Feeling proud today may lead people to coast tomorrow: Daily intraindividual associations between emotion and effort in academic goal striving.

Abstract

Research examining the associations between emotions and goal-directed behaviors has mainly relied on between-subjects designs even though much of the advice based on these findings focus on within-individual changes. The purpose of this study was to better understand intraindividual daily associations between emotions and effort in the context of college students' academic goal striving. In Study 1 (2,531 daily reports from 194 college students at a competitive university), daily positive emotions related to goal pursuit were associated with reduced time spent on the goal the next day (i.e., coasting). In contrast, daily negative emotions were associated with increased time spent on the goal the next day (i.e., pushing), particularly for students with high self-control. In Study 2 (338 daily reports from 80 college students in diverse universities), feeling pride was linked to coasting on the next day. Feeling shame was unrelated to changes in next-day effort among students with high self-control, but predicted decreased next-day effort among students with low self-control. Taken together, the findings suggest that goal pursuers may be less likely to expend effort after the day they feel certain positive emotions (e.g., pride) about their goal progress. Furthermore, the association between negative emotions and pushing may be heterogeneous depending on individual characteristics such as self-control. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).