Garland (1982) reports that goal setting, or planning, is a relatively new concept in the field of social learning. This concept accounts for behavior that is maintained by college students for extended periods of time in the absence of, or sometimes in spite of, external consequences. The concept of goals or plans also suggests an organization to the personality processes of college students that would not otherwise be present. That is, goals or plans guide college students in their establishing priorities among rewards and in selecting among actions that might otherwise seem of equal value. Thus, goals-plans enable college students to go beyond momentary influences and to organize their behavior over extended periods of time.
There cannot be consideration given to goals without an examination of the second important and interrelated concept: the self. The self is not a structure per se but, rather, a structural concept used to explain cognitive processes such as self-conceptions, self-praise, self-criticism, and self-control. The self-conceptions and self-regulatory mechanisms are critical for understanding what occurs during the interaction between environmental inputs and behavior. As the college student (i.e., organism) develops, he or she increasingly uses the processes of self-control and self-regulation to direct behavior. However, it should be clear that this concept of self is not identical to other concepts of the self. The self in social learning refers to those processes that are part of the person's psychological functioning. In a sense, then, the college student does not have a structure called "the self," but rather self-processes that are part of him or her. In addition, social learning theory suggests that a college student has self-conceptions and self-control processes which may vary from time to time and from one situation to another. This is contrary to the earlier views of the global self-concept...