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Research has demonstrated that lay beliefs about emotions (i.e., whether they are viewed as malleable or fixed) may shape important outcomes in educational performance. Given the prominent role of emotions in learning and goal setting, the present study examined whether emotion beliefs moderated (1) the relationship between the experience of academic emotions and grades and (2) the relationship between academic emotions and shifts in goal setting. Undergraduate students (N =329) enrolled in an introductory psychology course reported on their emotions and goal orientations across two waves of data collection which took place before and after their first two exams. Multiple regression analyses revealed that emotion beliefs moderated the relationship between academic emotions and changes in goal orientation across the semester. Specifically, greater experience of negative outcome-related emotions was associated with decreases in mastery- and performance-avoidance goal orientations among individuals who tended to view emotions as more malleable. On the other hand, for students who felt their emotions were more fixed, change in avoidance goals was not influenced by negative outcome emotions. Our results point to the added benefit in students viewing emotions as malleable, as this perspective may lead to students disengaging less with course material (i.e., decreasing avoidance goal orientations) after learning experiences marked by negative emotions. Overall, our findings provide preliminary support for the inclusion of emotion beliefs in models of academic achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is anecdotal evidence and some scientific support for the value of having multiple paths to reach one's life goals, recent work concerning backup plans argues that their mere availability undermines commitment to and performance in the originally chosen path. In this paper, we evaluated this phenomenon amongst college students (N = 345) entering their first term with an already available family-based alternative life path. As expected, entering into college with an available family-based alternative life path led to a decrease in study commitment over the first semester and indirectly predicted lower end-of-semester grades through this reduction in commitment. However, results indicate that this only occurred when students reported experiencing an action crisis at the end of their first semester. If students did not report having an action crisis, an available family-based alternative life path did not influence study commitment and predicted a higher end-of-semester GPA. Ultimately, findings highlight the major role action crisis plays in the influence an alternative life path has on path trajectory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research applies symbolic self completion theory (SCT) to explain online behaviors and predict what users will post on Instagram. Across three experiments, we tested whether medical and law students who sense incompleteness with respect to their professional identity goals engage in compensatory self-symbolizing by increasing their online posting of respective indicators of goal attainment (e.g., medical coats, court clothes). Study 1 found that incomplete medical students post more medicine-related symbols. Study 2 replicated this effect in a sample of law students and clarified that students' self-symbolizing posts specifically relate to their incomplete goal (law career) and not to other non-pertinent domains (university life). Finally, Study 3 demonstrated that incomplete medical students only engage in self-symbolizing when their incompleteness refers to their career goal and not to other careers they do not aspire to (a law career). Implications for understanding online behavior, preventing negative consequences of self-symbolizing on social media, and deepening the study of self-completion processes are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous correlational studies showed the importance of mindfulness and autonomous goal motivation for goal pursuit, goal setting, and goal disengagement processes. The present study examined the role of mindfulness in goal regulation processes for self-selected personal goals in a randomized waitlist control group design. Participants (N = 228, M = 30.7 years, 18–78 years; 84% female) either received daily 9-12-minute audio mindfulness exercises online for four weeks or were placed on a waitlist. Participants in the intervention group (N = 113) reported more goal progress compared with the control group (N = 116) at the end of the intervention. Autonomous goal motivation for already set goals did not influence change in goal progress. However, autonomous goal motivation for newly set goals was higher in the intervention group than in the control group. Additionally, we tested the role of mindfulness in interaction with goal attainability and autonomous motivation for goal adjustment processes (in this case, reduction of goal importance). In the control group, lower goal attainability at baseline was associated with a greater reduction in goal importance for less autonomous goals. For more autonomous goals, change in goal importance was independent from baseline attainability. In contrast, in the intervention group, all goals were slightly devalued over time independently from autonomous motivation and goal attainability at T1. Moreover, changes in goal attainability were positively linked to changes in goal importance over time. This effect was moderated by mindfulness and autonomous motivation. Overall, the findings point to the relevance of mindfulness and autonomous motivation for goal regulation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that people's capacity to successfully pursue hedonic goals is at least as important for well-being as trait self-control. Extending this research, we tested whether trait hedonic capacity is