Behavioral Sciences, Ruppin Academic Center, Israel.
Psychol Health. 2009 Feb;24(2):175-86. doi: 10.1080/08870440701668665.
Research on adaptive human behaviour often emphasizes goal attainment, alongside optimism, self-efficacy, and persistence. Recently, it has been suggested that giving up personal goals when the latter are unattainable is equally important. The present study extends previous findings to a clinical population of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and examines whether goal disengagement and re-engagement are related to psychological well-being, illness representation, and disease characteristics (duration and stage). One hundred and one MS patients filled out questionnaires pertaining to goal disengagement (GD) and goal re-engagement (GR), anxiety, depression, purpose in life, illness intrusion, illness perception, and background variables. GD and GR had good reliability also in this population and were uncorrelated. Regression analyses yielded significant results only on depression. An interaction between goal disengagement and re-engagement on depression was uncovered, so that those who were high on disengagement and low on re-engagement were more affected by depression. Unexpectedly, the least depressed are those low on both disengagement and re-engagement. The difference between populations of healthy individuals as compared to patients is discussed. Limitation of the cross-sectional design is highlighted with respect to directionality between depression and change in goals.
适应人类行为的研究通常强调目标的实现，同时也强调乐观、自我效能和坚持。最近，人们认为当个人目标无法实现时，放弃这些目标同样重要。本研究将先前的发现扩展到多发性硬化症（MS）患者的临床人群中，探讨目标脱离和重新参与是否与心理健康、疾病认知和疾病特征（病程和阶段）有关。101 名 MS 患者填写了与目标脱离（GD）和目标重新参与（GR）、焦虑、抑郁、生活目标、疾病入侵、疾病认知和背景变量相关的问卷。GD 和 GR 在该人群中也具有良好的可靠性，且彼此不相关。回归分析仅在抑郁方面产生了显著结果。在抑郁方面发现了目标脱离和重新参与之间的交互作用，即那些脱离程度高而重新参与程度低的人受抑郁的影响更大。出乎意料的是，最不抑郁的人是那些脱离和重新参与程度都低的人。还讨论了与健康人群相比，患者人群的差异。强调了抑郁和目标变化之间的方向关系，指出了横断面设计的局限性。
