Seven steps toward freedom and two ways to lose it: Overcoming limitations of intentionality through self-confrontational coping with stress

Social Psychology

Volumn 42, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 74-84

  Kuhl, Julius ^a   Quirin, Markus ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OSNABRÜCK   (Germany)

^b FB 8 Institut für Psychologie   (Germany)

Author keywords

Action orientation; Emotion regulation; Free will; Hippocampus; Intention; PSI theory; Regression; Right prefrontal cortex; Self; Self regulation; Stress

Indexed keywords

EID: 79955121294     PISSN: 18649335     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1027/1864-9335/a000045     Document Type: Article

References (93)

1. Amos, A. (2000). A computational model of information processing in the frontal cortex and basal ganglia. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 12, 1205-1219.
2. Andrews, P. W., & Thomson, J. A., Jr. (2009). The bright side of being blue: Depression as an adaptation for analyzing complex problems. Psychological Review, 116, 620-654.
3. Atkinson, J. W. (1958). Motives in fantasy, action, and society. Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand.
4. Bargh, J. (2008). Free will is un-natural. In J. Baer, J. C. Kaufman, & R. F. Baumeister (Eds.), Are we free? Psychology and free will (pp. 128-154). New York: Oxford University Press.
5. Barkley, R. A. (1997). Behavioral inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions: Constructing a unifying theory of ADHD. Psychological Bulletin, 12, 65-94. (Pubitemid 127705285)
6. Baumann, N., & Kuhl, J. (2003). Self-Infiltration: Confusing assigned tasks as self-selected in memory. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 487-497.
7. Baumann, N., Kaschel, R., & Kuhl, J. (2005). Striving for unwanted goals: Stress-dependent discrepancies between explicit and implicit achievement motives reduce subjective well-being and increase psychosomatic symptoms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 781-799. (Pubitemid 43246404)
8. Baumeister, R. (2008). Free will in scientific psychology. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3, 14-19.
9. Beck, A. T., Freeman, A., & Davis, D. D. (2003). Cognitive therapy of personality disorders. New York: Guilford.
10. Berlyne, D. E. (1960). Conflict, arousal, and curiosity. New York: McGraw-Hill.
11. Bieri, P. (2001). Das Handwerk der Freiheit: Die Entdeckung des eigenen Willens [The skill of freedom: The discovery of one's own will]. München: Hanser.
12. Berridge, K. C., & Robinson, T. E. (1998). What is the role of dopamine in reward: Hedonic impact, reward learning, or incentive salience? Brain Research Reviews, 28, 309-369. (Pubitemid 29012677)
13. Burgess, P. W., Simons, J. S., Dumontheil, I., & Gilbert, S. J. (2007). The gateway hypothesis of rostral prefrontal cortex (area 10) function. In J. Duncan, L. Phillips, & P. McLeod (Eds.), Measuring the mind: Speed, control, and age (pp. 217-248). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
14. Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (2004). Perspectives on personality. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
15. Cohen, J. D., Dunbar, K., & McClelland, J. L. (1990). On the control of automatic processes: A parallel distributed processing account of the Stroop effect. Psychological Review, 97, 332-361.
16. Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The "what" and "why" of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination perspective. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227-268. (Pubitemid 33216305)
17. Dijksterhuis, A., & Nordgren, L. F. (2006). A theory of unconscious thought. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1, 95-109.
18. Easterbrook, J. A. (1959). The effect of emotion on cue utilization and the organization of behavior. Psychological Review, 66, 183-201.
19. Eysenck, H. J. (1967). The biological basis of personality. Springfield, IL: CC Thomas.
20. Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. (1988). Ways of Coping Questionnaire: Manual. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
21. Forstmeier, S., & Rüddel, H. (2007). Improving volitional competence is crucial for the efficacy of psychosomatic therapy: A controlled clinical trial. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 76, 89-96. (Pubitemid 46145637)
22. Frankfurt, H. G. (1971). Freedom of the will and the concept of a person. Journal of Philosophy, 68, 5-20.
