Abstract
How do we want something? What is the psychological system that makes wanting in different forms an act of change of the present status quo? Why do we all not become thieves or road robbers when overwhelmed with the feeling “I want THAT”(what another person or society has). Our internalized social norm system makes such act impossible. Yet the norms are different in a war context—a victorious army becomes into a band of looters taking everything they want from the captured cities. Interestingly there is a time—it happens over 2 days, after which the regular military discipline is restored. Thus—the acts of personal wanting are redundantly covered by social norms of how wanting can lead to obtaining the wanted, as well as regulating what objects are not to be wanted. The societal norm system frames the personal motivational process of moving from “I detect X” to “I want X” to “I need X!”. The goal in this chapter is to elaborate how these processes work.
G. Bernini Abduction of Proserpina
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
Gibson’s concept is functionally close to the notion of demand character (Aufforderungscharakter—Lewin, 1926, p 351), yet it did not directly originate in the latter.
- 4.
There are two distinguishing features of kleptomania—the act of stealing as a special thrill, often nonconscious, and the making of collections of the stolen objects that are personally valued. Shop-stealing for existing material need is not included in kleptomania.
- 5.
The social class specificity of the stealing act became recognized in the United States even as legitimate for law: “Stores lost merchandise from many sources-professional thieves, clerks, delivery men, and others-but only the middle-class female shoplifter was thought to be acting out of a medical disability. A large proportion of these women were excused either in the store or in the courtroom because they claimed to be kleptomaniacs or because they cited general malaise and physical debility” (Abelson, 1983, p. 140). These claims were successful in their defense as they reclassified the shoplifting from crime to medically inevitable condition.
- 6.
- 7.
Their research—carried out in American context—has not used the single-subject-based introspective techniques, but rather varies the conditions for goal-binding through experimental manipulations of situations (see Gollwitzer & Oettingen, 2019). Despite this limitation the impacts of goal binding have been so strong as to show up even in traditional experimental studies using correlational and group comparison tactics. Final proof of these effects requires within-subject microgenetic study (Molenaar, 2004, Wagoner, 2009).
- 8.
Most elaborated by the “Rochester School” of motivation studies (Deci, 1975, Ryan, 2019).
- 9.
Deci (1971).
- 10.
- 11.
When that step is taken—as in the Self-Determination Theory of motivation (Ryan et al, 2019, p. 92, Fig. 6.1)—one can observe the increasing undifferentiated nature of phenomena when the description of the motivation processes moves from extrinsic towards the internalized (intrinsic) side.
- 12.
- 13.
In the sense of Alexius Meinong and the “Graz School” (Albertazzi et al., 2001). Such subsisting notions of no material existence (“love”,”justice,” etc.) are central for human psychological functioning while remaining unspecifiable.
References
Abelson, E. S. (1983), The invention of kleptomania. Signs, 15, 1, 123–143.
Ach, N. (1905). Über die Willenstätigkeit und das Denken. Göttingen: Vanderhoeck & Ruprecht.
Ach, N. (1928). Über die Entstehung des Bewusstseins der Willensfreiheit. In E. Becker (Ed.), Bericht über den X Kongresse für experimentelle Psychologie in Bonn, 1927. (pp. 91–97). Jena: Gustav Fischer
Ach, N. (1935). Analyse des Willens. Berlin: Urban & Schwartzenberg.
Albertazzi, L, , Macquette, D., and Poli, R. /Eds.) (2001). The school of Alexius Meinong. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Berlyne, D. (1960). Conflict, arousal and curiosity. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Bisgaard, C. H. (2021), Locus of Control in Dynamic Settings: a Semiotic Extension of an Old Theory. Human Arenas. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-020-00127-5
Brentano, F. (1874). Psychologie von empirische Standpunkte. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot.
Brentano, F. (1995). Psychology from the empirical standpoint. London: Routledge.
Deci, E. L (1971). Effects of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 18, 105–115.
Deci, E. L. and Ryan, R. M. (1980). Self-determination theory: When mind mediates behavior. Journal of Mind and Behavior, 1, 1, 33–43.
Deci, E. L. and Ryan, R. M. (2014). Levels of analysis, regnant causes of behavior and well-being: The role of psychological needs. Psychological Inquiry,22, 17–22.
Deci, E. L., Koestner, R., and Ryan, R. (2001). External rewards and intrinsic motivation in education: reconsidered once again. Review of Educational research, 21, 1, 1–27.
Gollwitzer, P. M. (2003). Why we thought that action mind-sets affect illusions of control. Psychological Inquiry, 14, 3–4, 261–269.
Gollwitzer, P. M., and Oettingen, G. (2019). Goal attainment. In R. M. Ryan (Ed.), Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation (pp. 247–267). New York, NY: Oxford University Press
Hakfoort C. (1992). Science deified: Wilhelm Ostwald’s energeticist world-view and the history of scientism. Annals of Science, 49, 525–544.
Janet, P. (1925). Psychological healing: A historical and clinical study. New York: McMillan
Lewin, K. (1926). Vorsatz, Wille und Bedürfnis. Psychologische Forschung, 7, 330–385.
Lewin, K. (1936). Principles of topological Psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
Lewin, K. (1933). Environmental forces. In C. Murchison (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology (pp. 590–626). Worcester, MA: Clark University Press
Molenaar P (2004). A manifesto on psychology as idiographic science: Bringing the person back into scientific psychology, this time forever. Measurement, 2, 201–218.
O’Brien, P. (1983). The kleptomania diagnosis: Bourgeois women and theft in late Nineteenth-Century France. Journal of Social History, 17, 1, 65–77.
Ostwald, W. (1908) Die Energie. Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth
Valsiner, J. ( 2007) Culture in minds and societies. New Delhi: Sage.
Valsiner, J. (2012). Guided science. New Brunswick, NJ: transaction Publidshers.
Valsiner, J. (2014). Invitation to cultural psychology. London: Sage.
Wagoner, B.( 2009). The experimental methodology of constructive microgenesis. In J. Valsiner, P. Molenaar, M., Lyra., and N.Chaudhary (Eds.) . Dynamic process methodology in the social and developmental sciences. New York: Springer
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Valsiner, J. (2021). From Wanting to Acting: Pathways to Personal Desire. In: General Human Psychology. Theory and History in the Human and Social Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75851-6_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75851-6_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-75850-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-75851-6
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)