Investigating How Different Motives for Goal Pursuit Predicts Rumination About Those Goals Using a Diary Design

Abstract Background: Motivational theories suggest that goals that are more internalised are associated with increased progress and well-being and that when goals are less internalised less progress is made. Rumination can occur as a result of unresolved goals and the nature of the goals that people set may be a factor in the degree to which they ruminate. Rumination has been associated with ill-being when it in unconstructive. Objective: The purpose of this study was to test whether different motives for goal pursuit predict unique variance in rumination, after accounting for other possible variables (goal importance, goal expectancy, goal conflict and goal facilitation) that may explain that relationship. Further investigation aimed to identify whether rumination about goals is perceived to be constructive, whether intrinsic and identified motives predict higher levels of goal progress and whether introjected motives and goal conflict each contribute significant variance in perceived constructiveness of rumination. Methods: This is a correlational diary study investigating goal rumination, constructiveness of goal rumination and goal progress on a daily basis. Forty-eight participants took part in the study (83.3% female [n=48]; age, M = 18.93 years, range = 18-43, SD = 7.72). Participants completed initial self-report measures on personal goals (Emmons, 1986), goal motivation (Ryan & Connell, 1989), goal importance and expectancy (Emmons, 1986), goal conflict and facilitation using unipolar scales (Riediger & Freund, 2004). They were then asked to complete a ten-day diary phase relating to their 6 most important goals. This included reporting on rumination (Schultheiss, Jones, Davis, & Kley, 2008), constructiveness of rumination and goal progress (Moberly & Dickson, 2016). Results: Support was found at the within-person level for introjected motives for goal pursuit being associated with higher levels of goal rumination and participants reported higher levels of rumination about goals that conflicted with other goals, both predicted unique variance. Introjected motives for goal pursuits were associated with higher levels of perceived constructiveness of rumination at the within-person level but not at the between-person level. Intrinsic and identified motives were not found to be associated with high levels of goal progress. Conclusion: This study was able to advance methodologically on previous studies finding that people ruminate more about goals pursued for introjected motives. Findings suggest introjected motives are associated with rumination and that this is not because of correlations with other variables such as conflict. This is support for the organismic integration understanding of rumination