Action Crisis Research Articles

HERO in action (crisis): the role of psychological capital in experiencing an action crisis

In some situations, goal striving does not go without problems, leading to intrapsychic decisional conflict between giving up and persisting in problematic goal striving, known as an action crisis. However, only limited attention has been devoted to cultivable positive psychological resources that can shield individuals from an action crisis development. In the six studies, we examined the role of psychological capital (PsyCap), the higher-order construct based on similarities between hope, self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism and their unique characteristics in an action crisis experience. A pilot study (N = 295) established a link between variables, indicating that the more PsyCap participants had, the fewer action crises they experienced (and vice versa). In a preregistered follow-up study (N = 210), this finding was replicated. Furthermore, it was shown that the relationship was indirect, potentially mediated by the appraisals of goal attainment. In the third study (N = 411), some essential aspects were varied. The main findings were conceptually replicated, showing that PsyCap was associated with action crisis and predicted it above and beyond selected personality traits (negative emotionality and conscientiousness). In the fourth and fifth study (N = 272 and N = 268), the indirect role of goal-related negative emotions, controlled motivation, and effort was supported. Also, results were partially extended to goal progress. However, in a longitudinal study (N = 254) with the random intercept cross-lagged panel model, it was shown that although the average level of PsyCap across time points is negatively associated with the average level of action crisis (i.e., the between-person effect was supported), the cross-lagged within-subject effect of PsyCap on action crisis was not supported.

Financial Worries, Health Complaints, and Career Exploration: The Role of Action Crises

Financial worries, a distressing emotional state prompted by perceived threats to financial resources, are particularly prevalent among employees during economic downturns. This study investigates associations between financial worries and employees’ health and career behaviors, drawing on conservation of resources theory and the self-regulation literature. We propose that financial worries are not only positively related to health complaints, but also positively related to employees’ career exploration as a coping mechanism. In addition, we explore how financial worries are associated with action crises—internal conflicts about whether to leave one’s job—and how these crises may help explain the relationships between worries and employee outcomes. In a two-month time-lagged study with 312 employees, we observed a positive association between financial worries and health complaints, but no significant association with career exploration. Furthermore, the experience of an action crisis mediated the relation between financial worries and health complaints. Action crises were positively related to subsequent career exploration, and we established a significant indirect effect of financial worries on career exploration through action crises. This research contributes to a better understanding of the potential health-related and behavioral outcomes of financial worries by introducing action crisis as a cognitive–emotional mechanism. It also expands the limited research on antecedents and consequences of action crises and responds to calls for research on the predictors of career exploration as a career self-management behavior. We discuss the study’s implications for theory, research, and practice in light of the its limitations.

Owning the plan: The role of autonomous if-then planning for goal progress and action crisis

Autonomous motivation arising from a sense of truly valuing or enjoying one's pursuits (“wanting to do it”) is associated with goal progress and well-being. Likewise, setting an implementation intention in the form of an if-then plan can lead to improved goal outcomes. We introduce the concept of autonomous motivation for if-then plans and study its association with plan enactment, goal progress, and action crisis severity (goal conflict) in the context of a goal study (N = 379). Results suggest that autonomous goal motivation is positively related to autonomous if-then plan motivation. Moreover, analyses reveal a positive synergistic effect of autonomous if-then plan motivation and frequency of plan enactment on goal progress and action crises: Goal progress was boosted, and action crises were minimized with higher autonomous if-then plan motivation and greater frequency of plan enactment. Implications of these results for promoting goal striving are discussed.

When doubts take over: a longitudinal study on emerging disengagement in the PhD process

The purpose of the present investigation is to shed light on the intraindividual (i.e., within-person) process of distancing from the goal of obtaining a PhD. Based on the motivational theory of action crisis, we assume that a lack of both individual (here: self-directed career management) and external (here: social support) resources may fuel doubts concerning PhD completion. An action crisis, in turn, is proposed to undermine the subsequent motivation to engage in proactive behavior and seek out social support. We analyzed five waves of longitudinal self-report data (NT1 = 2011 PhD students, 61.7% men; half-year intervals) with the random-intercept cross-lagged panel model. This method allows to separate between-person from within-person effects. As expected, we found intraindividual increases in self-directed career management and perceived social support to reduce the development of an action crisis, and vice versa. Practical implications on how to avoid a loss spiral in the PhD process are discussed.

A backup plan for life? Alternative Life paths facilitate disengagement in an action crisis

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.

