Improving goal striving and resilience in older adults through a personalized metacognitive self-help intervention: a protocol paper

BACKGROUND

Successful aging is often linked to individual's ability to demonstrate resilience: the maintenance or quick recovery of functional ability, well-being, and quality of life despite losses or adversity. A crucial element of resilience is behavioral adaptability, which refers to the adaptive changes in behavior in accordance with internal or external demands. Age-related degradation of executive functions can, however, lead to volition problems that compromise flexible adjustment of behavior. In contrast, the reliance on habitual control has been shown to remain relatively intact in later life and may therefore provide an expedient route to goal attainment among older adults. In the current study, we examine whether a metacognitive self-help intervention (MCSI), aimed at facilitating goal striving through the gradual automatization of efficient routines, could effectively support behavioral adaptability in favor of resilience among older adults with and without (sub-clinical) mental health problems.

METHODS

This metacognitive strategy draws on principles from health and social psychology, as well as clinical psychology, and incorporates elements of established behavioral change and activation techniques from both fields. Additionally, the intervention will be tailored to personal needs and challenges, recognizing the significant diversity that exist among aging individuals.

DISCUSSION

Despite some challenges that may limit the generalizability of the results, our MCSI program offers a promising means to empower older adults with tools and strategies to take control of their goals and challenges. This can promote autonomy and independent functioning, and thereby contribute to adaptability and resilience in later life.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Pre-registered, partly retrospectively. This study was pre-registered before the major part of the data was collected, created, and realized. Only a small part of the data of some participants (comprising the baseline and other pre-intervention measures), and the full dataset of the first few participants, was collected prior to registration, but it was not accessed yet. See: https://osf.io/5b9xz.

All Goals are Equal: No Interactions Between Depressive Symptoms and Goal Characteristics on Goal Progress

Introduction. Depression is related to poor achievement and impacts people's capacity to attain their goals (American Psychiatric Association, 2013; Johnson et al., 2010; Street, 2002). But do depressive symptoms impact goal pursuit differently depending on the kinds of goals that people pursue? Methods. Across three studies (total N = 666 undergraduate students, total goals = 2,546), we examine the role of up to 16 goal characteristics as moderators in the relationship between depressive symptoms and goal progress. Depressive symptoms and goal characteristics were assessed at baseline, and participants reported on goal progress at a follow-up 1 month (Study 1), 4 months (Study 2), or 8 months (Study 3) later. Results. The effect of depressive symptoms on goal progress was nonsignificant in two out of three studies (including one with low power), but an internal meta-analysis presented a small negative effect. Most goal characteristics did not moderate the relationship between depressive symptoms and goal progress, with Bayes factors suggesting substantial to very strong evidence in favor of the null hypotheses. Discussion. The kinds of goals students pursue may not matter in the presence of depressive symptoms. On one hand, this may provide a bleak outlook in highlighting that depressive symptoms impact all goals regardless of how well they are selected. On the other hand, the effects were small, which may offer a hopeful outlook for undergraduate students experiencing depressive symptoms, who may still be able to progress on their personal goals.

From anxiety to action-Experience of threat, emotional states, reactance, and action preferences in the early days of COVID-19 self-isolation in Germany and Austria

The COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted everyday life virtually everywhere in the world, enabling real-life research on threat-and-defense processes. In a survey conducted within the first days of implementing social distancing measures in Austria and Germany, we aimed to explore the pathways from threat perception to preferences of defense strategies. We found that anxiety, approach-related affect, and reactance were specifically elicited by motivational (vs. epistemic) discrepancies. In a second step, we tested the mediating effect of anxiety, approach-related affect, and reactance on preferences regarding personal-social and concrete-abstract defenses. Experiencing anxiety was related to interest in security-related actions, and approach-affect was related to both personal projects and social media use. Participants experiencing reactance were more inclined to pursue personal projects (personal-abstract) and less interested in security-related (personal-concrete) actions. They also showed marginally lower system justification (social-abstract). Additionally, we examined the relationship of loneliness with defense strategies, showing that loneliness was associated with lower system justification and security behaviors. The results suggest that individuals deal with threat in their own ways, mostly depending on affective state and motivational orientation: Anxiety was related to security, approach-state to action (both social and personal), reactance to derogation of the system and disregard for security, while loneliness was associated with inaction.

Hope attenuates the negative impact of general psychological distress on goal progress

OBJECTIVE

Symptoms of general psychological distress disrupt goal pursuit; however, not everyone is equally impacted by distress when pursuing goals. We tested whether hope, self-efficacy, and/or grit buffered the impact of symptoms of general psychological distress on longitudinal goal progress.

METHOD

Undergraduate students reported on these constructs and, 2 months later, their progress toward five personal goals (N = 117).

RESULTS

Although greater levels of baseline psychological distress predicted less goal progress, the impact of psychological distress on goal progress was moderated by hope, β = .20, SE = 0.07, p < .01. More specifically, at higher hope, participants reported similar goal progress regardless of baseline distress symptoms, while at lower hope, baseline distress was negatively associated with goal progress.

CONCLUSION

Hope may function as a buffer against the association between general psychological distress and impaired goal progress.