related to more time spent with hedonic goal pursuit (i.e., hedonic quantity) and whether this explains its positive relationship with well-being. Second, we explored whether this may come at a cost for people's performance. Results show that people with higher trait hedonic capacity do spend more time with hedonic goal pursuit (Study 1 and 2). However, hedonic quality not hedonic quantity accounts for its positive relationship with well-being. Further, people higher vs. lower in trait hedonic capacity perform equally well in their studies (Study 2) and their jobs (Study 3 and 4). Thus, trait hedonic capacity seems to allow people to invest more time into their hedonic goals in a way that does not jeopardize their academic and job performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research tested the mental experience of maintenance goals as distinct from goals to approach better outcomes (approach goals) and goals to avoid worse outcomes (avoidance goals). In Studies 1 and 2, participants reported personal goals and categorized them as one of the three goal types. We theorized that maintenance centers on existing positive outcomes, while avoidance centers on future (expected) negative outcomes. We therefore predicted a lesser experience of threat and a greater experience of satisfaction in maintenance compared to avoidance. Additionally, we predicted greater satisfaction in maintenance compared to approach goals, wherein motivation comes from the value of future (desired) positive outcomes rather than current ones. Confirming our predictions, participants rated personal maintenance goals as lower on threat (Study 1) and higher on satisfaction (Studies 1 and 2) compared to avoidance goals. Additionally, revealing the centrality of maintenance, maintenance goals played a major role in reported central life goals (Study 1) and the largest role in goals pursued in the previous week (Study 2). Finally, in Study 3, participants judged another person engaged in maintenance as more satisfied and less threatened than a person engaged in avoidance or approach. Taken together, this work informs about the phenomenological nature of maintenance and advances a theory-driven ternary taxonomy of basic goal types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to extensive research examining intrinsic motivation in educational and professional settings, the present research investigates the origin, and the development, of the intrinsic motivation to participate in a novel leisure activity. One survey and three experiments show that the enjoyment of a novel leisure activity, and the desire to reengage in the activity, are a function of the alignment between the goal associated with participation and a person's implicit theory about the skills needed to participate. A mastery goal promotes the development of intrinsic motivation when two conditions are met: (1) people believe their skills are malleable, and (2) first-time participation in the activity results in perceptions of improved mastery. A performance goal promotes the development of intrinsic motivation when two conditions are met: (1) people believe their skills are fixed, and (2) first-time participation in the activity results in perceptions of successful performance. The motivational benefits aligning participation goals and implicit theories are reversed when the execution of a first-time leisure activity is exceedingly difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While research on tenacious goal pursuit and persistence has evoked a myriad of research efforts, research on goal disengagement has rather been neglected and has been focusing mainly on positive consequences of individual differences in goal disengagement capacities. In recent years, however, research on goal disengagement has seen an upsurge in studies, specifically addressing the conceptualization of goal disengagement, the processes involved, and factors facilitating or undermining it. However, many questions remain unanswered or only partly answered providing numerous opportunities for further investigation. With this special issue of Motivation and Emotion, we aim to stimulate such progress in research on goal disengagement. To this end, this special issue includes empirical studies with cross-sectional, prospective, longitudinal, and experimental designs with a wide range of personal and experimentally induced goals as well as invited commentaries from scholars across different psychological sub disciplines. In this introductory essay, we provide a brief review of the current state of goal disengagement research. We also provide an overview about the contributions to this special issue with reflections related to the current state of research and areas where further advancement in conceptualization and empirical studies is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our commentary highlights the importance of the present special issue on disengagement from goals. The various contributions focus on as vital topics as people vexed by goals being blocked, stuck between going on versus letting go, and drowning in ruminations. They clarify that person and contextual factors, framing strategies, and emotional make-up play a role in dealing with such hardships. Reviewing the contributions also indicated that research on the processes of disengagement is especially scarce. To start closing this gap, we argue that research on the self-regulation strategy of mental contrasting, primarily used to specify the processes of active goal pursuit, can just as well be used to elucidate the processes of active disengagement. We present evidence about how mental contrasting promotes disengaging from desired futures and from missed-out pasts, and we highlight the non-conscious mechanisms that induce people to actively let go from unfeasible endeavors. We then address research on how people can disengage from upcoming inevitable endings. We conclude with applauding the