Controllability is key: Goal pursuit during COVID‐19 and insights for theories of self‐regulation

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented public health emergency with wide-ranging psychological impacts. The resulting uncertainty surrounding employment, finance, and health could impact how individuals think about and pursue their personal goals. Specifically, we anticipated that pandemic-related goals would be perceived as less controllable, presenting a unique opportunity to test effects of controllability on self-regulation. We elicited spontaneous self-regulatory thought (SRT) data for personal goals related and unrelated to COVID-19, predicting that (A) the relative prevalence of different SRT modes (e.g., dwelling, indulging, mental contrasting) would differ between COVID-related and unrelated goals; and (B) the typical motivational benefit of mental contrasting (i.e., considering a desired outcome followed by present obstacles) would be attenuated for COVID-related goals. As anticipated, UK-resident adults (n = 288) judged COVID-related goals such as keeping one's family safe to be less controllable compared to unrelated goals, and tended to engage different SRT modes (e.g., higher incidence of dwelling vs. indulging). Mental contrasting occurred equally for both goal types, but when predicting goal commitment, its typical beneficial effect was absent for COVIDrelated goals. Results are consistent with the proposition that low subjective control influences both the cognitive processing of goals (i.e., promoting dwelling) and subsequent motivational outcomes. This poses a challenge to current theory, calling for greater emphasis on controllability as a contributing factor in self-regulation and goal pursuit. | INTRODUCTIONThe coronavirus (SARS-2-COVID-19) pandemic has been an unprecedented public health emergency in terms of its worldwide reach and impact (World Health Organization, 2021). In the United Kingdom, total cases have exceeded 20 million, with over 170,000 fatalities (see tracker by Dong et al., 2020) and repeated lockdowns enforced to limit transmission of the virus (Barber et al., 2021).

When the personal and the collective intersects: Memory, future thinking, and perceived agency during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“…Research on perceived control can, however, be relevant. To explore the controllability of COVID-related goals during the pandemic, Clayton McClure and Cole (2022) asked participants to write a personal goal/concern related to the COVID-19 pandemic. They also asked them to write about a personal goal/concern unrelated to the pandemic.…”

“…Moreover, participants rated the degree to which they feel that they have control over actualizing these goals. People felt that the goals related to the pandemic were uncontrollable, whereas goals unrelated to the pandemic were (Clayton McClure & Cole, 2022). This result indicates that people felt a decreased sense of control over personal events pertaining to the pandemic.…”

Playing the long game: Carrying out principled tests of psychological phenomena before developing formal theories

“…McClure and Cole (2022) asked UK participants to elaborate spontaneously about their active goals early in the COVID‐19 pandemic; reflecting on pandemic‐related goals was associated with a weaker sense of personal control and a stronger tendency to dwell on the present reality (rather than imagining a desired future).…”

Goal disruption during COVID‐19: Reimagining goals during a global pandemic

“…People had to postpone weddings, delay retirements, halt family planning, and close small businesses. During the pandemic, people reported having less control over their goals (Clayton McClure & Cole, 2022) and found the pursuit of their goals to be more difficult (Vowels et al., 2022). Moreover, holding more frozen goals during the pandemic (i.e., goals that people stay committed to despite making no progress toward) was related to greater stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms (Hubley & Scholer, 2022).…”