Concordia University. MICHAEL F. .... exercising because the person has to invest all available time and energy in the pursuit of such ..... quality of life in older adulthood (Master's thesis). ... Current Direction in Psychological Science, 5, 86â89.
24
When Meaning Is Threatened
The Importance of Goal Adjustment for Psychological and Physical Health CARSTEN WROSCH Concordia University
MICHAEL F. SCHEIER Carnegie Mellon University
GREGORY E. MILLER University of British Columbia
CHARLES S. CARVER University of Miami
This chapter discusses how people can adapt when goals are unattainable and thereby maintain their psychological well-being and physical health. On the basis of self-regulation theories (Carver & Scheier, 1981, 1998), we argue that the pursuit of meaningful goals provides purpose for living and is an essential contributor to a person’s subjective well-being and physical health. In circumstances when an important life goal has become unattainable, however, a person’s sense of meaning can be threatened. The person may experience high levels of psychological distress and the associated negative consequences on physical health. In such situations, we argue that a person needs to engage in adaptive self-regulation processes that allow disengagement from the unattainable goal and reengagement in other meaningful goals and activities. Those people who are better able to disengage from unattainable goals and engage in other new goals should be more likely to maintain a sense of purpose in life, and thereby prevent distress and physical health problems, than people who have more difficulty with goal disengagement and goal reengagement. Self-Regulation of Personal Goals Theories of self-regulation suggest that personality processes involved in the pursuit of personal goals play an important role in individuals’ quality 535
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536 • The Human Quest for Meaning of life (Carver & Scheier, 1981, 1998; Emmons, 1986; Heckhausen & Schulz, 1995; Heckhausen, Wrosch, & Schulz, 2010). From this perspective, goals are important because they are the building blocks that structure people’s lives and imbue life with purpose, both in the short run and on a long-term basis (Heckhausen, 1999; Ryff, 1989). In a very real sense, goals provide the impetus for action, give life its direction, and help to define who the person is. Further, to create adaptive outcomes, it is important that people adopt goals that are attainable and highly valued. In support of this assumption, a large body of research deriving from expectancy-value models of motivation (see Atkinson, 1964; Feather, 1982; Vroom, 1964) has demonstrated that people prefer pursuing goals that are both attainable and valued. Moreover, people who pursue personally meaningful goals experience greater psychological well-being (e.g., emotional well-being, low depression, or low perceived stress) and physical health, as compared with people who are engaged in less valued goal pursuits (Scheier et al., 2006). Thus, valued goals are important. They contribute to adaptive behaviors, fostering subjective well-being and physical health. How do goals promote action and contribute to a good quality of life? Self-regulation theories assume that these processes form feedback loops, with goals providing important reference values for the person’s behaviors (Carver & Scheier, 1981, 1998). A feedback loop consists of four elements—an input function, a reference value, a comparator, and an output function (see Figure 24.1; cf. G. A. Miller, Galanter, & Pribram, 1960). In such a feedback loop, the input represents a person’s perception, which is compared to a reference value (i.e., a goal) by means of the comparator. The output reflects a person’s (behavioral) response, which is tied to the result of the comparison process. In discrepancy-reducing or negative feedback loops, Goal, standard, reference value
Comparator
Input function
Output function
Effect on environment Disturbance
Figure 24.1 Schematic depiction of a feedback loop.
