Goal motives and mental contrasting with implementation intentions facilitate strategic goal persistence and disengagement

Abstract

In three experiments, we examine the role of motives underlying goal pursuit and the metacognitive strategy of mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII) to predict the strategic use of self-regulation responses (persistence, disengagement, and reengagement) when faced with attainable, unattainable, or multiple goals. We trained half of the participants to use MCII and treated the rest as control. Experiment 1 (N = 261) underscored the role of autonomous motivation in nurturing adaptive cognitive appraisals and coping mechanisms, which facilitated persistence and progress with a difficult but attainable goal. In contrast, controlled motives undermined striving by predicting threat appraisals and giving up coping. MCII training ameliorated the negative impact of controlled motivation on goal striving by reducing threat appraisals. In Experiment 2 (N = 391), we manipulated the task to make the initial goal unattainable. Strategic goal striving (disengagement from the unattainable goal followed by reengagement with an alternative goal) was facilitated by MCII and autonomous goal motives, and culminated in increases in positive affect. In Experiment 3 (N = 432), we extended these findings to a multiple-goal setting. The research further develops the literatures on self-regulation and self-determination, while having implications for life domains where individuals pursue multiple and/or difficult goals. "Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever." -Lance Armstrong 1 | INTRODUCTION In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a king punished to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this action for eternity. This story illustrates one of the most evocative images of futile goal persistence. Perseverance in the pursuit of an important goal has often been glorified in ancient and modern cultures. In contrast, giving-up is frequently taken as an indication of lack of determination, as per Lance Armstrong's quote. Variations on the old adage "never give up" are commonplace in a variety of settings such as work, education, and sports. Armstrong's dubious professional behavior suggests that perhaps he is not the best person to take advice from when it comes to goal striving. Is persistence always the preferable option? Persistence and commitment are integral aspects of goal striving (Locke & Latham, 2015), with sustained effort over time often

Goal Motives, Approach/Avoidance Appraisals, Psychological Needs, and Well-Being: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…The results pertaining to the alternative models indicated that correlation coefficients were stronger when participants pursued goals in lab-based experiments (compared to life, education, sports, work, social, relationships, and religion goals), and in diary studies (compared to cross-sectional, prospective, and experimental). However, the significant differences observed in the moderation analyses are not interpretable (Higgins et al, 2022), as there was only one study that used lab experiment task goals (Riddell et al, 2022) and only two studies that incorporated a diary design (Milyavskaya & Inzlicht, 2013;Tadić et al, 2013). On the one hand, these findings suggest that meta-analytic effects potentially generalize well across the factors we included as covariates within the analysis.…”

“…In contrast, timely disengagement from an unattainable goal and reengagement with a viable alternative might prevent a decline in psychological well-being and support adaptive goal striving (Barlow et al, 2020;Wrosch et al, 2003;Wrosch & Scheier, 2020). Previous research has shown that autonomous goal motives are negatively related to goal disengagement when faced with unattainable goals , but positively related to goal reengagement (Riddell et al, 2022). Clearly, there is still much to be uncovered about how motives contribute to the reassessment of unattainable goals and reengagement with alternative pursuits (e.g., see Ntoumanis & Sedikides, 2018).…”

“…Various studies indicate that the pursuit of autonomous goals is positively associated with adaptive goalregulatory processes, such as goal effort (Koestner et al, 2012), goal commitment (Sheldon & Kasser, 1998), goal-related efficacy (Downes et al, 2017), and goal reengagement following failure . Adaptive goal-regulatory processes increase the likelihood of goal attainment because they encourage persistence and sustained engagement (Koestner et al, 2012;Riddell et al, 2022). Furthermore, sustaining effort towards self-concordant goals may occur automatically and be perceived as less strenuous than for non-concordant goals (Milyavskaya et al, 2021).…”

“…Initial evidence has supported this proposition. For instance, Riddell et al (2022) gave participants lab-based tasks that became increasingly difficult but were attainable. Participants with strong controlled motives who made use of MCII showed greater goal progress than those who had not received MCII training.…”

Motives and mental contrasting with implementation intentions predict progress and management of goals in parents.

“…Ntoumanis and Sedikides (2018) proposed that interactions between MCII and goal motives could influence self-regulatory responses to goals. For individuals with controlled motivation, MCII should encourage effort toward attainable goals and accommodative coping in the face of adversity, both of which would otherwise be diminished under controlled motivation (Riddell et al, 2022). Given that autonomous motivation already encourages commitment and persistence, autonomously motivated goals that are attainable should benefit less from MCII (Ntoumanis, Healy, Sedikides, Duda, et al, 2014).…”