Unique associations between anxiety, depression and motives for approach and avoidance goal pursuit

Abstract

This study investigated the shared and distinct associations between depressive and anxious symptoms and motives for pursuing personal goals. One hundred and thirty-six undergraduates generated approach and avoidance goals and rated each on intrinsic, identified, introjected and external motives. Anxious and depressive symptoms showed significant unique associations with distinct motives. Specifically, depressive symptoms predicted significant unique variance in intrinsic motivation for approach goals (but not avoidance goals), whereas anxious symptoms predicted significant unique variance in introjected regulation for approach and avoidance goals. Some of these findings were moderated by gender. The findings broadly support the notion that depression is uniquely characterised by reduced enjoyment of approach goal pursuit whereas anxiety is uniquely characterised by pursuit of goals in order to avoid negative outcomes. We suggest that these findings are compatible with regulatory focus theory and suggest that motives for goal pursuit are important in understanding the relation between goals and specific mood disorder symptoms.

Keywords:

• Depressive symptoms
• Anxious symptoms
• Approach and avoidance goals
• Goal motives
• Promotion and prevention

Notes

¹ Descriptive statistics for these ratings confirmed that participants generated goals that were relatively high in importance (approach M = 5.8, SD = 0.9; avoidance M = 5.9, SD = 0.8). Goal importance was positively correlated with anxious (but not depressive) symptoms, r = .23, p = .007, but did not explain significant relationships between anxious symptoms and goal motives, so is not discussed further.