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if the comparison does not detect a discrepancy between the input and the goal, the output does not change. If the comparison yields a discrepancy, however, the output changes, typically with the aim to reduce the perceived discrepancy. This process is targeted at approaching desired goals. We note that there are also discrepancy-enlarging or positive feedback loops. This happens when a person tries to increase a discrepancy between the input and a goal (typically if a person’s goal is to avoid a negative outcome; see Elliot & Sheldon, 1997). In addition, feedback loops can be functionally organized in a hierarchical system (Powers, 1973), in which the output of a higher level feedback loop influences the reference value of a lower level feedback loop. However, positive loops and hierarchiality are not of primary importance for this chapter and are thus not discussed in more detail. The preceding discussion makes clear that meaningful goals play an important role in adaptive self-regulation. However, a problem may occur when people experience difficulty attaining a goal they have set, such as not finishing a project on time, being unable to fi x a problem, or not being able to find the time to go on a long-desired vacation. In such situations, when failure to make progress toward an important goal is encountered, people are likely to experience emotional distress. Thus, goal progress is functionally related to a person’s emotional experiences (Carver & Scheier, 1990, 1998). This relationship is important because distress can compromise a person’s physical health (Cohen, 1996). Stressful encounters trigger processes in the endocrine, immune, metabolic, and central nervous systems (e.g., cortisol disturbances of excessive inflammation) and thereby make people more vulnerable to the development of physical disease (Dickerson & Kemeny, 2004; Heim, Ehlert, & Hellhammer, 2000; Lupien, Leon, & De Santi, 1998; G. E. Miller, Chen, & AQ1 Zhou, 2007; G. E. Miller & Wrosch, 2007; Willerson & Ridker, 2004). Thus, people may need to adjust to the absence of goal progress to prevent the adverse downstream consequences for their psychological and physical health. Theories of self-regulation suggest that two categories of responses are involved in the management of failure in goal pursuits (Carver & Scheier, AQ2 1991, 1998; Kukla, 1972; Wright & Brehm, 1989). As depicted in Figure 24.2, the adaptive value of these two categories of responses should depend on a person’s opportunities to attain the threatened goal in the future (see also Heckhausen & Schulz, 1995; Wrosch, Dunne, Scheier, & Schulz, 2006; Wrosch & Heckhausen, 1999). One category of responses consists of continued engagement with one’s goal and continued investing of effort. This response occurs if the person’s expectations for goal attainment remain sufficiently positive. Continued effort can, in this case, promote positive outcomes if the opportunities for future goal attainment are favorable. In fact, in many situations people can overcome goal failure if they invest more effort, strengthen their psychological commitment toward, or find an alternative path to realizing the threatened
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538 • The Human Quest for Meaning Continued effort and goal commitment
Goal pursuit
Difficulty with goal attainment
Disengage and engage in other goals
Good
Opportunities for success?
Poor
Figure 24.2 Adaptive self-regulation of difficulty with goal attainment.
goal (e.g., Bandura, 1997; Heckhausen, 1999). Thus, continued goal engagement should be adaptive as long as the goal is still within reach. At times, however, it may not be possible to make further progress toward a desired goal because the opportunities for goal progress have become curtailed and the goal itself is unattainable. In such situations, a person may be more doubtful about future goal success and engage in a second category of self-regulation responses, aimed at goal disengagement and the pursuit of other meaningful goals (Carver & Scheier, 1990; Scheier & Carver, 2001; Wrosch, Scheier, Carver, & Schulz, 2003; Wrosch, Scheier, Miller, et al., 2003; AQ3 Wrosch, Miller, Scheier, & Brun de Pontet, 2007). These processes of adaptive goal adjustment keep a person engaged in the pursuit of meaningful and attainable goals. They are the focus of this chapter. Managing Unattainable Goals Unfortunately, having a goal that can no longer be attained is a common experience in life. For example, research among college students has shown that young adults experience almost five unattainable and valued goals over a time span of five years (Wrosch, Scheier, Miller, Schulz, & Carver, 2003). Of importance, this finding was replicated in a more heterogeneous sample of young and older adults from different socioeconomic backgrounds (Bauer, 2004). Thus, people confront on average one valued but unattainable goal each year. This suggests that unattainable goals are a common and therefore important psychological phenomenon. Goals may be unattainable for different reasons. For example, a person may select an unrealistic goal that is beyond the person’s capacities and for that
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reason will never be attained (e.g., running a world record without having the necessary athletic skills). In addition, goals that were realistic and attainable at some point in a person’s life may become unattainable over time. This may be caused by the occurrence of critical life events or age-related declines in the opportunities to attain a goal. An accident, unemployment, or growing older may render impossible the pursuit of a given goal—for example, staying in good health, buying a house, or having your own children. Finally, there are situations in which a person can no longer pursue a goal because the person needs to focus time and energy on the pursuit of more important and resource-intensive goals. For example, a person may no longer be able to pursue such valued leisure goals as seeing friends, going to the movies, or exercising because the person has to invest all available time and energy in the pursuit of such other goals as establishing a career or caring for a sick child that needs intensive care (Wrosch, Scheier, Carver, et al., 2003). Regardless of why a goal becomes unattainable, having an unattainable goal may create a crisis for a person’s sense of meaning because the desired outcome that is related to the person’s overall sense of self or identity is no longer attainable. As discussed earlier, a person who cannot make progress toward a desired goal is likely to experience declines in subjective well-being (Carver & Scheier, 1990, 1998). In turn, the negative emotional consequences resulting from the experience of unattainable goals may influence a person’s physical health (Wrosch, Miller, et al., 2007). Thus, having unattainable goals may not only compromise people’s subjective well-being but also their physical health. We have argued that people can avoid the negative psychological and physical consequences that result from the experience of unattainable goals if they engage in a form of adaptive self-regulation other than continued effort (Carver & Scheier, 1990; Wrosch et al., 2003, 2007). More specifically, people AQ4 can thrive in circumstances where valued goals have become unattainable if they are able to adjust their goals. This process should help maintain a sense of meaning in life and keeps a person engaged in the pursuit of valued activities. Thereby, it should further contribute to the person’s psychological and physical health. We have further suggested that goal adjustment involves two processes. First, a person needs to disengage from the unattainable goal. To disengage successfully, a person needs to withdraw effort and commitment from pursuing that goal (Wrosch, Scheier, Miller, et al., 2003). Goal disengagement should be adaptive because it prevents the person from experiencing the negative emotional consequences of repeated goal failure. In addition, successful goal disengagement should free resources that can be invested in the pursuit of other important goals (for beneficial effects of disengagement, see also Brandtstädter & Renner, 1990; Carver & Scheier, 1990, 1998; Heckhausen & Schulz, 1995; Klinger, 1975; Nesse, 2000).