courage of the editors to tackle goal disengagement, the black sheep of the psychology of motivation, and we discuss how fruitful further research on the topic will be for the individual and the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this commentary, I discuss the eight empirical contributions to the Motivation and Emotion special issue on goal disengagement from a resource conservation perspective. This process was not in the focus of the reported studies, but is central for understanding both engaging and disengaging. I will outline that many of the new findings on disengagement reported in this special issue are highly compatible with the predictions of and research on motivational intensity theory. Examples are the roles of commitment, subjective goal value, affective experiences, autonomy, self-awareness, and action planning. These variables have been found to be central for both engagement and disengagement and their consideration in a resource mobilization perspective should contribute to a more complete understanding of "letting go". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When people hit roadblocks with their personal goals, goal disengagement is an adaptive response associated with improved mental and physical health. However, people can have trouble letting go of goals, even when pursuing them is problematic. We introduce a motivational model of goal disengagement by proposing that having autonomous motivation to disengage (a sense of truly identifying with the decision) as opposed to controlled motivation to disengage (feeling forced to let go) allows for people to make greater progress disengaging from specific goals, and prevents people getting stuck in an "inaction crisis" where they feel torn between disengaging further or re-adopting the goal. Using prospective longitudinal designs, we tracked the goal disengagement of personal goals in university students (Study 1, N = 510) and a general adult sample of Americans (Study 2, N = 446), finding that autonomous motivation for goal disengagement facilitated making disengagement progress. This work expands our understanding of the role of autonomous motivation throughout a goal's lifecycle and helps integrate different theoretical frameworks on goal motivation and self-regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary discusses the theoretical roots of the concept of goal disengagement in the construct of secondary control, the motivational theory of lifespan development, the dual-process model, and the personality model of control. These approaches have proposed and shown that goal disengagement is adaptive when opportunities for goal attainment have waned below a threshold of feasibility, and when action resources can be more productively invested in alternative or adjusted goals. Goal disengagement involves deactivating motivational commitment and withdrawing the investment of effort. Key challenges arise from having to overcome biases associated with goal engagement, multiple goals competing for resources, and disparate commitment and effort. Individual differences in goal engagement capacities predict important developmental, goal attainment, and health outcomes. The articles of the special issue are discussed with regard to their contribution to clarifying these specific issues. A prospectus for future research on the lifespan development of disengagement and the discrete versus gradual nature of disengagement is briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social support for goals can be beneficial for goal pursuit, but often has unintended negative consequences for the recipient. We propose that action crisis—the state in which an individual is considering disengaging from a goal they are currently pursuing—may result in people experiencing more ambivalent reactions to goal support. Drawing on both experimental and longitudinal methods, we show that action crisis increases negative consequences of goal support, but does not reduce positive consequences of goal support. In Study 1, we experimentally manipulated goal phase (action crisis, deliberative, or implemental) and had participants imagine support or neutral interactions. In Study 2, we measured experiences of action crisis and receipt of goal support in first-year pre-health students over the course of the academic year. Action crisis predicted more negative appraisals of support, but did not impact positive appraisals of support. Similarly, action crisis predicted more negative emotions and depressive symptoms among people who received goal support, but did not impact positive emotions. These results suggest that action crisis increases the extent to which support is received as a "mixed blessing". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present research, the Cyberball ostracism paradigm was adapted for experimental goal disengagement (GD) research: the goal to belong to a particular group is first induced in participants (via social interaction) and then blocked (via social exclusion) to trigger GD processes. In an online group setting, we experimentally tested the procedure's suitability to investigate goal disengagement processes. A pilot study demonstrated successful induction of the goal to belong. In the main study (N = 180), exclusion from the group reduced participants' perceived goal attainability (indicating goal blockage) and desirability (indicating goal disengagement) and their well-being. Regarding the regulatory functions of GD, results were mixed. During work on individual tasks, goal desirability decreased further and well-being was largely restored. However, GD changes were correlated only with changes in negative affect (and not other well-being measures). Findings suggest the procedure's suitability for studying GD experimentally and employing it to investigate other measures of GD processes and their functionality in more detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pursuing multiple