Anne Holding

New York University | NYU · Department of Psychology

This research explored the role of passion when facing the COVID-19 pandemic. In three studies, we investigated the role of engaging in a pre-existing passionate activity (Studies1 and 2), developing a new passionate activity (Studies 2 and 3), and letting go from an unavailable passionate activity (Study 3) during the pandemic. Emotions experience...

A longitudinal study involving 455 Black young adults living in Canada investigated whether gender and autonomous motivation influenced the relationship between perceived racism threat and Black Lives Matter (BLM) activism, and whether BLM activism influenced life satisfaction over time. A moderated mediation analysis using PROCESS Macro Model 58 t...

Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is a broad theory of psychological growth and wellness that has revolutionized how we think about human motivation and the driving forces behind personality development. SDT focuses on people’s basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness and how social environments that support these needs fos...

Quebec’s English-speaking Black community finds itself at the intersection of racial and linguistic discrimination, which presents challenges to mental wellness. The present study aims to add necessary detail to the conversations surrounding racism and mental health in Canada while including language as a determinant of health and intersecting elem...

The current study examined the associations among self-criticism, perceptions of autonomy support, and depression prior to and during the onset of the Covid pandemic. 283 students at a large Canadian university participated in a goal related study, and completed questionnaires assessing personality, autonomy support, and depressive symptoms startin...

Introduction. Depression is related to poor achievement and impacts people's capacity to attain their goals (American Psychiatric Association, 2013; Johnson et al., 2010; Street, 2002). But do depressive symptoms impact goal pursuit differently depending on the kinds of goals that people pursue? Methods. Across three studies (total N = 666 undergra...

Based on self-determination theory (SDT), we examined mediational models connecting autonomy support and self-criticism to negative affect (NA), positive affect (PA), and goal progress (GP) via autonomous and controlled motivation. Separate measures were obtained within eight domains (e.g., academic performance and intimate relationships) for 346 u...

Based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), we examined mediational models connecting autonomy support and self-criticism to negative affect [NA], positive affect [PA], and goal progress [GP] via autonomous and controlled motivation. Separate measures were obtained within eight domains (e.g., academic performance and intimate relationships) for 346 u...

The present study investigates whether the way Black young adults constructed their narratives regarding the stressful events of the COVID‐19 pandemic and the black lives matter (BLM) protests related to adjustment over time. A two‐wave mixed prospective and retrospective longitudinal study was conducted in July and December 2020 and included a tot...

Social distancing (SD) was an effective way of reducing virus transmission during the deadly and highly infectious COVID-19 pandemic. Using a prospective longitudinal design, the present study explored how the Big 5 traits relate to variations in SD in a sample of university students (n= 285), and replicated these findings using informant reports....

Self-determination theory proposes that intrinsic aspirations protect against negative mental health outcomes by satisfying people's basic psychological needs of autonomy, relatedness, and competence. The present study investigated this relationship using two four-wave prospective longitudinal studies which followed undergraduate students across th...

When people hit roadblocks with their personal goals, goal disengagement is an adaptive response associated with improved mental and physical health. However, people can have trouble letting go of goals, even when pursuing them is problematic. We introduce a motivational model of goal disengagement by proposing that having autonomous motivation to...

Although considerable research has examined the traits and features involved in living a good life (Baumeister et al. in J Posit Psychol 8(6):505–516, 2013; Ryan et al. in Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness, Guilford Press, 2006; Wong in Can Psychol/Psychol Can 52(2):69–81, 2011), little re...

When people hit roadblocks with their personal goals, goal disengagement is an adaptive response associated with improved mental and physical health. However, people can have trouble letting go of goals, even when pursuing them is problematic. We introduce a motivational model of goal disengagement by proposing that having autonomous motivation to...

The study investigated how the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement impacted Black young adults’ social relationships and how receiving support from family or peers differentially influenced psychological adjustment. Surveys were sent in January 2021 and respondents included a total of 346 Black adults (66% female; mean age 2...

