Did you know that just by giving someone else emotional support you can better your own outlook on life and will most likely receive more emotional support in return? Or, that the way you formulate your goals can change the way you react if your goal is not achieved?
While we all have goals of varying degrees at different times in our lives, one of the times that most people first realize their life goal may be out of reach is their freshman year of college. Who doesn’t know of a friend who went into freshman year wanting to be pre-med and then came out with an entirely different major? In their study on Interpersonal Goals and Change in Anxiety and Dysphoria in First Semester College Students, Crocker, Canevello, Breines and Flynn examined how goals can affect a first year student’s change in anxiety and depression. The researchers surveyed roommates of both sexes throughout their freshman year, monitoring their change in goals, their types of goals and their level of depression and anxiety. The study essentially found that the context in which you formulate your goals can affect the level of anxiety and depression you experience if that goal can no longer be achieved.
The study looked at the impact different types of goals can have on an individual’s level of anxiety and depression when these goals are not realized. It found that students who had an ecosystem perspective, meaning that they give equal priority to their own needs and to the needs of others, are more likely to have compassionate goals. People with compassionate goals want to be supportive of others and are less likely to experience depression and anxiety, and they are more likely to receive support from their peers in return. In the study, the students who reported having compassionate goals felt that they gave and received support from their roommates. We all know the impact of having a support system no matter what situation you are in, especially college when most students have moved away from their families and no longer have them as their primary support system.
In contrast, students who had an egosystem view of society were more likely to prioritize their own needs above, and at the expense of others. From an egosystem perspective other individual’s are only important if they can thwart or assist the individual in obtaining their goals. People with an egosystem view tend to have self-image goals; they want people to view them in a certain way and therefore strongly rely on the opinions of others to feel successful. In the study students who reported having self-image goals were more likely to have feelings of depression and anxiety.
What also may contribute to the well being of those with compassionate goals versus those with self-image goals is that it is easier to make progress towards compassionate goals because supporting others is not dependent upon their response. While in the case of self-image goals getting others to view you in a positive light is dependent upon the responses of others.
Overall the study found that students who reported having compassionate goals at the beginning of the semester were less likely to experience feelings of distress and anxiety, while students who reported having self-image goals were more likely to experience these feelings of distress.
This study shows that not only when you go to college but in any aspect of your life, it is important to create goals that are not only attainable but that allow you to support other’s in the process. People who give support to others are more likely to receive support in return, and therefore have a more positive outlook on life. Specifically in the college sector where it can be difficult to be supportive of classmates who are attempting to obtain the same goals as yourself, especially in a highly competitive school like my own. But in the end it actually is better to give than to receive.
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