goals with limited time often leads to goal conflicts that can be resolved by prioritizing some goal pursuits over others. This research examines proximal outcomes of two approaches to goal prioritization: Goal shelving (temporarily withdrawing from a goal) and goal disengagement (permanently withdrawing from a goal). We conducted an experiment (N = 214) to compare motivational and emotional consequences of resolving goal conflict through goal shelving and disengagement. Results suggest that goal shelving and disengagement are similarly effective at reducing different facets of experienced goal conflict, but people regret shelving goals less than disengaging from them. Together, these findings provide first evidence that goal shelving may allow people to "have their cake and eat it too:" to reap the benefits of goal prioritization while minimizing its costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For first-year university students developing and expressing themselves as learners is key for their future academic success. How students relate to the act of studying on a day-to-day basis represents a concrete here-and-now expression of their learner identity. First-year students need to gain the ability to self-regulate their goal pursuit by knowing what goals to engage with and pursue, but also recognize when disengagement from goals is appropriate. The present exploratory study attempts to connect action crises, motivation, micro-level learner identity, and goal disengagement in the context of academic learning. The main results indicated that after disengagement, students' controlled motivation for the following goal increased. The intensity of action crises predicted an increased commitment to studying and autonomous motivation for the following study goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current research addresses dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic's disruption to goal pursuit. Specifically, we examined the effects of disengaging from frozen goals (goals for which progress had been disrupted due to COVID-19). In May 2021, we asked participants (N = 226) what percentage of their goals were COVID-frozen goals and asked them to report their engagement in one such goal (vs. an active goal): the degree to which they think about the goal, ruminate about the goal, and are committed to the goal. Participants also reported on two facets of their recent well-being: psychological distress (stress, depressive symptoms, anxiety) and life satisfaction. As expected, percentage of COVID-frozen goals was positively associated with psychological distress (stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety). Moreover, frozen goal rumination (but not thought frequency or commitment) was negatively associated with life satisfaction and positively associated with psychological distress (stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety; even when controlling for active goal rumination). Furthermore, individual differences in the capacity to disengage and reengage in alternatives were negatively associated with frozen goal rumination, positively associated with life satisfaction, and negatively associated with psychological distress (stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety). These results highlight the adaptive function of disengagement in goal pursuit. We discuss implications for the goal disengagement literature and for coping with COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disengaging from unattainable goals and reengaging in alternative goals is essential for effective goal pursuit; yet, surprisingly little is known about associated personality factors. Here, we focused on individual differences in self-control (domain-general self-control, if–then planning) and boredom (boredom proneness, boredom avoidance and escape tendencies). Concerning goal adjustment in everyday life (Study 1; N = 323 crowdworkers), if–then planning was associated with worse disengagement and better reengagement. While boredom proneness was associated with poorer reengagement, boredom avoidance and escape tendencies were associated with better reengagement. When goal striving was thwarted during the COVID-19 pandemic (Study 2; N = 97 students), similar associations emerged along with links to anxiety and depression. However, disengagement was no longer associated with if–then planning but instead with better self-control and higher boredom proneness. These results show differential relationships of goal disengagement and reengagement with self-control and boredom, paving the way to a better understanding of who struggles or shines when effective goal adjustment is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, we applied a differential perspective to the study of action crises, i.e., being in an intra-psychic decisional conflict whether to pursue or abandon a goal once difficulties in its pursuit arise. In two studies, we investigated the role of individuals' levels of self-awareness when experiencing such action crises. Both among professional ballet dancers (daily diary, Study 1) and university undergraduates (preregistered experience sampling, Study 2), individuals with greater levels of (dispositional and situational) self-awareness showed an adaptive, that is, problem-solving oriented way of dealing with difficulties in the pursuit of their (training or study) goals. As a consequence, self-awareness contributed to less experience of action crisis during goal pursuit and, as a result, led to better goal performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In college, students often encounter situations in which they struggle to meet their academic goals in difficult courses. We integrate the Motivational Theory of Life-Span Development and Situated Expectancy-Value Theory to investigate how motivational beliefs and experiences in a difficult course predict the use of goal engagement oriented and goal adjustment oriented control