Mental health problems are becoming increasingly prevalent across college campuses. Past research has found that negative affect and frustration of basic psychological needs contribute to the development of depressive symptoms, but there is limited research which compares whether these are antecedents or concomitants of depressive symptoms. The pre...

Although considerable research has examined the traits and features involved in living a good life (Baumeister et al., 2013; Ryan et al., 2006; Wong, 2011), little research has examined personal philosophies of the good life and the motivational outcomes associated with these views. Through a prospective longitudinal study across one academic year,...

Introduction. Relationship research rooted in self-determination theory often focuses on autonomy support. However, rarely is this interpersonal style considered alongside other facets of relational behaviours such as directive support and control. Objective. The present study aimed at distinguishing the three styles by providing a tool that can si...

Mothers’ eating behaviours are important to ensure the health and well-being of themselves and their families. Recent research has pointed to self-compassion, defined as extending kindness to oneself in times of perceived inadequacy or general suffering, as a trait associated with healthy forms of eating, such as intuitive eating, and reduced malad...

Forming an identity is a critical developmental task that is affected by important people in an individual’s social environment, such as friends and family members. This investigation compared whether autonomy support from different sources (family/peer) given in distinct contexts (personal goals/crises) was associated with identity exploration and...

Integrating theoretical frameworks on psychological need satisfaction and passion we suggest that a pathway toward behavioral addiction is the development of an obsessive passion for an activity. In two studies with samples of video game players (Study 1) and gamblers (Study 2) we considered need satisfaction and passion as motivational antecedents...

The frequency, effectiveness, and impact of personality change goal (PCG) pursuit was explored using a longitudinal goal-setting paradigm within two multi-wave prospective studies employing both a university student (study 1; n=1468) and community adult (study 2; n=248) sample. Self-determination theory (SDT) was incorporated to explore the extent...

Introduction: Individuals who strive autonomously for their goals, and who perceive autonomy supportive environments are more successful during goal pursuit. What dispositional factors predict autonomy flourishing during goal pursuit? Methods: Four longitudinal studies were conducted over an 8-month academic year, and university students (N total =...

Introduction: Individuals who strive autonomously for their goals, and who perceive autonomy supportive environments are more successful during goal pursuit. What dispositional factors predict autonomy flourishing during goal pursuit? Methods: Four longitudinal studies were conducted over an 8-month academic year, and university students (Ntotal...

The action crisis is a critical phase in goal striving during which the goal pursuer feels conflicted about persevering with the goal or initiating disengagement. Recent research suggests that action crises in goal pursuit are linked to increased depression symptoms and cortisol. In turn, goal motivation, specifically controlled motivation (i.e., p...

Passions are strong motivational forces that influence the direction, intensity, and quality of long-term goal-pursuit. Passionate individuals thus have the potential to display high levels of perseverance of effort and consistency toward their interests – that is, to be gritty – with regard to the personal goals they set for themselves. The presen...

Objective The present study used a self-determination theory framework to investigate whether sibling autonomy support enhanced goal progress, need satisfaction, and well-being during emerging adulthood. Background Prior research has demonstrated that autonomy support from parents was significantly more beneficial for emerging adults than similar...

The present research examined the relation between trait mindfulness, self-concordance, and goal progress. We hypothesized that mindfulness would be positively associated with setting self-concordant goals (Studies 1-3), which would in turn predict greater goal progress (Studies 2 and 3). An internal mini meta-analysis (N = 1522) indicates that min...

The present research examined the relation between trait mindfulness, self-concordance, and goal progress. We hypothesized that mindfulness would be positively associated with setting self-concordant goals (Studies 1–3), which would in turn predict greater goal progress (Studies 2 and 3). An internal mini meta-analysis (N = 1522) indicates that min...

Adopting a self-determination theory perspective, this 3-wave longitudinal study explores the role of perfectionism in goal pursuit and the experience of depressive symptoms. The findings highlight the role of goal-related autonomy in mediating the opposite effects of self-critical and personal standards perfectionism on goal progress and depressiv...

Objective: Reading is often cited as beneficial for one’s mental health, but the research on this topic is limited. The goal of the present research was to examine whether recreational reading is beneficial for mental health during college, and to determine what motivates recreational reading. Participants: Participants were 231 university students...

