Affect regulation and motive-incongruent goal orientations:: Relation to well-being

The aim of the present study was to test the hypotheses that 1) the personality disposition of action versus state orientation (i.e., a form of affect regulation) moderates the relationship between stressful life events and building of motive-congruent goals as well as between stress and well-being, and 2) motive-incongruent goal orientations influence well-being negatively. Managers (N = 120) were sampled. The main results were: First, no significant interaction effect of action orientation and life stress on well-being or motive-incongruent goal orientations was found. This was due to a strong action orientation and a low level of stress in the sample used (p < .001 when compared with norm). Because of restricted variance, the moderator hypotheses could not be supported or refuted. Second, motive-incongruent goal orientations correlated with well-being only when action orientation was checked. Thus, action orientation was found to be beneficial for well-being because it suppressed the negative effect of motive-incongruent goal orientations.