Personal Control in Action: Cognitive and Motivational Mechanisms (The Springer Series in Social Clinical Psychology) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0306457202 ISBN 13: 9780306457203

Publisher: Springer, 1998

Synopsis

Human beings are agents: They may exert influence over their own fate. They initiate their actions, experience a considerable degree of freedom and control in their mundane activities, and respond adversely to external constraints to their agency; they are able to monitor and modify their moti­ vation, affective states, and behavior. Since the sixties, the notion of person-as-agent has become increas­ ingly accepted in scientific psychology. Nowadays, personal control is a standard topic in research on personality, motivation, and social behavior. The most popular approach identifies personal control with a feeling or judgment: To have control means to perceive the self as a source of causa­ tion. Within this perspective, such consciously accessible contents like perceived freedom and self-determination, feelings and expectations of control, or perceived self-efficacy and competence emerge as natural tar­ gets of research (see e.g., Alloy, Clements, & Koenig, 1993; Bandura, 1977; OeCharms, 1968; Oeci & Ryan, 1985; Harvey, 1976; Rotter, 1966; Thomp­ son, 1993; Wortman, 1975).

About this title

Synopsis

This new study presents exciting international research developments on personal control and self-regulation. Each chapter examines the subject at a different level of analysis to foster a complete understanding. Brief synopses of each chapter are provided as introductions to the three major sections of the book. These sections cover the person as an agent of control, affective and cognitive mechanisms of executive agency, and reactions to threatened control.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0306457202
• ISBN 13: 9780306457203
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 486
• Editor: Kofta Miroslaw, Weary Gifford, Sedek Grzegorz