Decision‐making styles and goal striving

AbstractWhile previous research has demonstrated the role of decision‐making styles in attaining various real‐life outcomes, it has neglected to explore the underlying goal‐related processes in terms of goal dimensions (ways in which people appraise their goals during goal striving). The present study examines whether the most studied decision‐making styles are related to self‐reported effort, goal progress, and action crisis as well as other goal dimensions. We conducted 14 studies (mutual conceptual replications) with Ntotal = 2574 (70% females) which included the General Decision‐Making Styles questionnaire and various goal‐related scales. The results from the mini meta‐analysis showed that the rational and intuitive styles were positively related to the goal dimensions associated with successful goal pursuit (e.g., goal commitment, goal attainability, positive emotions, and goal progress), while the avoidant style was mainly related to various difficulties associated with goal striving (e.g., controlled motivation, negative emotions, and action crisis). The dependent and especially spontaneous styles were found to be very weakly associated with the selected goal dimensions. When the separate studies were analyzed in the regression analyses and more process‐oriented goal dimensions were accounted for, decision‐making styles were only minor predictors of self‐reported effort expenditure, goal progress and action crisis. The study highlights the need and usefulness of a more nuanced processual approach in the research of individual decision‐making differences in goal‐directed behavior.

Letting go or giving up? The influence of self-transcendence meaning of life on goal adjustment in high action crisis.

When individuals pursuing personal goals encounter setbacks and failures, they often fall into a conflict between disengaging from and striving toward the goal, defined as an action crisis. The present study investigated the influence and mechanism of self-transcendence meaning of life (STML) on goal disengagement and reengagement during a high versus a low action crisis. Study 1 included situations with different action crises. In Study 1, participants with high STML exhibited significantly higher goal disengagement and reengagement during high action crisis compared with low action crisis. Study 2 replicated the findings in Study 1 using participants' personal goals by questionnaires, and further exhibited that action crisis had negative effect on self-efficacy for participants with low STML, and this process subsequently reduced goal adjustment. Interestingly, no mediation effect of self-efficacy was found between action crisis and goal adjustment among participants with high STML. Findings from the present study suggest that releasing obsessions and adopting a dialectical relationship between success and failure may help individuals in high action-crisis situations, and self-efficacy may provide flexibility and autonomy.

Termination of nascent entrepreneurship: The central effects of action crisis in new venture creation

ABSTRACT Because current conceptualizations are insufficient with respect to explaining the termination subprocess of nascent entrepreneurship, little is known regarding the liminal space in which the decision between termination and persistence is made. To solve this problem, we apply the Theory of Action Phases, extend it using the notion of an action crisis, and propose that (i) the extent to which nascent entrepreneurs experience action crises informs the decision between persistence and termination and (ii) the odds of experiencing an action crisis and the temporal length of an action crisis phase depend largely on the goal-directed actions that have previously been taken. We test and find empirical support for our main hypotheses by reference to a harmonized dataset drawn from the panel study of entrepreneurial dynamics (PSED). These findings contribute to both theoretical and practical advancements in the field of nascent entrepreneurship and research on entrepreneurial action. With respect to research, the inclusion of the notion of action crisis allows us to conceptualize termination as a subprocess of nascent entrepreneurship and to explain decisions between termination and persistence in the context of new venture creation. By taking the time-saving and time-delaying effects of actions into consideration, our study also offers a more nuanced view of entrepreneurial action given that the length of an action crisis is informed by the actions of planning and implementation that have previously been taken. In practical terms, we address some lasting problems that arise in the context of entrepreneurship-focused public policies and provide practical advice for nascent entrepreneurs.

Don't give up? It's a little complicated: Action Crisis Moderates Consequences of goal support.

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”.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11031-022-09977-8.

