Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

Research suggests that the experience of striving towards blocked goals negatively impacts subjective well-being, through decreased self-esteem and increased rumination and intrusive thoughts (Klinger, 1977; Mathews & Wells, 2004). Self-regulation theories propose that individuals may avoid these negative outcomes by engaging in goal adjustment processes comprised of goal disengagement (i.e., withdrawal of effort and resources from a desired goal) and goal reengagement (i.e., psychological and motivation commitment towards a new goal; Wrosch, Scheier, Carver & Schulz, 2003). While self-regulation theorists generally agree that optimism is likely to be linked with goal adjustment processes, there is significant disagreement as to the nature of this association; some research suggests that optimism is likely to facilitate goal adjustment processes (Aspinwall & Richter, 1999; Hanssen et al., 2015), while other research proposes that optimism hinders these same behaviors (Gibson & Sanbonmatsu, 2004). The current project aimed to clarify these associations, by creating a structural equation model detailing paths between optimism, goal adjustment and subjective well-being constructs. It further aimed to identify ways in which dispositional optimism and optimistic explanatory style constructs overlapped or diverged in their relationships with goal adjustment and subjective well-being variables. Specifically, it was hypothesized that a latent optimism construct would negatively predict goal disengagement and positively predict goal reengagement. It was further predicted that goal adjustment would mediate relationships between a latent optimism construct and subjective well-being and that perceptions of control and goal reengagement capacity would moderate relationships between optimism and goal disengagement. Lastly, it was hypothesized that goal disengagement would moderate relationships between goal reengagement and subjective well-being. A sample of 436 undergraduate participants recruited from a Midwestern University completed a series of online questionnaires evaluating dispositional optimism, optimistic explanatory style, goal adjustment, cognitive subjective well-being, affective subjective well-being and physical subjective well-being. It was found that a measurement model evaluating dispositional optimism and optimistic explanatory style independently proved a better fit to the data than one in which these constructs contributed to a latent optimism variable as hypothesized. In the final structural model, optimistic explanatory style negatively predicted goal disengagement as predicted, such that goal disengagement fully mediated a relationship between attributional style and positive subjective well-being. In this same model, dispositional optimism positively predicted goal reengagement, such that goal reengagement partially mediated relationships between trait optimism and positive and negative subjective well-being. Unexpectedly, optimistic explanatory style was unrelated to goal reengagement or negative subjective well-being and dispositional optimism was unrelated to goal disengagement. Hypotheses suggesting that goal disengagement would moderate a relationship between goal reengagement and subjective well-being were partially supported, suggesting that goal reengagement becomes increasingly important to well-being in vulnerable populations who experience either excessive or impoverished disengagement. All other moderation hypotheses were not supported. Together these results frame dispositional optimism and optimistic explanatory style as overlapping but distinct constructs with unique relationships to goal adjustment and subjective well-being. Goal reengagement was identified as one potential method by which optimists experience increased subjective well-being, as hypothesized. Contrary to prior research, goal disengagement negatively predicted positive subjective well-being, suggesting that disengagement from goals has variable impact on well-being.

Download

Share

COinS