Objective: To study the role of goal failure and goal attainment in the processes related to personality integration or emergence of disintegration. We assumed that failure to attain significant goals may cause personality disintegration and incoherence, which is manifested in different ways at different levels of personality functioning in everyday situations, in the context of life goals and long-term existential context (Russian Science Foundation, project № 24-18-00308).

Background: Personality integrity is an individual difference capturing the extent of coordination, coherence and cohesion of a person’s psychological characteristics in order to ensure the balance of stability and malleability of the individual in the environment. Modern researchers postulate that the study of personality integrity can be fruitful only in a specific life context. There is ample scientific evidence that personality coherence is linked to personal goal attainment, however, the idea that goal disturbance significantly accounts for high levels of psychological distress has not received enough attention. 

Method: In three independent studies: short term everyday situations (N=62); mid-term life situations (N=54); and long-term situations (N=10), using mixed method quantitative and qualitative research, it was shown that a person’s psychological response to the goal failure manifested in different ways, depending on the context.

Results and Conclusion: It was found that in goal congruent situations personality is characterized by coherence, consistency and positive affect. However, when goal –affordance incongruity emerges, the feedback from the changed environmental conditions leads to a disruption of coherence. 

In short-term everyday situations incoherence manifests itself in negative affect and states that differ from traits. In the context of situations related to life goals and long-term existential context the goal failure may result in the change of identity and decreased subjective well-being. To overcome this discrepancy, a person resorts to various self-regulation strategies to restore the internal consistency and coherence.

TBA