The Interplay Between Reward-Relevant Life Events and Trait Reward Sensitivity in Neural Responses to Reward Cues

The reward-hypersensitivity model posits that trait reward hypersensitivity should elicit hyper/hypo-approach motivation following exposure to recent life events that activate (goal striving and goal attainment) or deactivate (goal failure) the reward system, respectively. To test these hypotheses, we had 87 young adults with high trait reward (HRew) sensitivity or moderate trait reward (MRew) sensitivity report frequency of life events via the Life Event Interview. Brain activation was assessed during the functional MRI monetary-incentive-delay task. Greater exposure to goal-striving events was associated with higher nucleus accumbens (NAc) reward anticipation among HRew participants and lower orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) reward anticipation among MRew participants. Greater exposure to goal-failure events was associated with higher NAc and OFC reward anticipation only among HRew participants. This study demonstrated different neural reward anticipation (but not outcome) following reward-relevant events for HRew individuals compared with MRew individuals. Trait reward sensitivity and reward-relevant life events may jointly modulate reward-related brain function, which has implications for understanding psychopathology.

Getting Trapped in a Dead End? Trait Self-Control and Boredom Are Linked to Goal Adjustment

Disengaging from unattainable goals and reengaging in alternative goals is essential for effective goal pursuit; yet, surprisingly little is known about associated personality factors. Here, we focused on individual differences in self-control (domain-general self-control, if-then planning) and boredom (boredom proneness, boredom avoidance and escape tendencies). Concerning goal adjustment in everyday life (Study 1; N = 323 crowdworkers), if-then planning was associated with worse disengagement and better reengagement. While boredom proneness was associated with poorer reengagement, boredom avoidance and escape tendencies were associated with better reengagement. When goal striving was thwarted during the COVID-19 pandemic (Study 2; N = 97 students), similar associations emerged along with links to anxiety and depression. However, disengagement was no longer associated with if-then planning but instead with better self-control and higher boredom proneness. These results show differential relationships of goal disengagement and reengagement with self-control and boredom, paving the way to a better understanding of who struggles or shines when effective goal adjustment is required.

Editorial - Volition in Sports

Of the many people who make New Year’s resolutions, only very few achieve them persistently (Statistic Brain, 2017). This so-called intention-behavior gap extends well beyond the realm of New Year’s resolutions (Sheeran & Webb, 2016) and exemplifies the necessity to not only focus on the processes of goal setting (i.e., motivation) but also on the factors related to goal striving (i.e., volition) (Achtziger & Gollwitzer, 2018; Lewin, 1926). While a large body of research has addressed the motivational processes that enable effective goal setting, the volitional processes that govern the translation of these goals into actual behavior had long been neglected (Gollwitzer, 2012). However, the crucial relevance of volition in sports is intuitively clear: Motivating oneself to sign up for a marathon is considerably easier than actually training for and completing a marathon. In turn, research on volition in sports and exercise has received increased attention since the early 1990s (e.g., Beckmann & Strang, 1991) and this has greatly advanced the field. This Special Issue highlights some of these advancements and explicates promising avenues for further advancing volition research in sports and exercise.

Religious and Spiritual Growth Goals: A Forgotten Outcome

Religious and spiritual (R/S) growth goals have been forgotten among self-improvement goals. We used social cognitive theory, useful in other domains of self-improvement, to study R/S goals. Data from 350 adults ( Mage = 40.5, SD = 14.6) were used to examine the relations among age, gender, social interactions, and commitment to R/S goals and physical activity goals. Results of the path analysis, X2 (DF = 2, N = 350) = 9.91, p < .01, showed similar contributions of positive social interactions to persistence on both goals. Differences between the two outcomes included a direct effect of age ( β = .18), dissatisfaction with negative social interactions ( β = .12), and satisfaction with positive social exchanges ( β = .15) on persistence on R/S goals. Only positive social exchanges ( β = .31) related to physical activity goals. The results are discussed in terms of the feasibility of applying goal-striving frameworks to the examination of R/S growth goals.

An Examination of the Conceptual Structure of Long-Term Goal Striving

Long-term goal striving has been recognized as an important stage in goal achievement. Compared with the development of measurements of goal setting, researchers tended to measure goal striving in different manners. This study examined the conceptual structure of goal striving and validated a new scale to operationalize the construct within academic learning contexts. A 25-item scale was validated with 522 Chinese university students to assess its factor structure, reliability, gender invariance, criterion-related validity, and incremental validity. Confirmatory factor analysis results supported both the first-order and second-order model. Overall, the scale showed good reliability, validity, and invariance across gender. We suggested that this new scale could be used as an effective measure to assess the level of goal striving among university students in a Chinese context.

The Role of Time Perspective in the General Tendency to Disengage and Reengage from Problematic Goal Striving

Both time and goals are ubiquitous in our everyday lives. The main aim of the present set of studies was to corroborate if time perspective, as conceptualized by Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory, is related to goal disengagement and reengagement during problematic goal striving. Over three studies, with more than 600 participants varying in age and cultural background, it was found that future time perspective is related to goal disengagement from a problematic goal striving. A pilot study with 103 university students showed that the future positive scale was negatively related to the general capacity to disengage. In a second study with 356 high-school students, it was shown that the future positive, past positive and present hedonistic scales were negatively correlated to goal disengagement, while the present fatalistic and future negative scales were positively correlated to goal disengagement. However, when accounting for the Big-five, only the future negative and (possibly) present hedonistic scales remained statistically significant predictors of the capacity to disengage from a goal. In the third study, the role of the future time perspective was replicated among 169 people suffering from chronic pain disease. It was shown that the future time perspective (in its general form) negatively predicted the general capacity to disengage. Moreover, focusing on more process-oriented aspects, this further predicted the action crisis during goal pursuit. This set of studies not only provides novel findings but also encourages further investigation of the time perspective in goal striving.