23. Fuhrmann, A., & Kuhl, J. (1998). Maintaining a healthy diet: Effects of personality and self-reward versus self-punishment on commitment to and enactment of self-chosen and assigned goals. Psychology and Health, 13, 651-686. (Pubitemid 128546488)
24. Fuster, J. M. (1995). Memory and planning: Two temporal perspectives of frontal lobe function. In H. H. Jasper & S. Riggio (Eds.), Epilepsy and the functional anatomy of the frontal lobe (pp. 9-20). New York: Raven.
25. Gilligan, S. G. (1997). The courage to love: Principles and practices of self-relations psychotherapy. New York: Norton.
26. Goschke, T., & Kuhl, J. (1993). The representation of intentions: Persisting activation in memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 19, 1211-1226.
27. Gray, J. A. (1987). The psychology of fear and stress (2nd ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press.
28. Haggard, P., & Eimer, M. (1999). On the relation between brain potentials and the awareness of voluntary movements. Experimental Brain Research, 126, 128-133. (Pubitemid 29192221)
29. Harmon-Jones, E. (2007). Asymmetrical frontal cortical activity, affective valence, and motivational direction. In E. Harmon-Jones & P. Winkielman (Eds.), Social neuroscience: Integrating biological and psychological explanations of social behavior (pp. 137-156). New York: Guilford.
30. Hebb, D. O. (1949). The organization of behavior. New York: Wiley.
31. Heckhausen, J., & Heckhausen, H. (2008). Motivation and action (2nd ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press.
32. Holmes, N. P., & Spence, C. (2004). The body schema and multisensory representation (s) of peripersonal space. Cognitive Processing, 5, 94-105.
33. Hull, C. L. (1943). Principles of behavior. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
34. Janet, P. (1903). Les obsessions et la psychasthénie [Obsessions and psychasthenia]. Paris: Félix Alcan.
35. Kazén, M., & Kuhl, J. (2005). Intention memory and achievement motivation: Volitional facilitation and inhibition as a function of affective contents of need-related stimuli. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 426-448. (Pubitemid 41634726)
36. Kazén, M., Baumann, N., & Kuhl, J. (2003). Self-infiltration and self-compatibility checking in dealing with unattractive tasks and unpleasant items: The moderating influence of state vs. action-orientation. Motivation and Emotion, 27, 157-197. (Pubitemid 37095268)
37. Kazén, M., Kaschel, R., & Kuhl, J. (2008). Individual differences in intention initiation under demanding conditions: Interactive effects of state vs. action orientation and enactment difficulty. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 693-715.
38. Kehr, H. M., Bles, P., & Rosenstiel, L. von (1999). Self-regulation, self-control, and management training transfer. International Journal of Educational Research, 31, 487-498. (Pubitemid 41167993)
39. Kelly, G. A. (1955). The psychology of personal constructs. New York: Norton.
40. Kendler, H. H. (1946). The influence of simultaneous hunger and thirst drives upon the learning of two opposed spatial responses of the white rat. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 36, 212-220.
41. Koole, S. L., & Jostmann, N. B. (2004). Getting a grip on your feelings: Effects of action orientation and external demands on intuitive affect regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 974-990. (Pubitemid 39621142)
42. Kuhl, J. (1981). Motivational and functional helplessness: The moderating effect of state versus action orientation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 155-170.
43. Kuhl, J. (1984). Volitional aspects of achievement motivation and learned helplessness: Toward a comprehensive theory of action-control. In B. A. Maher (Ed.), Progress in experimental personality research (Vol. 13, pp. 99-171). New York: Academic Press.
44. Kuhl, J. (1994). Action versus state orientation: Psychometric properties of the Action-Control-Scale (ACS-90). In J. Kuhl & J. Beckmann (Eds.), Action control: From cognition to behavior (pp. 47-59). Göttingen/Toronto: Hogrefe.
45. Kuhl, J. (1996). Wille und Freiheitserleben: Formen der Selbststeuerung [Volition and subjective freedom: Modes of volition]. In J. Kuhl & H. Heckhausen (Eds.), Enzyklopädie der Psychologie: Motivation, Volition und Handlung (Series IV, Vol. 4, pp. 665-765). Göttingen: Hogrefe.
46. Kuhl, J. (2000a). A functional-design approach to motivation and self-regulation: The dynamics of personality systems interactions. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 111-169). San Diego: Academic Press.