24 Hours on the Run-Does Boredom Matter for Ultra-Endurance Athletes' Crises?

Sport and exercise can be boring. In the general population, thinking of sports as boring has been linked to exercising less. However, less is known about the role of boredom in people who participate in ultra-endurance competitions: Do these athletes also associate their sports with boredom, and does boredom pose a self-regulatory challenge that predicts if they encounter a crisis during an ultra-endurance competition? Here, we investigate these questions with a sample of N = 113 (n = 34 female) competitors of a 24 h hour running competition, aged M = 37.6 ± 13.8 years. In this study, n = 23 very extreme athletes competed as single starters or in a relay team of 2, and n = 84 less extreme athletes competed in relay teams of 4 or 6. Before the run, athletes completed self-report measures on sport-specific trait boredom, as well as the degree to which they expected boredom, pain, effort, and willpower to constitute self-regulatory challenges they would have to cope with. After the run, athletes reported the degree to which they actually had to deal with these self-regulatory challenges and if they had faced an action crisis during the competition. Analyses revealed that very extreme athletes displayed a significantly lower sport-specific trait boredom than less extreme athletes (p = 0.024, ). With respect to self-regulatory challenges, willpower, pain, and effort were expected and reported at a much higher rate than boredom. However, only boredom was as a significant predictor of experiencing a crisis during the competition (odds ratio = 12.5, p = 0.02). Our results show that boredom also matters for highly active athletes. The fact that the experience of boredom—and not more prototypical competition-induced challenges, such as pain or effort—were linked to having an action crisis highlights the relevance of incorporating boredom into the preparation for a race and to the performance management during competition.

How self-awareness is connected to less experience of action crises in personal goal pursuit

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.

Coping with the crisis: A mindfulness manipulation positively affects the emotional regulation of action crises

Action crises are the intrapsychic conflicts people face when hesitating between continuing and giving up on a goal after the accumulation of setbacks. They are detrimental to goal achievement and psychological health. While many predictors of action crises have been identified, including dispositional mindfulness, almost none have been investigated in terms of their helpfulness during an action crisis. This experimental laboratory study tested whether a 15-minute mindfulness meditation influenced the emotional regulation of imagined action crises. Participants (N = 121, 105 students, 44 men, M = 28.26 years) were randomly assigned to meditate with a body scan meditation recording or to read magazines after identifying their most important current personal goal. Those in the body scan condition reported more adaptive emotion regulation strategies after reading an action crisis scenario personalized with their goal than those in the control, magazine-reading, condition. This effect was found even when controlling for baseline action crisis and baseline autonomous and controlled motivation. No difference between the groups was found in terms of maladaptive emotion regulation. Results suggest that mindfulness training is a promising tool to help people cope with goal-related difficulties such as action crises.

Subjective and objective obstacles, and experiencing action crisis in goal pursuit

The Institute of Social Sciences of the CSPS of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Košice is an interdisciplinary workplace of social sciences and humanities with a primary research focus on the area of Central Europe in the field of social psychology, sociology and history.

Vnímanie akademického cieľa a kríza v procese jeho dosahovania

The aim of the research was to explore the correlations among the perceived characteristics of the academic goal (the grade that a student set himself to achieve) during the semester, as well as the correlations with the obtained grade. The university students (N = 31) participated on the research. Their perceptions of motivation, self-efficacy, commitment, desirability, attainability, effort, progress and action crisis were collected by short scales 1. in the goal setting, 2. after passing the credit test and 3. 24hours before the exam. After passing the exam, the grade and the fulfillment of the goal were also collected. Only the higher desirability after passing the partial goal (after the credit test) was associated with the worse grade. However, the students had set the worse grades than they finally obtained. Correlations among the goal characteristics confirmed the findings of other studies. The correlations among the previous and the upcoming goal characteristics have shown the importance of the initial “want to” motivation, desirability and attainability. The crisis was correlated with low attainability, low progress and with previous crisis and “have to” motivation.

The dynamics of doubt: Short-term fluctuations and predictors of doubts in personal goal pursuit.

An action crisis denotes an intrapsychic conflict in which a person feels torn between holding on to and letting go of a personal goal. It is characterized by the experience of goal-related doubts. To extend the existing understanding of action crises, we investigated the dynamics of doubts in daily life and addressed two questions: (1) To what extent do doubts with respect to a personal goal fluctuate in daily life? (2) In which situations do individuals primarily have doubts? In an experience sampling study (N = 254), we assessed doubts about a personal goal five times a day over 10 days. Our findings indicate that the level of doubt varies between individuals but also fluctuates within persons. Doubts increase in response to negative goal-related events and decrease in response to positive goal-related events. Individuals with higher (vs. lower) levels of action crisis have particularly high levels of doubt during goal-related (vs. -unrelated) activity. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on goal disengagement and point to the relevance of studying motivational parameters from a dynamic perspective.