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540 • The Human Quest for Meaning The second process is that a person who confronts an unattainable goal needs to reengage goal-directed efforts elsewhere. To reengage successfully, a person needs to identify, commit to, and start to pursue alternative goals (Wrosch, Scheier, Miller, et al., 2003). Goal reengagement should help a person maintain a sense of purpose in life and buffer the negative emotions associated with the inability to make progress toward a desired goal. In support of this argument, research has shown that people vary widely in their reactions to unattainable goals and that abandoning unattainable goals may help preserve a person’s subjective well-being. Wrosch and Heckhausen (1999), for example, studied groups of younger and older persons who had recently experienced a separation from their spouses. It was assumed that the older persons in the study would face sharply reduced opportunities for establishing a new intimate relationship, thereby making disengagement from the general domain of partnership-related goals adaptive for older persons. The results showed that older persons in the study had disengaged from partnership goals more fully than had younger persons, as reflected in the number of partnership goals they reported. In addition, longitudinal data showed that deactivation of partnership goals predicted improvement of emotional wellbeing in older participants (Wrosch & Heckhausen, 1999). Another prototypical example of such a situation in early midlife is the biological clock of childbearing. Heckhausen, Wrosch, and Fleeson (2001) studied women who had passed the deadline for having their own children. Among women whose biological clock had run out, those who failed to disengage from the goal of having their own children reported particularly high levels of depressive symptomatology. In a similar vein, Tunali and Power (1993) examined how parents cope with the stress of having handicapped children. The researchers argued that when people are in such an inescapable situation, where their basic needs are threatened, they may “redefine what constitutes fulfi llment of that need, and … develop alternative means of achieving it” (Tunali & Power, 1993, p. 950). Consistent with this line of reasoning, Tunali and Power (1993) found that mothers of autistic children tended to downgrade the importance of career success in defining their life satisfaction and upgrade the importance of being a good parent, in comparison to mothers who did not have an autistic child (cf. Carver & Scheier, 2000; Sprangers & Schwartz, 1999). Rated importance of being a successful parent was also strongly related to life satisfaction among the mothers of autistic children. Related research by the Leventhals and their colleagues (Duke, Leventhal, Brownlee, & Leventhal, 2002) also documents the beneficial effects of goal reengagement. They studied a group of older adults, some of whom had to abandon physical activities because of health-related problems. Persons who replaced lost activities with new activities had higher positive affect one year after the onset of their illness than did those individuals who did not replace the activities.