Objective: This investigation used self-determination theory (SDT) to study goal striving in the context of romantic relationships. The study explored how dyadic partners’ relationship motivation impacted goal progress, personal well-being, and relationship satisfaction. In addition, the mediating role of relationship goal progress was explored. M...

Examining two, 3-wave prospective longitudinal samples of university students pursuing a career goal, we propose that young adults make personal sacrifices during goal pursuit. Specifically, we introduce the concept of basic psychological need sacrifice and suggest it is distinguishable from the sacrifice of maintenance and leisure activities. We f...

Objectives: The present study investigated the benefits of matching personality traits with goal type (i.e., agentic or communal) for goal progress. Autonomous motivation was examined as a mediator. Methods: A multi-wave prospective longitudinal design was employed to track the progress that 935 university students made in their personal goal pu...

Two studies examined parental support of young adults’ personal goals. Study 1 examined 1189 personal goals reported by 238 young adults and showed that it was common for emerging adults to receive support from their parents as they pursued their personal goals, particularly important and demanding goals. Relying on parents was unrelated to the Big...

The present study aimed to test the goal contents theory (Ryan and Deci, Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness, Guildford, New York, 2017a) proposal that prioritizing intrinsic aspirations over extrinsic aspirations leads to enhanced well-being through greater satisfaction of basic psychologic...

The positive role of autonomous motivation in personal goal pursuit has been robustly established in Self-Determination Theory research. Recent work has linked individual differences in trait selfcontrol to motivation quality, showing that higher self-control is associated with greater autonomous motivation (Converse, Juarez & Hennecke, 2018). The...

Retirement from competitive sports significantly influences former athletes’ well-being. We propose that disengaging from the former athletic career is a crucial factor in retired athletes’ adaptation. Using the theoretical framework of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) we propose that sport motivation at the career peak and motivation for retirement...

Personal goals are ubiquitous—our lives are filled with goals that we have recently set, goals we are steadily progressing toward, or goals that we are in the painful process of relinquishing. This article provides a Self-Determination Theory perspective on personal goals from goal setting, to goal pursuit, to goal disengagement. The authors review...

Previous studies have shown that self-critical and personal standards forms of perfectionism are associated with progress on personal goals in opposite ways. The present study used a 5-wave prospective longitudinal design to examine what motivational factors account for the finding that self-critical perfectionism has been reliably associated with...

Objective: Action crises describe the intrapsychic conflicts individuals experience when they feel torn between further goal pursuit and goal disengagement. The present investigation introduces autonomous and controlled motivation as independent predictors of action crisis severity, beyond known personality level predictors (action orientation), a...

Background: Parents' vaccine attitudes influence their decision regarding child vaccination. To date, no study has evaluated the impact of vaccine conspiracy beliefs on human papillomavirus vaccine acceptance. The authors assessed the validity of a Vaccine Conspiracy Beliefs Scale (VCBS) and determined whether this scale was associated with parent...

While previous research has demonstrated that striving for personal goals connected to intrinsic aspirations benefits psychological well-being, the relation between aspirational content and goal progress has remained unexamined. Using a multilevel modeling (MLM) approach in two longitudinal studies, we examined the relationship between life aspirat...

Two studies examined the relations among Neuroticism, autonomy support, and reported goal progress. A large-scale screening demonstrated that individuals discriminated between autonomy support and more directive support and expressed a preference for autonomy support that was associated with Neuroticism. A second study examined the relationship of...

Kasser and Ryan (1993; 1996) have contrasted two types of life values: intrinsic aspirations, which include community contribution, building meaningful relationships, and self-growth, and extrinsic aspirations, which include fame, wealth, and physical beauty. Prioritization of extrinsic relative to intrinsic aspirations has been related cross-secti...

Could a shift in values over time drive resolution of identity and intimacy in young adulthood? In the present study, we found support for our hypothesis that increased prioritization of intrinsic values over an academic year predicts university students’ resolution of the Eriksonian stages of identity and intimacy, and that stage resolution would...