Do people ruminate because they haven’t digested their goals? The relations of rumination and reflection to goal internalization and ambivalence

In three studies it was investigated whether
rumination was related to less internalized self-regulation
and goals and whether reflection was related to more
internalized self-regulation and goals. In all studies students
completed questionnaires measuring rumination,
reflection, and internalization of self-regulation and goals.
In Study 1, rumination was related to less internalized selfregulation,
whereas reflection was related to more internalized
self-regulation. In Study 2, rumination was related
to less internalized self-regulation and goals as well as to
more avoidance- and extrinsic content of goals. Reflection
was related to more internalized self-regulation and goals
as well as to less avoidance content of goals. In Study 3,
goal-specific rumination was related to less internalized
goals and goal-specific reflection was related to more
internalized goals. Collectively, the studies suggest that
internalization of self-regulation and goals is critical for
distinguishing between unconstructive and constructive
self-focused repetitive thoughts.