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There is also a body of research examining the roles played by goal disengagement and the pursuit of other new goals in the management of life regrets (for a review, see Wrosch et al., 2006). In this regard, it is important to bear in mind that it usually becomes more and more difficult to undo the negative consequences of regretted behaviors as people advance in age (e.g., having married the wrong person or having not become a lawyer; Wrosch, Bauer, & Scheier, 2005; Wrosch & Heckhausen, 2002). Intense regret has been shown to contribute to older adults’ biological dysregulation and physical health problems (Wrosch, Bauer, Miller, & Lupien, 2007). Thus, to adaptively regulate the experience of regret, older adults need to disengage from trying to undo the consequences of their regretted behaviors and take up new goals. In support of this argument, research has shown that older adults who failed to disengage from the effort to undo regretted behaviors and who had only a small number of goals to pursue in the future experienced particularly intense levels of regret and low levels of subjective well-being (e.g., depression or life satisfaction). In addition, the data were consistent with the idea that the adverse effects on compromised levels of subjective well-being mediated older adults’ physical health problems (Wrosch et al., 2005). Finally, recent experimental research has demonstrated that engaging older adults in processes that support goal disengagement (e.g., making self-protective attributions and social comparisons; Bauer, Wrosch, & Jobin, 2008; Wrosch & Heckhausen, AQ5 2002), as well as the pursuit of other meaningful goals, can buffer an adverse effect of intense regret on the older adults’ sleeping problems over time (Wrosch, Bauer, et al., 2007). These studies document that abandoning unattainable goals and engaging in new goals can be adaptive and protect individuals from experiencing the negative effects of goal failure on their subjective well-being. It is important to note, however, that the work discussed thus far has focused on very specific goals (e.g., having a child, undoing the consequences of a regretted behavior, or building a new intimate relationship). It is also possible that there may be broader individual differences in goal regulation tendencies that affect the manner in which a person reacts and adjusts to unattainable goals. Stated differently, people may also vary more generally in their ability to adjust to unattainable goals, and individual differences in these capacities may determine how a person adjusts to the experience of an unattainable goal. In this regard, we have argued that there may exist individual differences in people’s general goal adjustment capacities. Some people might be better able than others to disengage from unattainable goals and reengage in alternative goals, regardless of the specific nature of the goals in question. Moreover, we have proposed that such individual differences can predict a person’s quality of life (Wrosch, Scheier, Miller, et al., 2003; Wrosch, Miller, et al., 2007). People who are generally better able to abandon unattainable goals and to reengage in other meaningful activities should experience greater subjective
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542 • The Human Quest for Meaning well-being and better physical health than do people who have a more difficult time adjusting to their unattainable goals. To start examining these propositions empirically, we developed a selfreport instrument (Wrosch, Scheier, Miller, et al., 2003). This instrument contains 10 items that measure how people usually react if they can no longer pursue an important goal. Four items measure a person’s tendency to disengage from unattainable goals (e.g., “it’s easy for me to reduce my effort toward the goal”) and six items measure the tendency to reengage in other new goals (e.g., “I start working on other new goals”). The items on these scales were written to reflect the components of goal disengagement and goal reengagement identified earlier—that is, withdrawal of effort and commitment with respect to goal disengagement; and the identification of, commitment to, and pursuit of alternative goals with respect to goal reengagement. Both scales are internally reliable and predict relevant outcome variables in a number of studies, which are discussed in more detail in the next section (Miller & Wrosch, 2007; Wrosch, Miller, et al., 2007; Wrosch, Scheier, Miller, et al., 2003). In addition, the effects of these self-regulation tendencies have been shown to be statistically independent of other coping constructs (e.g., assimilation and accommodation; Brandtstädter & Renner, 1990) and the personality traits of the five-factor model (Goldberg, 1992). This finding lends empirical support to the idea that individual differences in goal disengagement and goal reengagement tendencies are meaningful and independent predictors of a person’s quality of life. Goal Adjustment Capacities and Subjective Well- Being A first set of empirical studies addressed the influence of general goal disengagement and goal reengagement capacities on indicators of subjective wellbeing. One study examined undergraduate students making the transition to college (Wrosch, Scheier, Miller, et al., 2003, Study 1). We reasoned that this transition may involve multiple potential losses, such as leaving friends and family behind at home, and an increased potential for failure experiences related to academic pursuits. Thus, students are likely to experience that some of their previously valued goals have become unattainable. In turn, students who are not able to adjust their goals may experience low levels of subjective well-being, whereas students who are better able to disengage and to engage in new goals may be protected from the potentially adverse emotional effects of this life transition. In support of the hypotheses, this study showed that the capacity to withdraw effort and commitment from unattainable goals was related to lower levels of perceived stress and intrusive thoughts and to high levels of self-mastery. In addition, students who were able to reengage in alternative goals reported lower levels of perceived stress and intrusive thoughts as well as higher levels of purpose in life and self-mastery. Further, there was an interaction between
