The purpose of the present investigation is to shed light on the intraindividual (i.e., within-person) process of distancing from the goal of obtaining a PhD. Based on the motivational theory of action crisis, we assume that a lack of both individual (here: self-directed career management) and external (here: social support) resources may fuel doubts concerning PhD completion. An action crisis, in turn, is proposed to undermine the subsequent motivation to engage in proactive behavior and seek out social support. We analyzed five waves of longitudinal self-report data (N_T1 = 2011 PhD students, 61.7% men; half-year intervals) with the random-intercept cross-lagged panel model. This method allows to separate between-person from within-person effects. As expected, we found intraindividual increases in self-directed career management and perceived social support to reduce the development of an action crisis, and vice versa. Practical implications on how to avoid a loss spiral in the PhD process are discussed.

本调查的目的是揭示个体内（即人体内）远离获得博士学位目标的过程。基于行动危机的动机理论，我们假设缺乏个人（此处：自我导向的职业管理）和外部（此处：社会支持）资源可能会引发对博士学位完成的怀疑。反过来，行动危机会破坏随后采取主动行为和寻求社会支持的动机。我们使用随机截取交叉滞后面板模型分析了五波纵向自我报告数据（N _T1  = 2011 名博士生，61.7% 男性；半年间隔）。这种方法可以将人与人之间的影响分开。正如预期的那样，我们发现个人自我导向的职业管理和感知社会支持的增加可以减少行动危机的发展，反之亦然。讨论了如何避免博士学位过程中螺旋式损失的实际影响。