Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the Second English Edition
- Contributors
- 1 Motivation and Action: Introduction and Overview
- 2 Historical Trends in Motivation Research
- 3 Trait Theories of Motivation
- 4 Situational Determinants of Behavior
- 5 Motivation as a Function of Expectancy and Incentive
- 6 Achievement Motivation
- 7 Social Bonding: Affiliation Motivation and Intimacy Motivation
- 8 Power Motivation
- 9 Implicit and Explicit Motives
- 10 Biopsychological Aspects of Motivation
- 11 Motivation and Volition in the Course of Action
- 12 Individual Differences in Self-Regulation
- 13 Intrinsic Motivation and Flow
- 14 Causal Attribution of Behavior and Achievement
- 15 Motivation and Development
- References
- Index
11 - Motivation and Volition in the Course of Action
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the Second English Edition
- Contributors
- 1 Motivation and Action: Introduction and Overview
- 2 Historical Trends in Motivation Research
- 3 Trait Theories of Motivation
- 4 Situational Determinants of Behavior
- 5 Motivation as a Function of Expectancy and Incentive
- 6 Achievement Motivation
- 7 Social Bonding: Affiliation Motivation and Intimacy Motivation
- 8 Power Motivation
- 9 Implicit and Explicit Motives
- 10 Biopsychological Aspects of Motivation
- 11 Motivation and Volition in the Course of Action
- 12 Individual Differences in Self-Regulation
- 13 Intrinsic Motivation and Flow
- 14 Causal Attribution of Behavior and Achievement
- 15 Motivation and Development
- References
- Index
Summary
Characteristics of the Action Perspective
For Kurt Lewin (cf. Lewin, Dembo, Festinger, & Sears, 1944), there was never any doubt that motivational phenomena can only be properly understood and analyzed from an action perspective. Indeed, as he pointed out in support of this claim, processes of goal setting and goal striving are governed by distinct psychological principles. These insights went unheeded for several decades, however, probably for the simple reason that goal setting research based on the expectancy-value paradigm proved so successful (Festinger, 1942; Atkinson, 1957) and captured the full attention of motivation psychologists. It was not until the emergence of the psychology of goals (starting with Klinger's current concerns, 1977, and Wicklund's and Gollwitzer's self-definitional goals, 1982) and the psychology of action control (based on Kuhl's analysis of state vs. action orientation, 1983; see Chapter 12) that the processes and potential strategies of goal striving began to receive the attention that Kurt Lewin had already felt they deserved back in the 1940s (Oettingen & Gollwitzer, 2001). In contrast to the behaviorist approach, an action perspective on human behavior means extending the scope of analysis beyond simple stimulus-response bonds and the execution of learned habits. The concept of action is seen in opposition to such learned habits and automatic responses; it is restricted to those human behaviors that have what Max Weber (1921) termed “Sinn” (“meaning” or “sense”). In Weber's conceptualization, “action” is all human behavior that the actor deems to have “meaning.”
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- Motivation and Action , pp. 272 - 295Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
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