The relational consequences of personal goal pursuits

Abstract

In daily life, individuals must balance the tasks necessary to fulfill goals spanning several domains of life. In the current studies, we examined what impact ongoing personal goal pursuits have on how individuals attend to and process information relevant to relational goals. In four experiments, we employed a manipulation that evokes the cognitive tuning and biased processing associated with the mindsets that arise naturally during goal striving (Gollwitzer, 1990), and examined the consequences of these mindsets for the relationship. Results indicated that when an individual focused on pursuing a personal goal, they failed to attend to their relational goals (Study 1), were unwilling to engage in pro-relationship behavior that incurred cost for the personal goal (Study 2), and processed their relational goal achievement in a one-sided (i.e., without nuance or variability; Study 3), evaluatively polarized (Study 4) fashion. Together, these findings provide a greater understanding of how pursuing a personal goal can undermine relationship maintenance