Goal interruptions and task performance: The additional influence of goal orientations

Goals influence performance and people need to cope with frustrations that result from interruptions of goal pursuit. Being interrupted before completing a performance task may have negative consequences for emotions and thus subsequently lead to substitution behaviours in order to restore goal completion. Three experiments examined the conditions under which an interruption of goal pursuit influences emotions and subsequent performance. Furthermore, we expected that substitution behaviours may differ depending on whether people are in a performance- or learning-goal orientation. Results of Study 1 showed that the interruption of a first task reduced positive affect for participants with a performance-goal orientation and led them to increase their performance on the next task. As expected, substitution behaviour was not found with a learning-goal orientation. Study 2 replicated this finding on a business website with a different sample and performance task. Study 3 demonstrated that participants with a performance-goal orientation reported higher intentions for reactive aggression and perceived control if they could not continue with the same performance task after the interruption. These findings point out the consequences for emotions and coping strategies of people with performance-goal orientations and emphasize the importance of situational influences in educational and occupational settings.