Rumination
Goal Progress Theory (GPT) says that rumination is a way of achieving goals. This way of seeing rumination is very different from RST, which says that rumination “does not lead to active problem solving”. More specifically, GPT defines rumination as a result of the Zeigarnik Effect, which says that unfinished tasks come to mind more easily than finished tasks. So, when people who ruminate think the same thoughts over and over GPT explains this as a way of finding another path to reach a goal, and says that they will stop ruminating when they reach this goal. This concept has been tested in experiments. In one, people were told not to think of a white bear and were given feedback that either they did or did not succeed in this. Those who thought that they had not succeeded had thoughts related to white bears come to mind more easily than those who were told that they had been successful, showing the possible effect of unfinished goals on rumination.