How self-awareness is connected to less experience of action crises in personal goal pursuit

Abstract

In this research, we applied a differential perspective to the study of action crises, i.e., being in an intra-psychic decisional conflict whether to pursue or abandon a goal once difficulties in its pursuit arise. In two studies, we investigated the role of individuals’ levels of self-awareness when experiencing such action crises. Both among professional ballet dancers (daily diary, Study 1) and university undergraduates (preregistered experience sampling, Study 2), individuals with greater levels of (dispositional and situational) self-awareness showed an adaptive, that is, problem-solving oriented way of dealing with difficulties in the pursuit of their (training or study) goals. As a consequence, self-awareness contributed to less experience of action crisis during goal pursuit and, as a result, led to better goal performance.

Commentary: Engage or disengage? Interpretations from a resource conservation perspective

“…This perfectly fits the effort-related finding that self-awareness justifies high effort and thus prevents disengagement in face of high obstacles (e.g., Gendolla et al, 2008;Silvia et al, 2010). Moreover, the findings by Kreibich et al (2022) are compatible with research by Carver et al (1979). There, success expectancy effects on persistence depended on self-awareness: Selfaware participants with optimistic prospects persisted in the face of obstacles, while those with low expectancies of success disengaged.…”

“…Another important variable was identified by Kreibich et al (2022), who investigated the moderating role of self-awareness (Duval & Wicklund, 1972) in action crises-the experience of a conflict between staying engaged in an action or disengaging (Brandstätter et al, 2013). Self-awareness was adaptive-it fostered a problem-solving focus, reduced the experience of action crises, and led to increased academic performance in their second study.…”

“…There, success expectancy effects on persistence depended on self-awareness: Selfaware participants with optimistic prospects persisted in the face of obstacles, while those with low expectancies of success disengaged. Also in the research by Kreibich et al (2022) participants adapted their behavior to their expectations only when they were self-aware.…”

You have to let go sometimes: advances in understanding goal disengagement

“…Given a difficult task or unfixed task difficulty, self-aware participants were willing to invest more effort than those who were not self-aware. Interestingly, Kreibich et al, (2022) also found a direct positive relationship between self-awareness and action crisis when controlling for problem-solving. The authors discuss this finding with reference to the relationship between self-awareness and rumination (e.g., Silvia & Phillips 2011) and the link between rumination and action crisis ; see also Hubley & Scholar, 2022).…”

“…Given high self-awareness, greater self-control was linked to higher probabilities of persistence, whereas it was related to lower persistence when task progress was low. The findings of Kreibich et al, (2022) of an indirect negative effect of selfawareness on action crisis via problem-solving might refer to situations in which difficulties in goal pursuit could be solved with problem-oriented strategies. In contrast, the direct positive effect between self-awareness and action crisis might indicate situations where disengagement might be warranted.…”