Changes in Affect During the Pursuit of Performance Goals

The aim of this article is to examine how affect changes when people are pursuing performance goals. We do this using the circumplex model of affect, in which a person's current affective state is represented as a point on a plane defined by the latent dimensions of pleasure and activation. We test competing hypotheses regarding the direction of changes within this 2-dimensional space. The first set of hypotheses are derived from Carver and Scheier's (1998) theory of self-regulation, which predicts that changes in the prospects of goal attainment should produce changes along axes offset 45 degrees from the pleasure and activation dimensions. The second set of hypotheses are derived from the concept of core affect (Russell, 2003), which predicts that changes in the prospects of goal attainment should produce changes in pleasure, while changes in task demands should produce changes in activation. Two studies are reported in which participants provided ratings of momentary affect during goal pursuit. We developed a latent change model to estimate the direction and magnitude of changes in affect attributable to changes in the prospects of goal attainment and task demand. The results are more consistent with the hypotheses derived from the core affect account than with the hypotheses derived from the Carver and Scheier account. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, with a focus on prospects for the development of an integrative theory, which accounts for both the motivational and affective components of goal pursuit.