Jones Neil P, Papadakis Alison A, Orr Caroline A, Strauman Timothy J
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Loyola University Maryland.
J Soc Clin Psychol. 2013 May 1;32(5). doi: 10.1521/jscp.2013.32.5.482.
Failure to make progress toward personal goals can lead to negative affective states, such as depression and anxiety. Past research suggests that rumination in response to goal failure may prolong and intensify those acute emotional responses, but that process remains unclear. We examined ruminative thought processes following experimentally manipulated exposure to past failures to attain advancement (promotion) goals and safety (prevention) goals. We predicted that priming of past promotion and prevention goal failures would lead individuals to think repetitively about these failures and that negative affect would be evoked by their recognition of their failures. Further, we predicted that when people experience a sufficient magnitude of negative affect, ruminative thought would intensify and prolong the negative affect associated with that type of goal failure. Results yielded strong support for our predictions regarding promotion goal failure and modest support for those regarding prevention goal failure.
未能在个人目标上取得进展可能会导致消极情绪状态，如抑郁和焦虑。过去的研究表明，对目标失败的反复思考可能会延长和加剧这些急性情绪反应，但这一过程仍不清楚。我们通过实验操纵对过去未能实现进步（晋升）目标和安全（预防）目标的暴露，研究了反复思考的思维过程。我们预测，过去晋升和预防目标失败的启动会导致个体反复思考这些失败，并且他们对自身失败的认知会引发消极情绪。此外，我们预测，当人们经历足够强烈的消极情绪时，反复思考的思维会加剧并延长与该类型目标失败相关的消极情绪。结果有力地支持了我们关于晋升目标失败的预测，对预防目标失败的预测则提供了适度支持。