The Role of Time Perspective in the General Tendency to Disengage and Reengage from Problematic Goal Striving

Abstract Both time and goals are ubiquitous in our everyday lives. The main aim of the present set of studies was to corroborate if time perspective, as conceptualized by Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory, is related to goal disengagement and reengagement during problematic goal striving. Over three studies, with more than 600 participants varying in age and cultural background, it was found that future time perspective is related to goal disengagement from a problematic goal striving. A pilot study with 103 university students showed that the future positive scale was negatively related to the general capacity to disengage. In a second study with 356 high-school students, it was shown that the future positive, past positive and present hedonistic scales were negatively correlated to goal disengagement, while the present fatalistic and future negative scales were positively correlated to goal disengagement. However, when accounting for the Big-five, only the future negative and (possibly) present hedonistic scales remained statistically significant predictors of the capacity to disengage from a goal. In the third study, the role of the future time perspective was replicated among 169 people suffering from chronic pain disease. It was shown that the future time perspective (in its general form) negatively predicted the general capacity to disengage. Moreover, focusing on more process-oriented aspects, this further predicted the action crisis during goal pursuit. This set of studies not only provides novel findings but also encourages further investigation of the time perspective in goal striving.

When Goal Pursuit Gets Hairy: A Longitudinal Goal Study Examining the Role of Controlled Motivation and Action Crises in Predicting Changes in Hair Cortisol, Perceived Stress, Health, and Depression Symptoms.

The action crisis is a critical phase in goal striving during which the goal pursuer feels conflicted about persevering with the goal or initiating disengagement. Recent research suggests that goal motivation, specifically controlled motivation (i.e., pursuing a goal out of obligation and pressure), increases the likelihood of experiencing action crises. In turn, action crises in goal pursuit have been linked to increases in depression symptoms and cortisol. In the present 8-month longitudinal study, we tracked university students’ personal goals to examine whether the pursuit of controlled goals and the experience of action crises was associated with increasing levels of hair cortisol, perceived stress, poor health, and depression symptoms (N = 156). Structural equation modeling suggested that experiencing action crises in goal pursuit was associated with increases in markers of stress, depression, and ill-being. This effect was partially explained by controlled goal motivation. The clinical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Action crises in personal goals compromise recovery during physical therapy.

When obstacles or setbacks obstruct a personal goal, the costs of persistence increase and may result in a conflict between further pursuit and disengagement, termed action crisis. Previous research indicates that action crises entail a higher prevalence of somatic symptoms due to stress and negative affect (Brandstatter & Herrmann, 2017). The present study uses a clinical sample to evaluate specifically action crises’ impact on recovery from musculoskeletal disorders in patients receiving physical therapy. Sixty participants reported action crisis with respect to two personal goals as well as health-related quality of life and pain at the beginning of physical therapy and after a maximum of 18 sessions. As hypothesized, pain and health-related quality of life improved less among individuals who experienced action crises at T1. The findings suggest that action crises in personal goals can compromise recovery from musculoskeletal disorders during physical therapy. Potential affective, physiological, and motivational mechanisms linking action crises and physical well-being are discussed.

The NCAA Commission on College Basketball: Institution Maintenance and Reputation Management in Practice

In 2017, the NCAA convened the Commission on College Basketball after an FBI investigation found that apparel companies were bribing high school basketball players to attend certain universities. This event became a crisis eruption point for an organization confronted with a history of scandals and the concern that “big money” in collegiate athletics contributes to an environment conducive to cheating. The Commission was designed to make recommendations to help ensure the integrity and strengthen the institutional accountability within college basketball. This crisis featured two contextual factors: the institution of college basketball with its many stakeholder groups was threatened, and fans who receive emotional satisfaction through sports possibly willing to overlook a sports organization’s transgressions to continue experiencing the games that they enjoy. The NCAA forming the Commission on College Basketball and implementing new policies can be viewed as a corrective action crisis response with the aim of maintaining the institution of college basketball, and in doing so serves as an exercise in its own reputation management.

Downgrading goal-relevant resources in action crises: The moderating role of goal reengagement capacities and effects on well-being

If the pursuit of a goal falls short of expectations, doubts can arise as to whether a followed path should be changed. This decisional conflict is defined as action crisis. In two longitudinal studies of university students, an action crisis resulted in a downgrading of goal-relevant resources among participants with limited goal reengagement capacities, who struggle to identify and commit to new projects when unattainable goals are encountered. Theoretically, this devaluation of goal-relevant resources is explained by a shift from an optimistic towards an unbiased cognitive orientation in action crises. However, an action crisis did not result in a downgrading of resources if unattainable goals, in the past, could generally be replaced with viable alternatives (high goal reengagement capacities). Downgrading goal-relevant resources, furthermore, was identified as a mediating mechanism partly underlying reported effects of action crises on health and well-being. The present article provides new insights into self-regulatory processes during goal striving.