Motivation vs Goal Oriented Behavior What's the difference between these two terms when used in the context of cognitive psychology? To the best of my knowledge, research on 'Goal Oriented Behavior' refers to the subset of motivation that involves translating explicitly construed goals into actions the agent can perform in order to accomplish these goals (e.g. means-ends analysis). However, its hard for me to grasp when this is not the case insofar as theories of motivation are concerned.

So are these terms effectively synonyms with 'Goal Oriented Behavior' simply being the more modern verbiage? Or is 'Goal Oriented Behavior' a special subset of Motivation? Or is the relationship between the two terms something else entirely (perhaps each is used in a different field of study).
Major theories of motivation distinguish between implicit and explicit motives - the first refering to (relatively) unconscious, automatically operating motives, the second refering to motives and goals which are accessible for self-reports (McClelland, Koestner, &amp; Weinberger, 1989). Explicit motives are translated into conscious goals, whereas implicit motives influence spontaneous, uncontrolled, and long-term behavior (without goal-planning behavior).

Furthermore, 'Motivation' referes to a larger process (e.g., selective attention, comparison of set points with actual situations, the processing of situational incentives), where the translation into goals and actions only is the last part of a sequence of processing steps.

Concerning your question, I would say that 'goal oriented behavior' indeed is a subset of motivation, namely explicit motivation.



References

McClelland, D. C., Koestner, R., &amp; Weinberger, J. (1989). How do self-attributed and implicit motives differ? Psychological Review, 96, 690-702.

Schultheiss, O. C. (2008). Implicit motives. In O. P. John, R. W. Robins, &amp; L. A. Pervin (Eds.), Handbook of personality psychology: Theory and research (3rd ed.). (pp. 603-633). New York, NY US: Guilford Press.