PERSONALITY PROCESSES AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES Anxious Uncertainty and Reactive Approach Motivation (RAM)

goals that guide more concrete goals (Carver & Scheier, 1998; Higgins, 1996, 1997; Powers, 1973). Ideals can therefore serve as accessible alternative goals to approach when focal goals are compromised (Rogers, Kuiper, & Kirker, 1977). Humans can eagerly approach meaningful ideals, at least in part, by simply heightening imagined commitment to them (McGregor & Little, 1998). Private conviction for ideals is also relatively free from the risks of failure or critique that can hamper more temporal goals. Beyond their efficiency and reliability, ideals are also resistant to disillusionment and habituation because they can never be fully attained (Klinger, 1977). Promoting ideals as a means for RAM may therefore be an appealing human response to anxious uncertainty. 1 Hypomanic episodes arising from anxious uncertainty and conflict have been described in psychoanalytic terms as being characterized by a self-perceived unification of the ego with superego ideals (Fenichel, 1945; see also Horney, 1950). Ian McGregor, Kyle Nash, Nikki Mann, and Curtis E. Phills, Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This research was supported by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Thanks to Denise Marigold, Jordan Peterson, and Mike Prentice for helpful comments. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Ian McGregor, Department of Psychology, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada. E-mail: [email protected] Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2010, Vol. 99, No. 1, 133–147 © 2010 American Psychological Association 0022-3514/10/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0019701