This article presents a cognitive-motivational theory (CMT) of the mechanisms associated with three basic dimensions of personality vulnerability to alcoholism, impulsivity/novelty seeking, harm avoidance, and excitement seeking. CMT describes the interrelationships between activity in basic motivational systems and attentional, decision making, and working memory processes as the mechanisms as...

In this paper, we attempt to rehabilitate the notion of role by linking sociological theory recent work on motivational, affective, and cognitive neuroscience specifying internal mechanisms behind motivated action. We argue that there is nothing inherently problematic or retrogressive in idea “role,” once its link a purely normative account action severed. Instead, conceptualizing roles as emer...

Current approaches to design motivational technology for behavior change focus on either tailoring motivational strategies to individual preferences or on implementing strategies from behavior change theory. Our goal is to combine these two approaches and translate behavior change theory to text messages, tailored to personality. To this end, we conducted an online survey with 481 participants ...

We were guided by the Protection Motivation Theory to test the motivational interviewing effects on attitude and intention of obese and overweight women to do regular physical activity. In a randomized controlled trial, we selected using convenience sampling 60 overweight and obese women attending health centres. The women were allocated to 2 groups of 30 receiving a standard weight-control pro...

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Motivational behavior is explained in the light of reflex theory by reference to: (i) Pavlov's concept of nerve center as an assembly of structures messing the same function, (ii) Sherrington's and Magnus' ideas about the hierarchical structure of the nervous system, (iii) author's notion about the multistage arc of the unconditioned reflex, i.e., an arc with many branches in its central path, ...

Using motivational intensity theory as a framework, three experiments examined how implicit self-focus (manipulated with masked first-name priming) and explicit self-focus (manipulated with a large mirror) influence effort-related cardiovascular activity, particularly systolic blood pressure reactivity. Theories of self-focused attention suggest that both implicit and explicit self-focus bring ...

The capability of collaboration is critical in the design of symbiotic cognitive systems. To obtain this functional capability, a cognitive system should possess evaluative and communicative processes. Emotions and their underlying processes provide such functions in social and collaborative environments. We investigate the mutual influence of affective and collaboration processes in a cognitiv...

This article had four goals. First, the authors identified a set of general challenges and questions that a life-span theory of development should address. Second, they presented a comprehensive account of their Motivational Theory of Life-Span Development. They integrated the model of optimization in primary and secondary control and the action-phase model of developmental regulation with thei...