What goals do people have for who they want to be emotionally? Exploring long-term emotional goals.

Abstract

The goals that people have for their emotions are crucial for whether emotion regulation is pursued, as well as the regulation strategies people select. However, emotional goals may extend beyond the emotions people want to feel to include long-term goals for how people want to be emotionally in the future. In two studies, we qualitatively explored people's long-term emotional goals (i.e., desired emotional self; Study 1, n = 157, October 2023) and then quantitatively confirmed the association between well-being and current emotional attributes, desired emotional self, intention to work toward long-term goals, and belief in goal malleability (Study 2, n = 244, November 2023). Study 1 used qualitative coding to identify 13 long-term emotional goals, including hedonic goals (e.g., experience more pleasure, experience less negative affect) as well as goals to allow emotions, better understand emotions, have more emotional confidence, reduce emotion-driven behavior, increase regulation, increase cognitive control, and several goals related to interpersonal functioning (e.g., increase emotional connections, empathy, expressiveness, emotional boundaries). In Study 2, we confirmed the desirability of the long-term emotional goals, and we found that for many of the goals, greater discrepancies between desired and current emotional selves were associated with decreased well-being. In Study 2, we also explored self-reported attention to short-term versus long-term emotional goals. We found that greater emphasis on long-term emotional goals in emotional situations was associated with enhanced well-being. Exploratory analyses examined gender differences and the role of belief in goal malleability in intention to pursue long-term emotional change. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).