Persistence and disengagement in failing goals: commentary on Boddez, Van Dessel, & De Houwer

Abstract

Boddez, Van Dessel, and De Houwer in their paper "Learned helplessness and its relevance for psychological suffering: A new perspective illustrated with attachment problems, burn-out, and fatigue complaints" advance the idea that failing to reach a goal of personal importance unleashes detrimental processes (i.e. learned helplessness) which spill over to other (similar) goals, in the long run resulting in passivity and psychological suffering. As the authors conceptualise learned helplessness in motivational terms (lack of reinforcement, dysregulation of goal-directed response) and attach great weight to the concept of goal failure, I will comment on three issues inherent in their line of argument from a motivational perspective, that is, from the perspective of persistence and disengagement in personal goals. More specifically, first, I will address the distinction between motivational and functional helplessness, then elaborate on goal-related failure and its consequences, and finally cover the issue of generalising failure experience due to the similarity of goals.