I have seen scenes in which students verbally identify and intricately elaborate on the character's objective, but nothing they do in their scenes reflects commitment to the objective. Perhaps this is because the objective has not yet passed beyond the intellectual and become organic to the actor. Students often avoid engaging in the conflict. I have seen students who participate in every political demonstration on campus come to class and avoid committing to the conflict of a scene. The fundamental issues at stake for them here are privacy and risk.
Political demonstrations allow conflict within the safety of a group and the umbrella of an ideal.
They are seldom personally risky with regard to self exposure. The conflict is entered with group support. Conflicts within the home or with significant others are often personally self exposing, but are usually done in private. The process of acting, however, asks people to tap themselves, reveal themselves, and share themselves in front of others. Few young actors are comfortable transferring this raw, personal, private material onto a character.