Intraindividual and Relationship Processes in Everyday Self-Regulation

In this talk, I will present evidence from two experience sampling studies on how individuals regulate internal desire-goal conflicts (Study 1) and on how relationship factors (Study 2) affect goal pursuit in couples. In the first part, I will present a large-scale experience sampling study on everyday desire regulation integrating desire strength, desire-goal conflict, resistance, behavior enactment, and emotional consequences. I will show how self-regulatory success is moderated in multiple and theoretically informative ways by situational and social factors and personality. In the second part, I will present recent analyses on a study on individual and relationship goal pursuit in everyday life. Specifically, I will look at how close relationship factors such as state relationship satisfaction affects core parameters of concurrent goal pursuit such as levels of effort invested, goal progress, degree of being tempted by alternative courses of action, and boundary parameters such as stress level, ego depletion, and momentary happiness during goal pursuit.