Goal Disengagment Flashcards
Why is goal disengagement sometimes necessary?
Not all goals are attainable and some goals may become unattainable with time. This could be from:
- unrealistic expectations
- changing circumstances
- conflicts with other priorities
- loss of importance over time
-high costs
- other constraints
What is an action crisis? When do they occur?
Period of indecision when an individual is torn between goal persistence and disengagement
- occurs when there has been signifigant investment in a goal but repeated setbacks make the goal less satisfying
What are the negative impacts of an action crisis?
increased stress, reduced well-being, dysregulation of physiological stress response, problematic health symptoms, worse performance
How can you prevent an action crisis?
Opting for autonomous motivation versus controlled motivation
What are the benefits to action crises?
They force us to reassess out goals and either commit more fully to a goal or disengage from a goal
What is an inaction crisis? How is it different from an action crisis?
Decisional conflict that occurs after deciding to disengage from a goal
- it is marked by doubt, regret and internal conflict and disrupts the disengagement process
What are some factors that make goal disengagement difficult?
Letting go of a goal can threaten self concept if the goal is tied closely to identity and self-worth
COncerns about social disapproval
Social investment
Public commitment
Misjudging the goal’s attainability (positive illusions, availability heuristic)
What is the sunken cost fallacy?
The tendency to continue investing in a goal soley because of past investments even when letting go would make sense
What is the planning fallacy?
Individuals underestimat ethe time, effort, and resources required to do something, like letting go
What factor predicted goal disengagement progress and action crisis in the Holding et al. (2022) study of goal disengagement among university students?
The only thing that mattered was the motivation behind disengagement, had to be autonomous! Less inaction crisises and made more progress
According to the study by Holding and colleagues (2017), what predicts higher vs. lower well-being in retired elite athletes?
The preceptions of controlled versus autonomous retirement impacted well-being. Autonomous linked to higher well-being
What is goal accomodation?
Shifting a goal to be more realistic and achieveable
Such as…
- lowering difficulty, shifting to a related goal, broadening defintion of success
How does goal disengagement impact health?
- University students who were better at disengaging from unattainable goals reported fewer health symptoms and improved sleep by the end of the semester
- In older adults, disengagment predicted lower incidence of the common cold over 6 years
- Adoloescent girls at risk for depression with better disengagement capacities had stable, low levels of CRP
