Aimlessness and Anxiety: The Impact of Defined Goals on Psychological Entropy

Anxiety computes aimlessness. That is why anxiety symptom severity increases concomitantly with increased levels of entropy.

Entropy is a measure of the disorder or randomness within a system. According to the entropy model of uncertainty, psychological entropy (i.e., impeded information processing due to heightened environmental uncertainty) results from increased uncertainty about one’s perceptions and behavioral affordances. As such, psychological entropy can be viewed as an indicator of the degree to which thoughts and emotions are disordered, unpredictable, and challenging, which in turn indicates an increased probability to engage in behavioral inhibition.

For instance, an individual with a Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is not necessarily afraid of what action to take, instead some of the psychopathology associated with GAD has been suggested to arise due to an excess of potential behavioral responses (cf. they are afraid of which action to take).

Put differently, due to an overabundance of available behavioral responses when faced with a multiplicity of choices, anxiety levels increase. This is due to the fact that heightened levels of entropy increase the number of viable behavioral responses to a given situation, thereby increasing the number of potential outcomes that can follow any given circumstances.

The biological underpinnings of this computation of aimlessness can partly be explained using Jeffrey Alan Gray’s personality theory. The conflict between approach motivation and avoidance motivation (cf. aimlessness and an approach-avoidance motivational conflict are isomorphic constructs) leads to inhibition of the Behavioral Activation System (BAS) and activation of the Fight-Flight-Freeze System (FFFS) by the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS). As such, exploration is inhibited and avoidance is facilitated.

Taken together, aimlessness and anxiety can be argued to be isomorphic (synonymous). Therefore, it is essential to have something to aim at (i.e. a goal). A corollary of this is that goals not only help to mitigate anxiousness but also imbue life with meaning. However, not all goals are created equally.

Should we aim at world peace? Should we aim at worldwide economic stability?

These are noble goals. But are they actionable?

Furthermore, if they were successfully achieved, would they influence levels of anxiety (cf. anxiety computes aimlessness)? There is a case to be made that these goals are too abstract, and thus not actually actionable. But let’s explore this from another angle.

Would global peace and economic stability result in a significant decrease in worldwide anxiety?

I’m not so sure.

I am reminded of a a quote from Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground:

“… Now I ask you: what can be expected of man since he is a being endowed with strange qualities? Shower upon him every earthly blessing, drown him in a sea of happiness, so that nothing but bubbles of bliss can be seen on the surface; give him economic prosperity, such that he should have nothing else to do but sleep, eat cakes and busy himself with the continuation of his species, and even then out of sheer ingratitude, sheer spite, man would play you some nasty trick. He would even risk his cakes and would deliberately desire the most fatal rubbish, the most uneconomical absurdity, simply to introduce into all this positive good sense his fatal fantastic element. It is just his fantastic dreams, his vulgar folly that he will desire to retain, simply in order to prove to himself–as though that were so necessary– that men still are men and not the keys of a piano, which the laws of nature threaten to control so completely that soon one will be able to desire nothing but by the calendar …”

In simpler terms (as far as I’m concerned and understand this quote), Dostoevsky is making the claim that global peace is probably unattainable. It might not even be an appropriate goal to aim at. Why? Well, if there were no pressing issues in one’s environment and no responsibilities bestowed upon people (cf. “… give him economic prosperity, such that he should have nothing else to do but sleep, eat cakes and busy himself with the continuation of his species …“), people would find a way to destroy the peace just to see something interesting happen (i.e., humans might disrupt peace to satisfy their intrinsic need for conflict and meaning). 

I have found Dostoevsky’s writings very insightful and an interesting psychological analysis of the human psyche from a philosophical perspective and find this quote very interesting.

Somewhat self-evidently, I am not making claim against aiming at the highest possible good. That definitely is a worthwhile endeavor. For instance, one way to construe the highest possible good is precisely the economic stability and global peace. I think that is exactly the right frame of mind and an ethical duty to aim at!

I do, however, ponder how to best conceptualize this and what variables might be most appropriate to use if one were to assess these things.

So What Should I Do Then?

My preliminary hypothesis is that when people imbue their life with meaning (cf. Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy for example), levels of anxiety and negative affect decrease exponentially. Building on that, implementing an approach motivation perspective (cf. Stephen Barton’s work on “difficult-to-treat” depression) appears to be the way to go when the goal is to further solidify treatment gains, as opposed to orienting oneself from an avoidance motivating point of view.

Taken together, I believe that to operationalize (at least partly) the “best” variables to aim at if one would want to attain significant worldwide decreases in anxiety might be: a) fostering approach motivation, and b) encouraging meaning-making activities.

Approach Motivation

Approach motivation is a frame of mind and is the opposite of avoidance. We can think of established psychotherapy protocols: their goal is to assist clients in challenging their fears head on (i.e., approach it!) and let go of safety-seeking behaviors (avoidance being a cardinal safety-seeking behavior).  

Meaning-Making Activities

Meaning-making activities refer to activities that imbue your life with meaning. What makes you get up in the morning? Why don’t you sleep in all day?

Hopefully not that you avoided all challenges in life and never lived life to its fullest potential!

Meaning is idiosyncratic. Your meaning-making activities might be different from mine, but they all share the same principle of being guided by our values.

Concluding Remarks

The idea that anxiety computes aimlessness emphasises how crucial goal-setting is. Anxiety levels rise and psychological entropy rises in the absence of defined goals. Pit differently, levels of anxiety and feelings of uncertainty and disorder increase without clear goals. 

Setting meaningful, self-directed goals based on values might help people feel less anxious and provide a feeling of direction. Setting concrete, attainable goals is more important than aiming for abstract idealistic concepts like world peace or economic stability. Ironically, such goals could be unachievable and thus ultimately ineffective in lowering anxiety.

I should stress that this conclusion is not the equivalent of saying that you shouldn’t aim high! Quite the contrary. You should shoot for the stars. Worst case scenario, you arrive at the moon. My conclusion is nested in the pondering of what level of analysis is appropriate for goal setting and is logically derived from the concepts presented in this post.

Ultimately, reducing anxiety and improving one’s subjective well-being can be achieved through taking part in activities that give life purpose and facing life’s challenges head-on. Therefore, there is a compelling argument to be made for the level of analysis that is appropriate for goal formation, which is for people to concentrate on their own set of value-directed goals. Goals that align with an individual’s own values and encourages the engagement with life’s challenges. Over time, I believe that the engagement with such goals will ultimately change the world, one person at a time.