IMPACT OF PERSONAL GOALS ON SELF-REGULATION PROCESSES ELICITED BY DAILY NEGATIVE EVENTS

A diary study examined the impact of personal goals on appraisals, sel f-regulatory processes, and affect in response to daily negative event s. Participants, who were pretested on a goal inventory, completed a d iary in which they described and rated the most bothersome event twice each day for 2 weeks. Events were later coded for goal relevance and self-focused attention. Goal-related events were appraised as more ser ious and personally important, were associated with more negative mood s during the rating period, and elicited stronger self-regulatory resp onses (higher levels of self-focused attention, self-concept confusion , and rumination). The relation between goal relevance and mood was me diated by the self-regulatory variables. Nomothetic and idiographic re lations among the diary variables( ignoring goal relevance) also impli cated self-regulatory processes in responding to negative events.