Overcoming action crises in personal goals – Longitudinal evidence on a mediating mechanism between action orientation and well-being

• Personal goals define the structure of people’s life.
• Goal conflicts and goal disengagement processes have received only scarce attention.
• An action crisis is defined as an intra-psychic conflict between further goal pursuit and disengagement.
• We evaluated the effect of action orientation on the development of action crises over time.
• Action orientation enables individuals to overcome action crises.

An action crisis is defined as an intra-psychic conflict between further goal pursuit and disengagement from the goal and frequently signifies the beginning of disengagement processes. By analyzing dispositional predictors of the development of goal-related action crises over time, we applied a process-based approach to goal disengagement. In two longitudinal studies, we evaluated the effect of action (vs. state) orientation on the development of action crises. Using change-regression models, the hypothesis could be confirmed that action orientation enables individuals to overcome action crises in personal goals. Furthermore, in two cross-sectional studies, previously reported effects of action orientation on health and well-being could be replicated and shown to be partially mediated by a decreased overall prevalence of action crises.