The psychological trade-offs of goal investment.
The primary goal of this research was to investigate the possibility that being very invested in goals has psychological trade-offs. Self-report methods were used in a concurrent study with college students (Study 1) and a longitudinal study with elementary school children (Study 2). The results of both studies provided support for the hypothesis that high goal investment has psychological trade-offs. Such investment was associated with positive emotions as well as with worrying, both concurrently and longitudinally. In addition, evidence for mediational mechanisms was provided: Perceptions of accomplishment accounted for the relation between goal investment and positive emotions; the link between goal investment and worrying was mediated by predictions that failure would be upsetting. The implications of these findings for distinguishing between depressive and anxiety symptoms are discussed.
Pomerantz
E M
EM
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 61820, USA. pomerntz@uicu.edu
Saxon
J L
JL
Oishi
S
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012649:Self Concept