The goal-oriented personality traits of Lifelines participants was assessed using the Goal Disengagement and Goal Reengagement Scale (GAS) (Wrosch et al., 2003a/b)

The GAS questionnaire consists of 2 subscales:

• Goal disengagement (4 items), which measures the ease with which respondents are able to reduce effort and relinquish commitment toward unattainable goals. Two items were developed for each component of goal disengagement: relinquishment of commitment and reduction of effort.
• Goal re-engagement (6 items), which measures the extent to which individuals generally reengage in other new goals if they face constraints on goal pursuits. It contains three two-item sets. These two-item sets assessed the tendency (a) to identify new goals, (b) to commit to new goals, and © to begin active pursuit of new goals, respectively, when unattainable goals were encountered.

Note: the components of goal disengagement and goal re-engagement are hardly ever studied. Studies tend to focus on the two subscales.