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goal disengagement and goal reengagement in predicting indicators of subjective well-being. Among students who reported difficulty disengaging from unattainable goals, those individuals with a higher capacity to reengage reported greater self-mastery and less perceived stress than did those less able to reengage. This pattern suggests that goal reengagement can buffer the negative effects of inability to disengage on subjective well-being. Another study examined goal adjustment tendencies in a particularly stressful situation that could be expected to constrain important life goals (Wrosch, Scheier, Miller, et al., 2003, Study 3). Parents of children who had been diagnosed with cancer were compared with parents of physically healthy children. It was expected that the parents whose children had been diagnosed with cancer might have to redefine some of their goal priorities. In such a situation, goal disengagement and goal reengagement should be very important, given that the parents are forced to abandon certain goals they had adopted for themselves and their families in order to direct resources to this immediate challenge (e.g., giving up on work goals to spend more time with the sick children). In support of our assumptions, goal disengagement and goal reengagement tendencies were associated with fewer depressive symptoms, particularly among parents of children with cancer (Wrosch, Scheier, Miller, et al., 2003). In fact, among those parents of children with cancer who were better able to adjust to unattainable goals, depression scores were almost as low as the scores of parents of healthy children. These results are consistent with the idea that goal adjustment tendencies become particularly important in regulating well-being in the midst of stressors that are likely to interfere with previously established goal-directed activities. In another study, Bauer (2004) examined the association between unattainable goals, goal adjustment tendencies, and positive and negative affect in a sample of adults. The participants were asked to report all the goals that were important to them and that became unattainable during the past five years. Unattainable goals exerted a cumulative effect on subjective well-being: As the number of unattainable goals increased, individuals reported lower levels of well-being. Moreover, adaptive goal disengagement predicted significantly lower levels of negative affect but were unrelated to individual differences in positive affect. Conversely, adaptive goal reengagement tendencies predicted high levels of positive affect but were not associated with negative affect. Finally, the study found a significant interaction effect between the capacity to disengage and the frequency of unattainable goals on negative affect. More specifically, having a high number of unattainable goals related to higher levels of negative affect, but only among those individuals who experienced difficulty disengaging from unattainable goals (Bauer, 2004). Evidence for differential effects of goal disengagement and goal reengagement on a person’s mood was also found in a recent longitudinal study of adolescent girls (Wrosch & Miller, 2009). In this study, participants who
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544 • The Human Quest for Meaning reported an increase in their goal disengagement capacities over the first year of study experienced a decline in their depressive mood over the subsequent six months. This effect was not obtained for participants’ goal reengagement capacities, suggesting that goal disengagement contributes to relieving negative affect to a greater extent than does goal reengagement. In another longitudinal study of older adults, we also examined the influence of goal adjustment capacities on subjective well-being over time. This study predicted changes in depressive symptomatology over a time span of two years (Dunne, Wrosch, & Miller, 2009). The findings showed that the depression scores among older adults significantly increased over time. However, this association was dependent on participants’ goal disengagement capacities. Whereas older adults with poor goal disengagement capacities experienced a strong increase in depressive symptoms over time, depressive symptoms did not increase over time among older adults with adaptive levels of goal disengagement capacities. Goal reengagement capacities were statistically unrelated to changes in depressive symptoms. We also collected cross-sectional data in a sample of older adults that directly address the associations between goal adjustment tendencies and purpose. As a measure of purpose, we administered the Life Engagement Test (LET; Scheier et al., 2006). In this study, adaptive levels of both goal disengagement and goal reengagement tendencies were associated with higher levels of purpose. In this regard, we note that the data also suggest that the association between goal reengagement and purpose was stronger than the association between goal disengagement and purpose, a finding that we had already observed in an earlier study using Ryff ’s (1989) measure of purpose in life (Wrosch, Scheier, Miller, et al., 2003, Study 1). Moreover, the pattern of findings was consistent with the idea that the beneficial effects of goal adjustment tendencies on low levels of depressive symptoms and perceived stress were mediated by purpose in life (Wrosch & Scheier, 2007). We find these findings very provocative because they suggest that being able to adjust to unattainable goals can help maintain a person’s purpose in life and may thereby contribute to high levels of subjective well-being (Klinger, 1977). Further evidence for this idea has been reported by Aviram (2009). In a study of older adults, she showed that baseline levels of goal reengagement tendencies (but not goal disengagement tendencies) predicted high levels of purpose in life two years later. In addition, the effect of goal reengagement tendencies on purpose mediated subsequent levels of physical health in that high levels of purpose were associated with a less pronounced increase of difficulties with instrumental activities of daily living over time. Evidence that adaptive goal adjustment can provide purpose for living has also been reported in a cross-sectional study of 255 students from Scotland (O’Connor & Forgan, 2007). In that study, the authors related goal adjustment capacities to the frequency of suicidal thoughts. The findings showed that
