Volition or will is the

cognitive process Cognition () refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses many aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, the f ...

by which an individual

to a particular course of action. It is defined as purposive striving and is one of the primary human psychological functions. Others include

affect Affect may refer to: * Affect (education) * Affect (linguistics), attitude or emotion that a speaker brings to an utterance * Affect (philosophy) * Affect (psychology), the experience of feeling or emotion ** Affect display, signs of emotion, such ...

(feeling or emotion),

motivation Motivation is what explains why people or animals initiate, continue or terminate a certain behavior at a particular time. Motivational states are commonly understood as forces acting within the agent that create a disposition to engage in goal-d ...

(goals and expectations), and

cognition Cognition () refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses many aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: attention, the formation of ...

(thinking). Volitional processes can be applied consciously or they can be automatized as

habits A habit (or wont as a humorous and formal term) is a routine of that is repeated regularly and tends to occur .

over time. Most modern conceptions of volition address it as a process of conscious action control which becomes automatized (e.g. see Heckhausen and Kuhl; Gollwitzer; Boekaerts and Corno).

Overview

''Willpower'' and ''volition'' are colloquial and scientific terms (respectively) for the same process. When a person ''makes up their mind'' to do a thing, that state is termed 'immanent volition'. When we put forth any particular act of

choice A choice is the range of different things from which you can choose. The arrival at a choice may incorporate Motivation, motivators and Choice modelling, models. For example, a traveler might choose a route for a journey based on the preferenc ...

choice

, that act is called an emanant, executive, or imperative volition. When an immanent or settled state of choice controls or governs a series of actions, that state is termed predominant volition. Subordinate volitions are particular acts of choice which carry into effect the object sought for by the governing or ''predominant volition''. According to Gary Kielhofner's "Model of Human Occupation", volition is one of the three sub-systems that act on human behavior. Within this model, volition refers to a person's values, interests and

self-efficacy Self-efficacy, a concept originally proposed by the psychologist Albert Bandura Albert Bandura (; born December 4, 1925) is a Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be r ...

(personal causation) about personal performance. In the book ''A Bias for Action'', which sets to differentiate willpower from motivation - the authors use the term volition as a synonym for willpower and describe briefly the theories of

Kurt Lewin Kurt Lewin ( ; 9 September 1890 – 12 February 1947) was a German-American psychologist A psychologist is a person who studies normal and abnormal mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior by experime ...

. While Lewin argues that motivation and volition are one and the same, the authors claim that

Ach Acetylcholine (ACh) is an organic chemical , CH4; is among the simplest organic compounds. In chemistry Chemistry is the scientific discipline involved with Chemical element, elements and chemical compound, compounds composed of atoms, mo ...

Ach

argues differently. According to the authors, Ach claims that there is a certain threshold of desire that distinguishes motivation from volition: when desire lies below this threshold, it is motivation, and when it crosses over, it becomes volition. Using this model, the authors consider individuals' differing levels of commitment with regard to tasks by measuring it on a scale of intent from motivation to volition. Modern writing on the role of volition, including discussions of impulse control (e.g., Kuhl and Heckhausen) and education (e.g., Corno), also make this distinction. Corno's model ties volition to the processes of self-regulated learning.

References

Bibliography

* * * * *

External links

*
Weakness of Will
(Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Modeling Willpower
(Darcey Riley)
Narziß Kaspar Ach (1871-1946)
(University of Konstanz) *http://www.sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~schopra/Persons/Frankfurt.pdf (Harry Frankfurt's Analysis of the Volition among other things) {{Authority control Cognition Motivation

Overview

See also

References

Bibliography

External links