Who are the people that manage to achieve even their most difficult goals? According to Personality Systems Interactions (PSI) theory (Kuhl, 2000, A functional-design approach to motivation and self- regulation: The dynamics of personality systems interactions; Kuhl, 2001, Motivation und Persönlichkeit: Interaktionen psychischer systeme [Motivation and personality: Interactions of psychological systems]; Kuhl et al., 2021, The functional architecture of human motivation: Personality systems interactions theory), they are action-oriented individuals, who– contrary to state-oriented individuals– excel in self-regulation, effectively translating intentions into action. To investigate differences in goal achievement of action-state orientation, our study considered a theoretically important combination of constraints that has not been examined so far. In a longitudinal study (N = 199), we assessed participants’ self-generated goals for the upcoming weeks as well as the difficulty of these goals. After four weeks, we measured the achievement of these goals. We analyzed data using multi-level methods. Consistent with expectations, action versus state orientation moderated the relationship between goal difficulty and achievement, with action-oriented individuals achieving more difficult goals than state-oriented individuals. Our findings provide empirical support for a central theoretical assumption regarding goal achievement in action-state orientation.