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students who had difficulty finding and pursuing new goals when unattainable goals are encountered reported more suicidal thoughts than did students who had an easier time with goal reengagement. Goal disengagement tendencies were not related to the frequency of suicidal thoughts. In a somewhat different approach, we examined whether goal adjustment capacities may lead to adaptive behaviors that can be expected to foster positive outcomes and well-being within the social setting of a family business. In this study, the business owners were approaching normative retirement age and were confronted with the task of transmitting their business to the next generation (typically their children). This does not seem to be an easy task: Research suggests that family businesses often fail in the transmission processes because the incumbents are hesitant to give up control and retire (e.g., Ward, 1987). Our research supports this argument by documenting that the incumbents’ objective control over the business does not strongly decline when the successors gain more control over the business (Brun de Pontet, Wrosch, & Gagne, 2007). It is important to note, however, that not all family businesses fail in this process. We therefore reasoned that there may be individual differences in business owners’ goal adjustment capacities that may facilitate the process of intergeneration business transmission. Data from this longitudinal study of family business owners show that adaptive goal disengagement tendencies were associated with more favorable expectations about life after retirement (e.g., retirement as an opportunity to contribute in new ways to the community or to spend time with family and friends) and predicted an increase in retirement expectations over time (Brun de Pontet, Wrosch, & Gagne, 2008). In addition, adaptive goal disengagement was associated with concrete steps taken toward retirement and increased the steps taken toward retirement over time. Of interest is that the cross-sectional effects of goal disengagement were found only among businesses that were struggling. In this regard, research from the business arena has documented that entrepreneurs often have difficulty disengaging from business goals when they face a failing course of action, a phenomenon that has been described as entrapment (Brockner, 1992). The reported data suggest that in such circumstances, goal disengagement capacities may be become particularly important. They support behaviors that should contribute to the well-being and health of a business. In sum, research on goal adjustment and indicators of subjective well-being has demonstrated in cross-sectional, quasi-experimental, and longitudinal studies that adaptive levels of goal adjustment tendencies can be associated with high levels of subjective well-being. In addition, the pursuit of new goals may buffer an adverse effect of difficulty with goal disengagement on a person’s subjective well-being. Finally, the findings suggest a differential pattern, one in which goal disengagement tendencies often show a stronger effect on negative indicators of subjective well-being (e.g., low negative affect or low
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546 • The Human Quest for Meaning depression), whereas goal reengagement tendencies seem to be more closely related to positive indicators of subjective well-being (e.g., positive affect or purpose in life). This result may not be surprising, given that the main function of goal disengagement is to prevent the experience of emotional distress associated with a person’s inability to make progress toward attaining important life goals. The primary function of goal reengagement, by contrast, is to provide purpose for living, which should be more likely to lead to increases in positive aspects of a persons’ subjective well-being. We note, however, that the studies discussed also suggest some deviations from this pattern of differential effects on positive and negative indicators of subjective well-being. These deviations may be a result of secondary functions of goal adjustment tendencies, in which goal disengagement may free resources that facilitate the pursuit of new purposeful goals, and thus goal reengagement may reduce the distress associated with not being able to make further progress toward an important but unattainable goal (for a more comprehensive discussion, see Wrosch, Miller, et al., 2007). Goal Adjustment Capacities and Physical Health We have also examined whether goal adjustment tendencies can influence indicators of physical health. As discussed earlier, we reasoned that such an association may emerge because the emotional distress from failed goal adjustment may trigger patterns of biological dysregulation in the immune or endocrine systems, for example, that increase a person’s vulnerability to disease (for relations between distress, biological dysregulation, and physical health, see Dickerson & Kemeny, 2004; Heim et al., 2000; Kiecolt-Glaser, McGuire, Robles, & Glaser, 2002; McEwen, 1998; Miller, Chen, & Zhou, 2007; Segerstrom & Miller, 2004). We started to examine this hypothesis in a heterogeneous and crosssectional study of adults. We related participants’ goal disengagement and goal reengagement tendencies to the number of reported physical health problems (e.g., eczema, migraine headaches, constipation; Wrosch, Miller, et al., 2007, Study 1). In support of our hypotheses, participants who were better able to let go of unattainable goals reported fewer health problems than did those who had more difficulty disengaging from unattainable goals. Goal reengagement, by contrast, did not relate to physical health problems. The results from this study were also consistent with the assumption that subjective well-being can mediate the link between goal adjustment and physical health. Adaptive goal disengagement related to lower levels of depressive symptoms, and depressive symptoms predicted participants’ physical health problems. It is important to note that when the effect of goal disengagement on physical health was controlled for depressive symptomatology, goal disengagement no longer significantly predicted participants’ physical health problems.