47. Kuhl, J. (2000b). The volitional basis of personality systems interaction theory: Applications in learning and treatment contexts. International Journal of Educational Research, 33, 665-703.
48. Kuhl, J. (2001). Motivation und Persönlichkeit: Interaktionen psychischer Systeme [Motivation and personality: Interactions of mental systems]. Göttingen: Hogrefe.
49. Kuhl, J. (2007). Psychologie des Selbstseins [The psychology of selfhood]. In J. Kuhl & A. Luckner, Freies Selbstsein: Authentizität und Regression (pp. 49-81). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht.
50. Kuhl, J. (2008). der Wille ist frei und determiniert: Funktionsanalyse und Diagnostik von Selbstbestimmung und Verantwortlichkeit [Freedom and determination of the will: Functional-design analysis and assessment of self-determination and responsibility]. In E.-J. Lampe, G. Roth, & M. Pauen (Eds.), Willensfreiheit und rechtliche Ordnung (pp. 99-125). Frankfurt/M: Suhrkamp.
51. Kuhl, J., & Fuhrmann, A. (1998). Decomposing self-regulation and self-control: The volitional components checklist. In J. Heckhausen & C. Dweck (Eds.), Life span perspectives on motivation and control (pp. 15-49). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
52. Kuhl, J., & Kazén, M. (1994). Self-discrimination and memory: State orientation and false self-ascription of assigned activities. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 1103-115.
53. Kuhl, J., & Kazén, M. (1999). Volitional facilitation of difficult intentions: Joint activation of intention memory and positive affect removes Stroop interference. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 128, 382-399.
54. Kuhl, J., & Kazén, M. (2009). Persönlichkeits-Stil-und Störungs-Inventar (PSSI) [Personality Style and Disorder Inventory (PSSI)] Göttingen: Hogrefe.
55. Kuhl, J., & Koole, S. (2008). The functional architecture of approach and avoidance motivation. In A. Elliot (Ed.), The handbook of approach and avoidance motivation. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
56. Kuhl, J., & Koole, S. (2009). The functional architecture of personality. Submitted manuscript. University of Osnabrück.
57. Leicht, E. M., Quirin, M., Kuhl, J., Martens, U., & Gruber, T. (2009). "Free will": A question of personality? Investigation of lateralized readiness potentials in EEG. Poster presented at the 49th Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research, Berlin.
58. Libet, B. (1985). Unconscious cerebral initiative and the role of conscious will in voluntary action. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 8, 529-539.
59. Linville, P. W. (1987). Self-complexity as a cognitive buffer against stress-related illness and depression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 663-676.
60. Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (1990). A theory of goal setting and task performance. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
61. McClelland, D. C. (1985). Human motivation. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman & Co.
62. Metzinger, T. (2003). Being no one: The self-model theory of subjectivity. Cambridge, MA: MIT.
63. Miller, W. R., & Atencio, D. J. (2008). Free will as a proportion of variance. In J. Baer, J. C. Kaufman, & R. F. Baumeister (Eds.), Are we free? Psychology and free will (pp. 275-295). New York: Oxford University Press.
64. Mischel, W., & Shoda, Y. (1995). A cognitive-affective system theory of personality: Reconceptualizing situations, dispositions, dynamics, and invariance in personality structure. Psychological Review, 102, 246-268.
65. Northoff, G., Heinzel, A., de Greck, M., Bermpohl, F., Dobrowolny, H., & Panksepp, J. (2006). Self-referential processing in our brain - A meta-analysis of imaging studies on the self. NeuroImage, 31, 440-457. (Pubitemid 44250876)
66. Oettingen, G., Pak, H. J., & Schnetter, K. (2001). Self-regulation of goal-setting: Turning free fantasies about the future into binding goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 736-753. (Pubitemid 33594889)
67. Orbell, S. (2003). Personality systems interactions theory and the theory of planned behavior: Evidence that self-regulatory volitional components enhance enactment of studying behavior. British Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 95-112. (Pubitemid 37189174)
68. Palfi, T. P. (2002). Action-state orientation and the self-regulation of eating behavior. Eating Behaviors, 3, 249-259.
