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Situational and Dispositional Goal Adjustment in the Context of Metastatic Cancer
Author(s) -
Thompson Elizabeth,
Stanton Annette L.,
Bower Julienne E.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/jopy.12025
Subject(s) - disengagement theory , psychology , situational ethics , context (archaeology) , stressor , goal orientation , developmental psychology , social psychology , clinical psychology , medicine , gerontology , paleontology , biology
Striving toward goals is associated with higher levels of subjective well‐being; however, many potential roadblocks to goal achievement exist. The current study extends the understanding of goal regulation processes in its examination of the relationships between dispositional and situational goal adjustment to a profound stressor and their associations with psychological adjustment. Women ( N = 103; M age = 57.2 years; 82% C aucasian) with metastatic breast cancer completed semistructured interviews and self‐report measures at study entry and 3 months later. Measures of dispositional and situational goal reengagement were significantly correlated, but dispositional and situational goal disengagement were unrelated. Greater dispositional and situational goal disengagement abilities were associated with fewer cancer‐related intrusive thoughts at T ime 1. Dispositional and situational reengagement were positively associated with life satisfaction and sense of purpose and negatively associated with depressive symptoms at T ime 1. However, greater initial situational goal disengagement predicted an increase in depressive symptoms over time. Both how an individual typically responds to goal blockage, as well as how an individual is currently responding to a specific blocked goal, appear related to psychological adjustment.