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The associations between goal adjustment tendencies and health-relevant biological variables were further examined in another sample of adults (Wrosch, Miller, et al., 2007, Study 2). This study included an assessment of participants’ diurnal rhythms of cortisol secretion, a biological process that is widely thought to be a gateway through which distress increases vulnerability to clinical illness. Persons facing severe and long-term stressors often exhibit a flattened diurnal rhythm, characterized by low morning output and/ or the failure to reduce secretion as the day progresses (e.g., Heim et al., 2000; Miller, Cohen, & Ritchey, 2002). There is also evidence that flattened diurnal cortisol rhythms are prognostic of adverse physical health outcomes (Heim et al., 2000; Matthews, Schwartz, Cohen, & Seeman, 2006; Sephton, Sapolsky, Kraemer, & Spiegel, 2000; Smyth et al., 1997). On the basis of these findings, we expected that participants who are better able to let go of unattainable goals and reengage in alternative goals would show a more normative (i.e., steeper) slope in diurnal cortisol secretion than would those who have more difficulties adjusting to unattainable goals. The results showed that adaptive goal disengagement tendencies were associated with a steeper of slope of cortisol secretion over the day. As in the previously discussed study, goal reengagement did not relate to indicators of physical health. Of interest to us is that further analyses of the disengagement data found that differences in cortisol secretion as a function of goal disengagement occurred in the day and evening hours and not the morning hours (Wrosch, Miller, et al., 2007, Study 2). Our theoretical perspective holds that individual differences in goal adjustment tendencies should be particularly influential when people confront unattainable goals. Thus, it is not surprising that the influence of these tendencies is not large during the early morning hours, before people start their normal activities. As the day progresses, however, and people try to do what they set out to do, they may encounter situations in which goal attainment is difficult or impossible. Thus, unattainable goals are more likely emerge later in the day and differences in goal disengagement tendencies become important only then. We have also examined the influence of goal adjustment tendencies on health-relevant variables in a sample of adolescent girls (Miller & Wrosch, 2007). Adolescents are a particularly interesting group in which to study goal adjustment. They are actively engaged in forming identities (Markus & Nurius, 1986), which often entails pursuing goals that later prove to be unrealizable. To evaluate the health impact of goal adjustment, we examined changes in C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of systemic inflammation, over three measurement points spanning approximately one year of time. The immune system typically launches an inflammatory response when it detects an infection or injury, with the goal of eliminating pathogens and repairing tissue damage. The magnitude and duration of this process must, however, be carefully regulated because excessive inflammation may cause numerous
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548 • The Human Quest for Meaning medical conditions, among them long-term risk for diabetes or heart disease (Dandona, Aljada, Chaudhuri, Mohanty, & Garg, 2005; Willerson & Ridker, 2004). Given that psychological distress can contribute to excessive inflammation (Miller & Blackwell, 2006), we reasoned that goal adjustment capacities may be functionally associated with adaptive (i.e., lower) levels of C-reactive protein. This study found that goal disengagement tendencies were associated with longitudinal trajectories of systemic inflammation (Miller & Wrosch, 2007). Among participants with poor disengagement capacities, levels of C-reactive protein increased twice as fast as it did for those with average disengagement capacities. In addition, levels of C-reactive protein even declined slightly among participants who had an easier time disengaging from unattainable goals (Miller & Wrosch, 2007). Similar to the previously discussed studies, goal reengagement tendencies were not related to trajectories of systemic inflammation. These findings are important because they show that goal disengagement tendencies predict changes over time in a clinically important biomarker. Because they were obtained prospectively in a sample of healthy young women, these data also bolster our confidence that goal adjustment is shaping health-related processes, rather than vice versa. The hypothesis that goal adjustment can predict indicators of physical health was further tested in another longitudinal study, following a group of college students over the course of one semester (Wrosch, Miller, et al., 2007, Study 3). The study assessed goal adjustment tendencies at the beginning of the term and predicted self-reported physical health indicators (e.g., health symptoms, cold symptoms, sleep problems) at the end of the term. In addition, emotional well-being and life satisfaction were measured at the beginning and the end of the semester. Consistent with the previous studies, adaptive goal disengagement tendencies were associated with fewer health symptoms and better sleep efficiency at the end of the semester. There was no main effect of goal reengagement, although the findings did suggest evidence of a buffering effect of goal reengagement in that goal reengagement reduced the negative consequences of failure to disengage on participants’ cold symptoms. Finally, the study provided further support for the mediating role of subjective well-being. Adaptive goal disengagement tendencies related to fewer increases in emotional distress across the course of the semester, and the effects of goal disengagement on changes in distress statistically explained the associations between goal disengagement and indicators of physical health. Together, these studies demonstrate that individual differences in goal adjustment tendencies can be associated with physical health indicators. Failure in goal disengagement was shown to predict maladaptive levels of health-relevant biological processes (e.g., increased levels of cortisol secretion or systemic inflammations), which may increase a person’s vulnerability to