69. Pauen, M. (2004). Illusion Freiheit? [Illusion freedom?]. Frankfurt: S. Fischer.
70. Pavlov, I. P. (1927/1953). Die physiologische Lehre von den Typen des Nervensystems, den Temperamenten. Sämtliche Werke, Band III/2 [The physiological science of the types of the nervous system, the temperaments. The complete works, Vol. III/2]. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.
71. Pinker, S. (2008). The fear of determinism. In J. Baer, J. C. Kaufman, & R. F. Baumeister (Eds.), Are we free? Psychology and free will (pp. 311-324). New York: Oxford University Press.
72. Pribram, K. H., & McGuiness, D. (1975). Arousal, activation, and effort in the control of attention. Psychological Review, 82, 116-149.
73. Pruessner, J. C., Baldwin, M. W., Dedovic, K., Renwick, R., Mahani, N. K., Lord, C., Lupien, S. (2005). Self-esteem, locus of control, hippocampal volume, and cortisol regulation in young and old adulthood. NeuroImage, 28, 815-826. (Pubitemid 41713617)
74. Quirin, M., Baumann, N., Kazén, M., Kuhl, J., & Koole, S. L. (2009). You can't always remember what you want: The role of cortisol in self-ascription of assigned goals. Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 1026-1032.
75. Quirin, M., Gillath, O., Pruessner, J., & Eggert, L. (2010). Adult attachment insecurity and hippocampal cell density. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 5, 39-47.
76. Quirin, M., Kerber, A., Düsing, R., Schütze, M., Schumacher, S., Kuhl, J., Küstermann, E. (2009). Are you the master of your intentional mind? fMRI correlates of unconscious introjection. Poster presented at the Emotion Preconference of the 10th Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology at Tampa, Florida.
77. Quirin, M., Kuhl, J., & Koole, S. L. (2010). Intuiting the self: Development and validation of the experiential self-access questionnaire. Manuscript in preparation. University of Osnabrück.
78. Radke, S., Nüsser, C., Erk, S., Kuhl, J., & Walter, H. (2008). The contribution of achievement motivation to Stroop interference: An event-related fMRI study. Poster presented at the International Congress of Psychology, Berlin, Germany.
79. Rogers, C. R. (1961). On becoming a person: A therapist's view of psychotherapy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
80. Roth, G. (2004). Worüber dürfen Hirnforscher reden - und in welcher Weise [What are brain researchers allowed to talk about - and in which way]. In C. Geyer (Ed.), Hirnforschung und Willensfreiheit (pp. 66-85). Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
81. Rothermund, K., & Meiniger, C. (2004). Stress-buffering effects of self-complexity: Reduced affective spillover or self-regulatory processes? Self and Identity, 3, 263-282.
82. Schmajuk, N. A., & Buhusi, C. V. (1997). Stimulus configuration, occasion setting, and the hippocampus. Behavioral Neuroscience, 111, 235-257.
83. Showers, C. J., & Kling, K. C. (1996). Organization of selfknowledge: Implications for recovery from sad mood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 578-590. (Pubitemid 126420696)
84. Singer, W. (2004). Verschaltungen legen uns fest: Wir sollten aufhören, von Freiheit zu sprechen [We are determined by circuits: We should stop talking about freedom]. In C. Geyer (Ed.), Hirnforschung und Willensfreiheit (pp. 30-65). Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
85. Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and human behavior. New York: Macmillan.
86. Springer, S. P., & Deutsch, G. (1998). Left brain, right brain: Perspectives from cognitive neuroscience (5th ed.). New York: Freeman.
87. Thayer, R. E. (1978). Toward a psychological theory of multidimensional activation (arousal). Motivation and Emotion, 2, 1-34. (Pubitemid 9025258)
88. Tomer, R., Goldstein, R. Z., Wang, G.-J., Wong, C., & Volkow, N. D. (2008). Incentive motivation is associated with striatal dopamine asymmetry. Biological Psychology, 77, 98-101. (Pubitemid 350309699)
89. Van Overwalle, F. (2009). Social cognition and the brain: A metaanalysis. Human Brain Mapping, 30, 829-858.
90. Van Overwalle, F., & Baetens, K. (2009). Understanding others' actions and goals by mirror and mentalizing systems: A metaanalysis. NeuroImage, 48, 564-584.
91. Winter, D. G. (1996). Personality: Analysis and interpretation of lives. New York US: McGraw-Hill.
92. Wood, W., & Neal, D. T. (2007). A new look at habits and the habit-goal interface. Psychological Review, 14, 843-863.
93. Yalom, I. D. (1980). Existential psychotherapy. New York: Basic Books.