AUTHOR=Roch Ramona M. , Rösch Andreas G. , Schultheiss Oliver C. 

TITLE=Enhancing Congruence between Implicit Motives and Explicit Goal Commitments: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01540

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01540

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Objective:</bold> Theory and research suggest that the pursuit of personal goals that do not fit a person's affect-based implicit motives results in impaired emotional well-being, including increased symptoms of depression. The aim of this study was to evaluate an intervention designed to enhance motive-goal congruence and study its impact on well-being.</p><p><bold>Method:</bold> Seventy-four German students (mean age = 22.91, <italic>SD</italic> = 3.68; 64.9% female) without current psychopathology, randomly allocated to three groups: motivational feedback (FB; <italic>n</italic> = 25; participants learned about the fit between their implicit motives and explicit goals), FB + congruence-enhancement training (CET; <italic>n</italic> = 22; participants also engaged in exercises to increase the fit between their implicit motives and goals), and a no-intervention control group (<italic>n</italic> = 27), were administered measures of implicit motives, personal goal commitments, happiness, depressive symptoms, and life satisfaction 3 weeks before (T1) and 6 weeks after (T2) treatment.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> On two types of congruence measures derived from motive and goal assessments, treated participants showed increases in agentic (power and achievement) congruence, with improvements being most consistent in the FB+CET group. Treated participants also showed a trend-level depressive symptom reduction, but no changes on other well-being measures. Although increases in overall and agentic motivational congruence were associated with increases in affective well-being, treatment-based reduction of depressive symptoms was not mediated by treatment-based agentic congruence changes.</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold> These findings document that motivational congruence can be effectively enhanced, that changes in motivational congruence are associated with changes in affective well-being, and they suggest that individuals' implicit motives should be considered when personal goals are discussed in the therapeutic process.</p>