness plan can both be integrated within the higher-order goal of being a successful person. The ability to effectively regulate basic goals within higher-order goal systems is in fact one of the distinguishing characteristics of the human nervous system, as instantiated by the integrative functions of the anterior prefrontal cortex (Hirsh Reference Hirsh2010; Koechlin et al. Reference Koechlin, Basso, Pietrini, Panzer and Grafman1999).

Individuals with a more fully elaborated self-understanding and explicitly articulated value system are thus more likely to experience identity coherence and behavioral consistency, owing to their more deeply integrated goal structures. By incorporating basic motives within higher-order goal systems, more integrated individuals will also alleviate the stress and anxiety that arises from conflicts between otherwise competing goals (Emmons & King Reference Emmons and King1988; Hirsh et al. Reference Hirsh, Mar and Peterson2012; Nash et al. Reference Nash, McGregor and Prentice2011).

Selfish Goal Theory presents an intriguing framework for understanding the tremendous power that goals have in shaping cognitive-behavioral dynamics. In order for it to provide a complete account of goals and their substantial cognitive impact, however, the theory could benefit by more directly addressing the role of integrative processes and higher-order goal systems in the global organization and self-regulation of human behavior. In its current form, the theory appears to be most effective at describing goal dynamics in the limiting case in which a person's goals are functionally segregated from one another and unrepresented by the self-system. As these goals become explicitly linked within a hierarchical system for behavioral control during the process of personality integration, the competition between multiple “selfish” goals may no longer provide a complete description of human goal dynamics.