Personality coherence is an individual difference capturing the extent to which a person's psychological characteristics are coordinated, unified, and integrated to ensure stability and adaptive functioning of the individual.
Numerous theories postulate that personality coherence is linked to personal goal attainment, whereas goal disturbance significantly accounts for high levels of psychological distress.
When a person's goals correspond to the situational affordances to achieve them, there is congruence between the goals and the situation (goal congruent situation - GCS). The personality in GCSs is characterized by coherence, consistency and positive affect.
In goal incongruent situation (GIS), when it is not possible to achieve a desired goal due to the changed situational affordances, the personality shows signs of disintegration and incoherence, which may be accompanied by negative affect, emotional distress, disregulation and decreased self-esteem.
In three independent studies (N=62; 54; 10), using mixed-method research, it was shown that a person's psychological response is manifested in different ways, depending on the duration of GISs. These findings should be taken into account in determining which CBT intervention is most appropriate for a given client in order to restore the person's coherence.
As CBT addresses the interconnections of automatic thoughts, intermediate beliefs, and core beliefs, the following targeted interventions may be appropriate:
Short-term GISs primarily involve automatic thoughts. Mindfulness techniques and distress tolerance skills can be useful in regaining coherence, since clients may struggle to identify these thoughts in the moment.
Medium-term GISs may activate conditional assumptions. Interventions including socratic dialogue, guided discovery and cognitive restructuring may be effective on this level.
Long-term GISs tend to activate and create predominantly negative core beliefs in clients. Due to the delicate nature of these situations and whether or not they are active in the person's life, various interventions including behavioral activation, exposure therapy and acceptance skills may be used.