Action-theoretical Perspective Research Articles

Beyond craving: Appetitive desire as a motivational antecedent of goal‐directed action intentions

AbstractSelf‐regulation is generally considered a process of constraining appetitive desire motivation toward goal‐inconsistent objects and actions through rationality‐based (volitive) motivation. The predominant temptation‐focused view of appetitive desire focuses on cravings and self‐control dilemmas, overlooking the beneficial role of appetitive desire in motivating many types of goal‐directed action intentions. We extend this line of research based in the philosophy of action theoretical perspective by proposing that appetitive desire is broader than cravings and it positively influences goal‐consistent action intentions by strengthening volitive desire motivation. Appetitive desire toward goal means containing pleasurable features provides reasons for enacting goal‐consistent actions, which energizes intention formation through volitive desire. Thus, appetitive desire often plays an instrumental rather than detrimental motivational role in reasoned action toward goal pursuit. Three studies, one measurement‐based and two experimental, involving different goal‐directed action contexts, demonstrate that goal means associated with high (vs. low) appetitive desire result in greater volitive desire, which strengthens intentions to enact the goal means. Our results contribute to an expanded understanding of appetitive desire, beyond craving and temptation, as a positive antecedent in the causal sequences of appetitive desire→volitive desire→intentions in the context of consumer goal pursuit.

What’s good about the good life? Action theory, virtue ethics and modern morality

The article explores the scope and the limits of virtue ethics from the perspective of critical theory (Habermas) and critical realism (Bhaskar). Based on new research in moral sociology and anthropology, it ponders how the self-realization of each can be combined with the self-determination of all. The article adopts an action-theoretical perspective on morality and defends the priority of the right over the good. It suggests that in plural and polarized societies, there no longer exists a consensus on any version of the good life. It therefore limits the scope of virtue ethics to personal life and pleads for a minima moralia at the social and political level.

The Difficulty of Climate Change Adaptation in Manufacturing Firms: Developing an Action-Theoretical Perspective on the Causality of Adaptive Inaction

Climate change induces various risks for supply chains of manufacturing firms. However, surveys have suggested that only a minority of firms conducts strategic adaptations, which we define as anticipatory and target-oriented action with the purpose of increasing resilience to climate change. While several barrier-centered studies have investigated the causality of non-adaptation in industry, the examined barriers are often not problem-specific. Furthermore, it has been shown that even in cases when managers perceive no barriers to adaptation at all, strategic adaptations may still not be conducted. On this background, the present analysis focuses on the logic of adaptive inaction, which we conceive, in particular, as inaction with regard to strategic adaptations. Adopting an action-theoretical perspective, the study examines (a) which aspects may shape the rationality of adaptive inaction among managers, (b) which more condensed challenges of conducting strategic adaptations emerge for managers, and (c) how the theoretical propositions can be tested. For this purpose, the study employs an exploratory approach. Thus, hypotheses on such aspects are explored, which may shape the rationality of adaptive inaction among managers. Subsequently, predictions are inferred from the theoretical propositions, which allow testing their empirical relevance. Methodologically, the hypotheses are explored by reexamining existing explanatory approaches from literature based on a set of pretheoretical assumptions, which include notions of bounded rationality. As a result, the study proposes 13 aspects which may constrain managers in conducting adaptations in such a way, which serves the economic utility of the firm. By condensing these aspects, 4 major challenges for managers are suggested: the challenges of (a) conducting long-term adaptations, of (b) conducting adaptations at an early point in time, of (c) conducting adaptations despite uncertain effects of the measures, and of (d) conducting adaptations despite cross-tier dependencies in supply chains. Finally, the study shows how the propositions can be tested and outlines a research agenda based on the developed theoretical suggestions.

Intervention in Online Writing Instruction: An Action-theoretical Perspective

Abstract This analysis argues for an interwoven perspective of motivation, engagement, agency, and action in Online Writing Instruction (OWI) compiled from shared elements of empirical research in online education, writing instruction, and especially student academic engagement in traditional classrooms, where the research domain is comparatively mature. Engagement is the common element shared by these domains. In online education research, engagement is sometimes understood through intentional student actions. In writing instruction, engagement is commonly understood through human agency. In academic settings, engagement can be seen as a foundational part of Self-Determination Theory, which is comprised of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional engagement ( Deci and Ryan, 1985 ). Educators often find measures of engagement valuable because they are reliable predictors of student outcomes, and they suggest a reasonable point of intervention for struggling students. A measure of agentic engagement, which describes the extent to which a student exerts agency to personalize a learning experience, could add value to measures of engagement, especially in OWI where actions and agency are integral to student success. In addition, a focus on engagement and intervention/remediation may offer an opportunity for students to succeed in learning online, not just in OWI, which is a valued skill in the workplace.

On the Downplay of Suffering in Nordenfelt’s Theory of Illness

In his influential theory of health Nordenfelt bases the concepts of health and illness on the notions of ability and disability. A premise for this is that ability and disability provide a more promising, adequate, and useful basis than well-being and suffering. Nordenfelt uses coma and manic episodes as paradigm cases to show that this is so. Do these paradigm cases (and thus the premise) hold? What consequences does it have for the theory of health and illness if it they do not? These are the key questions in this article, which first presents the relationship between pain and disability in Nordenfelt's theory and the paradigm cases he uses to argue for the primacy of disability over pain. Then, Nordenfelt's concepts of illness are outlined, highlighting its presumptions and arguments. The main point is that if you do not have an action-theoretical perspective, it is not obvious that disability is the core concept for illness. The compelling effect of the paradigm cases presupposes that you see ability as the primary issue. To those who do not share this presumption, people in coma may not be ill. There are alternative well founded arguments for the primacy of first person experiences for the concept of illness. Hence, we need better arguments for the primacy of disability over first person experiences in illness, or first-person experience should be more primarily included in the concept of illness.

