The PEP-GOAL: Validation of a Proposition Evaluation Procedure as an implicit measure of health goal conflict and facilitation

People often intend to embrace a healthy lifestyle but struggle to adopt or maintain these habits. Conflict and facilitation between health goals and other life goals (horizontal interrelations) or personal values (vertical interrelations) can impact the initiation and maintenance of health behaviors. Optimal measures of such goal interrelations are crucial to ensure the efficacy of health behavior interventions. However, existing methods heavily rely on self-reports, making them susceptible to biases. In this study, we introduce the PEP-Goal, the first implicit measure of health goal conflict and facilitation based on the Propositional Evaluation Paradigm (PEP). Our findings revealed notable dissociations between the PEP-Goal and the standard self-report approach (Personal Project Analysis). While our study offers initial support for the predictive validity of PEP-Goal, further refinements are warranted. Specifically, implicit PEP-Goal scores indicating horizontal conflict and facilitation between physical activity (PA) goals and other life goals positively correlated with actual PA behavior, as quantified by activity trackers over a one-week period. Conversely, implicit vertical scores did not exhibit significant predictive value. Although further improvements are necessary, this study provides preliminary evidence for the predictive validity at the horizontal level and practical applicability of PEP-Goal as an implicit measure of goal interrelations.