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When Meaning Is Threatened • 549
developing a clinical disease. In addition, difficulty with goal disengagement was associated with the occurrence of physical health problems (e.g., cold symptoms and physical health problems). Moreover, the findings suggest that the effects of failed goal disengagement on a person’s physical health problems can be mediated by the experience of emotional distress. Of importance, these studies did not show the same health effects for goal reengagement tendencies. That is, the main effect of goal reengagement was not related to health-relevant biological processes or physical health problems. We suggest that this may be a result of the previously discussed differential effect of goal adjustment tendencies on positive and negative indicators of subjective well-being. Presence of negative emotions may take a greater toll on a person’s physical health than absence of positive emotions (for effects of positive and negative events and emotions on physical health, see Pressman & Cohen, 2005; Taylor, 1991). Thus, it is not surprising that goal disengagement tendencies can be a particularly strong predictor of physical health because the capacity to let go of unattainable goals seems to have a stronger effect on preventing the experience of emotional distress. We note, however, that the findings also showed that goal reengagement tendencies have the potential to buffer an adverse effect of failed goal disengagement on some physical health problems. This possibility implies that beneficial health effects of goal reengagement tendencies may be more complex and need to be further examined in future research (for a more comprehensive discussion, see Wrosch, Miller, et al., 2007). Conclusions We have argued that the pursuit of valued goals provides purpose for living and influences behavioral responses that lead to psychological well-being and good physical health. However, valued goals may also compromise a person’s subjective well-being and physical health if the goals have become unattainable. In such situations, people need to engage in adaptive self-regulation to maintain their sense of meaning and avoid the negative consequences on their subjective well-being and physical health. In particular, processes aimed at goal disengagement and goal reengagement can prevent the adverse effects of unattainable goals on a person’s quality of life. In support of these arguments, research demonstrates that people who are better able to let go of unattainable goals tend to experience lower levels of emotional distress than do people who have more difficulty with goal disengagement. This process was further shown to mediate adaptive levels of biological functioning and physical health. Goal reengagement capacities were also shown to predict higher levels of subjective well-being. In general, goal reengagement seems not to be associated with physical health outcomes or important health indicators, although there is some minimal evidence that goal reengagement can buffer the health-damaging effects of the failure to
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550 • The Human Quest for Meaning disengage. The relationship between goal reengagement and physical health needs to be studied more fully in the future. Acknowledgments Preparation of this chapter was supported in part by grants and awards from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and by funds awarded to the Pittsburgh Mind-Body Center at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University (NIH HL076852 and HL076858). References Atkinson, J. W. (1964). An introduction to motivation. Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand. Aviram, T. (2009). Having goals or having purpose: Differential associations with age and quality of life in older adulthood (Master’s thesis). Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada. Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York, NY: Freeman. Bauer, I. (2004). Unattainable goals across adulthood and old age: Benefits of goal adjustment capacities on well-being (Master’s thesis). Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada. AQ6 Bauer, I., Wrosch, C., & Jobin, J. (2007). I’m better off than most other people: The role of social comparisons for coping with regret in young adulthood and old age. Psychology and Aging, 23, 800–811. Brandtstädter, J., & Renner, G. (1990). Tenacious goal pursuit and flexible goal adjustment: Explication and age-related analysis of assimilative and accommodative strategies of coping. Psychology and Aging, 5, 58–67. Brockner, J. (1992). The escalation of commitment to a failing course of action: Toward theoretical progress. Academy of Management Review, 17, 39–61. Brun de Pontet, S., Wrosch, C., & Gagne, M. (2007). An exploration of the generational differences in levels of control held among family businesses approaching succession. Family Business Review, 20, 337–354. Brun de Pontet, S., Wrosch, C., & Gagne, M. (2008). Goal disengagement and retirement among family business owners approaching retirement age. Unpublished manuscript, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada. Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (1981). Attention and self-regulation: A control-theory approach to human behavior. New York, NY: Springer Verlag. Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (1990). Origins and functions of positive and negative affect: A control-process view. Psychological Review, 97, 19–35. Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (1998). On the self regulation of behavior. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (2000). Scaling back goals and recalibration of the affect system are aspects of normal adaptive self-regulation: Understanding “Response Shift” phenomena. Social Science & Medicine, 50, 1715–1722. Cohen, S. (1996). Psychological stress, immunity, and upper respiratory infections. Current Direction in Psychological Science, 5, 86–89. Dandona, P., Aljada, A., Chaudhuri, A., Mohanty, P., & Garg, R. (2005). Metabolic syndrome: A comprehensive perspective based on interactions between obesity, diabetes, and inflammation. Circulation, 111, 1448–1454.
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