strategies that can help students stay engaged in challenging courses. We used survey data collected in two academic quarters at a public university in the U.S. (N = 231). Students who perceived their midterm exam as more difficult than expected and students with higher course-specific subjective task values reported using more goal engagement oriented and goal adjustment oriented control strategies. Students with higher course-specific ability beliefs were less likely to use goal adjustment strategies. Results further showed that students planned to use control strategies depending on their experienced setbacks or success in exams. Findings provide important insights into how motivational orientations and course experiences relate to adaptive and goal-oriented behavior in college courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive conflict is typically experienced as negative, which has been argued to drive adaptive behavior following a conflict. We tried to change the negative value of conflict using evaluative conditioning, and measured changes in conflict adaptation in a subsequent Stroop task (N = 416 Prolific participants, English native speakers from different countries). We did not find evidence for decreased conflict adaptation following positive evaluative conditioning of conflict. However, we also did not find evidence for the change of conflict evaluation measured with the affect misattribution procedure in the follow-up experiment (N = 70). Interestingly, the exploratory follow-up analysis showed that people with low goal motivation (as measured through BAS Drive) did show the expected effect. A memory test for the evaluative conditioning pairings and the follow-up experiment suggest that, although the affective value of conflict was difficult to change, people with low goal motivation experienced less difficulty remembering the association between conflict stimuli and positive pictures. Our findings show additional evidence that conflicts are inherently negative, however, there is no clear support for, or against, the affective signaling hypothesis, that is the idea that conflict negativity drives control adaptations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic achievement is an important developmental goal during adolescence. Two independent factors involved in academic motivation are implicit motives and explicit goals. In this study, we examined whether high school students' (N = 213) implicit achievement motive, explicit achievement goals, and their interactions were associated with academic goal engagement and disengagement. Our findings showed that academic goal engagement and disengagement were associated with explicit achievement goals only, and not with the implicit achievement motive. However, interactions between the implicit achievement motive and grade aspiration (i.e., a specific explicit achievement goal) revealed that individuals with a low implicit achievement motive can still attain high goal engagement if they have a high grade aspiration. We also found that motive-goal congruence was associated with lower goal disengagement. Overall, these findings suggest that explicit achievement goals and specific academic goals play a dominant role in goal engagement behavior in the structured setting of high schools, and may allow youth to overcome the constraints of having a low implicit achievement motive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Goal adjustment capacities (i.e., goal disengagement and goal reengagement) are core self-regulatory resources theorized to buffer psychological well-being during intractable life circumstances. However, research has yet to examine whether these capacities protect well-being for individuals who encounter uncontrollable losses in their ability to pursue important life goals due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a nationally-representative sample of U.S. adults aged 18–80 (n = 292), the present longitudinal study examined the extent to which goal disengagement and reengagement predicted levels and change in psychological well-being for individuals who differed in perceived control over their goals early in the pandemic. Results from multilevel growth models showed that goal reengagement, but not goal disengagement, capacities predicted higher levels of well-being during the pandemic (lower perceived stress, depressive symptoms; higher life satisfaction, meaning in life). Moderation models showed the benefits of goal reengagement for well-being were pronounced among individuals who perceived pandemic-induced declines in control over their goals. Findings inform theories of motivation and self-regulation and point to the adaptive value of goal reengagement capacities during uncontrollable life circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that avoidance motivation is often related to negative outcomes, it is surprising that little research has investigated the economic factors that correlate with avoidance motivation. The current meta-analysis synthesized 40 studies (Ntotal = 771,690) on the relation between economic status and avoidance motivation. Economic status was operationalized with objective and subjective measures of economic status; avoidance motivation was operationalized with measures of energization (e.g., motives, behavioral systems) and direction (e.g., personal goals, social goals). The results revealed a small negative association between economic status and avoidance motivation (r = −.046, p <.001). This association was particularly strong in community samples (r = −.070, p <.001), for those high in prevention focus orientation (r = −.087, p <.05), and fear of failure (r = −.067, p <.001). In identifying this negative association in extant demographic data, this meta-analysis demonstrates the promise of examining economic status as a potential antecedent of avoidance motivation in future empirical work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]