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

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. Incl. problems in mind-action coordination; terror mgmt pespective; lack of control associated w/ dissociation etc. Front Matter....Pages i-xxvi Front Matter....Pages 1-3 Personal Control from the Perspective of Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory....Pages 5-26 Dynamics in the Coordination of Mind and Action....Pages 27-59 Opening Versus Closing Strategies in Controlling One’s Responses to Experience....Pages 61-84 A Terror Management Perspective on the Psychology of Control....Pages 85-108 Personal Goals and Personal Agency....Pages 109-128 Front Matter....Pages 129-132 The Emotional Control of Behavior....Pages 133-154 Mood Management....Pages 155-195 Ability Perception and Cardiovascular Response to Behavioral Challenge....Pages 197-232 Confirmation Bias....Pages 233-258 Intrusive Thoughts, Rumination, and Incomplete Intentions....Pages 259-278 Decision Making and Action....Pages 279-298 Improving Efficiency of Action Control Through Technical and Social Resources....Pages 299-314 Front Matter....Pages 315-317 To Control or Not to Control....Pages 319-340 Interpersonal Power Repair in Response to Threats to Control from Dependent Others....Pages 341-362 Control Motivation, Depression, and Counterfactual Thought....Pages 363-390 Uncontrollability as a Source of Cognitive Exhaustion....Pages 391-418 Intellectual Helplessness....Pages 419-443 Back Matter....Pages 445-459 Human beings are 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 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).