Abstract
Development occurs through the process of setting and working toward goals, in which individuals are often working toward multiple goals that are likely to conflict with one another. Although motivation theories hold that goal conflict is a kind of potential stress that may damage individuals’ mental health and wellbeing, the empirical research results on the relationship between goal conflict and wellbeing are quite different. There may be unknown factors affecting the relationship between the two. Against this background, we conducted the exploration of the relationship between goal conflict and life satisfaction, mainly by analyzing the moderated mediating effect of mixed emotions and construal level. The results showed that the goal conflict did not directly affect life satisfaction (β = −0.01, p > 0.5) but indirectly influenced life satisfaction through mixed emotions (β = −0.17, p < 0.001). The construal level moderated the relationship between mixed emotions and life satisfaction (β = −0.08, p < 0.01), and the higher construal level will predict higher life satisfaction especially when mixed emotions were low (M − SD) or medium (M). Therefore, the hypothesis of moderated mediating effect is verified, and we can draw the following conclusions: (1) Goal conflict does not necessarily impair life satisfaction. (2) Goal conflict impairs life satisfaction conditional on the fact that it triggers mixed emotions. Since mixed emotions are often accompanied by feelings of ambivalence and discomfort, they reduce the individual’s evaluation of life satisfaction. (3) In the path of goal conflict reducing life satisfaction through mixed emotions, the higher construal level mitigates the adverse effects of mixed emotions to some extent.
Highlights
The development of mature individuals is achieved through the process of setting and working toward goals (Deci and Ryan, 2008; Hooker, 2015)
Descriptive Statistics and Correlational Analysis. Both mixed emotions and life satisfaction were significantly different by grade (F = 3.12, p < 0.05, and partial h2 = 0.01; F = 3.81, p = 0.01, and partial h2 = 0.01), and gender differences were found in both construal level and life satisfaction (t = 4.37, p < 0.001, and d = 0.30; t = 2.60, p < 0.01, and d = 0.18)
With gender and grade controlled, the descriptive statistics and correlation analysis results of all variables showed that life satisfaction was significantly negatively correlated with goal conflict and mixed emotions, and positively correlated with construal level
Summary
The development of mature individuals is achieved through the process of setting and working toward goals (Deci and Ryan, 2008; Hooker, 2015). As the core motivational structure affecting behavior, goals can enrich individuals psychologically by providing them with meaning for their activities and selves (West et al, 2013). Meaningful goals is associated with healthy psychological function and individual performance (Covington, 2000; Locke and Latham, 2002; Freund and Hennecke, 2015). The multi-goal pursuit and goal conflict among personal life are deemed to a part of daily life (Riediger and Freund, 2008; Unsworth et al, 2014). Students in a university usually strive to do well in their classes They socialize with others to make new friends. When the pursuit of one valuable goal hinders the pursuit of another or when the plans and behaviors of two or more goals are incompatible, goal conflict occurs (Austin and Vancouver, 1996; Boudreaux and Ozer, 2013)
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