Self-Regulatory Responses to Unattainable Goals: The Role of Goal Motives

Nikos Ntoumanis,Laura C Healy,Constantine Sedikides,Alison L Smith,Joan L Duda

doi:10.1080/15298868.2014.889033

Nikos Ntoumanis, Laura C Healy + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2014.889033

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Abstract

Does motivation for goal pursuit predict how individuals will respond when confronted with unattainable goals? Two studies examined the role of autonomous and controlled motives when pursuing an unattainable goal without (Study 1) or with (Study 2) the opportunity to reengage in alternative goal pursuit. Autonomous motives positively predicted the cognitive ease of reengagement with an alternative goal when the current goal was perceived as unattainable, especially when participants realized goal unattainability relatively early during goal striving. Autonomous motives, however, were negative predictors of cognitive ease of disengagement from an unattainable goal. When faced with failure, autonomously motivated individuals are better off realizing early the goal unattainability. Otherwise, they will find it difficult to disengage cognitively from the pursued goal (despite reengaging cognitively in an alternative goal), possibly due to interfering rumination.

Highlights

Hollywood movies often depict characters who determinedly and heroically confront challenges and live happily thereafter
We considered the role of goal motives as predictors of goal disengagement and alternative reengagement
We addressed a novel question: how does goal motivation predict the cognitive ease of disengagement and reengagement, when faced with an unattainable goal? We obtained a potentially interesting and conceptually plausible pattern of results with regard to autonomous goal motivation

Summary

Introduction

Hollywood movies often depict characters who determinedly and heroically confront challenges and live happily thereafter. The objective of the reported research is to examine (a) how individuals respond when confronted with unattainable goals and (b) the role of motivation for goal pursuit in predicting such responses. Sport is an ideal domain to study such issues, because it is achievement-driven: goal-setting and goal-regulation are endemic in sport settings, and perceptions of success are enhanced by evidence of triumph over mounting adversity (Weinberg, Burke, & Jackson, 1997) It is for these reasons that we focused on sport as the context of our investigation. The present research makes the case for the importance of examining the motivational predictors and behavioral consequences of strategic disengagement and reengagement in an alternative goal, when attainment of the original goal becomes highly unlikely. Daily and more long-term goals can become unattainable through injury, biological limitations, or other constraining factors (e.g., superior play by an opponent)

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