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.