Goals and responses to failure: Knowing when to hold themand when to fold them

摘要

The ability to disengage from hopeless situa-tions is critical to goal attainment and effective self-regulation. Two experiments investigated the effects ofstriving to attain success (approach goals) versus striving toavoid failure (avoidance goals) on persistence. Participantscompleted anagrams designed so that less persistenceduring an initial set of unsolvable anagrams was beneficial.In Study I, participants reported how motivated they wereby approach and avoidance goals. In Study 2, participantswere primed to set approach or avoidance goals. Partici-pants with avoidance goals persisted longer during failure,with more intense and enduring emotional distress, thanthose with approach goals. Greater anger predictedspending more time on subsequent unsolvable anagramsand accounted for differences in persistence. The resultssuggest that people with approach goals are better able toidentify when they should disengage during failure, anddisengage more completely, than people with avoidancegoals.