Unconscious processes in a career counselling case: an action-theoretical perspective

ABSTRACT Although clients and counsellors can often account for their actions in counselling, sometimes the link between the action taken and the larger goal is not apparent. This article accounts for counterproductive, paradoxical actions within the counselling process by addressing unconscious processes as links between immediate actions and larger projects. A career counselling case is presented, the data of which were gathered and analysed through the action-project method. This method includes a video-supported recall procedure, called the self-confrontation interview, as a research and practice means of accessing unconscious aspects of the inter-subjective action of counselling. The complexity of career counselling is illustrated as multiple goals and projects, both conscious and unconscious, are manifest in a single session. Implications for practice include the primacy of the relationship project in career counselling as the relationship project not only contains but reflects other projects such as identity and vocational projects.

Spiritual/Religious Coping as Intentional Activity: An Action Theoretical Perspective

Spiritual/religious coping has proven to be a fertile ground for investigating health-related spirituality in action. Ken Pargament and his colleagues have successfully demonstrated that spiritual/religious coping differs significantly from previously identified coping strategies. While much has been accomplished to date, there are undeveloped theoretical and methodological avenues that appear to provide important promise for understanding the complexities of this critical domain of coping. Some scholars have failed to conceptualize and research spiritual/religious coping as a contextual, temporally bounded process. This paper explores the theoretical and methodological advantages of adopting a contextually embedded, process-oriented epistemology—contextual action theory. We propose that doing so will not only address some of the inadequacies of the extant literature but also aid researchers in exploring novel dimensions of spiritual/religious coping. From a contextual action-theory perspective, spiritual/religious coping is viewed as intentional, goal-directed behaviour that is embedded in a social and relational context. This teleonomic reconceptualization enables researchers to understand the constitution and development of intentions involved in the process of spiritual/religious coping over time. Further, a contextual action theory perspective transcends the narrow, individualistic lens of coping and explores joint and collective coping processes that emerge as people draw upon spiritual/religious practices to cope with distress. Thus, spiritual/religious coping is embedded in social and relational context and as part of personal, intentional goal-directed processes over time. The novel contributions of a contextual theoretical perspective to spiritual/religious coping research and theory are illustrated through a case example.

The Constitution of Space

It has become an academic self-evidence that space can only inadequately be conceptualized as a material or earth-bound base for social processes. This could commend a theoretical view of space as the outcome of action, which brings both social production practices and bodily deployment into focus. The action-theoretical perspective allows the constitution of space to be understood as taking place in perception. Not only are things alone perceived but also the relations between objects. This article develops a space-theoretical concept according to which space is constituted through acts as the outcome of synthesis and positioning practices. This opens up a theoretical perspective defining atmospheres as an external effect, instantiated in perception, of social goods and human beings in their situated spatial order/ing. Exclusion and inclusion are accordingly comprehended in terms of perception of the attunement of places. With reference to Anthony Giddens, this article discusses how space can be understood as a duality of structural ordering and action elements.

Addiction as a complex social process: An action theoretical perspective

This article introduces an action theoretical perspective of addiction. The view that addiction resides solely within the individual continues to foster significant limitations across addiction theorizing, research, and treatment. Exclusive focus on an individual neurobiological level of analysis precludes important additional layers of understanding, for example, the roles of individual and joint human actions, the socially constituting processes of addiction, and the role of gender. Our perspective is that a neurobiological view on addiction is insufficient without consideration of goals, intentionality, relationships, and meaning. Using a composite case scenario, we offer an action theoretical framework for understanding individual and joint addiction processes over time and within the context of other life processes. This integrative framework considers manifest behaviors, internal and communicative processes, and the social meaning of addiction. This article offers a practical application of the theory and draws broad implications for the conceptualization and subsequent language of addiction.

Sun Protection as a Family Health Project in Families with Adolescents

This study examined sun protection in families with adolescents from an action-theoretical perspective. Interview data were collected from 20 families about their attitudes and behaviors around sunbathing and sun protection. The data support the understanding of project as joint goal-directed action over time as the basis on which these behaviors are organized in families. Families used the language of goal-directed action to discuss family sun protection. Differences between families with focused and diffuse sun-protection projects are identified. Sun protection in families as one part of an array of family goal-directed actions and projects has implications for health promotion.

The situational and time-varying context of routines in television viewing: An event history analysis

Building on an action theoretical perspective, it is assumed that most television viewing is a routine response to frequently occurring situations, which together make up everyday life. This interplay between television viewing and everyday life was studied using data from a national survey among Dutch adults (n = 825) and their families. From this survey, data of 225 couples were analyzed using event history analysis. Results indicate that one cannot see television viewing as merely an alternative for other activities. For instance, participatory activities have two distinct effects: They tend to inhibit television viewing by the actor but stimulate television viewing by the actor’s partner. The effect of contacts with other variables appears to be important as well: Being at home, engagement in child care, household work, and eating and drinking often enhances television viewing. But presence of non-family may inhibit television viewing. Education was shown to have a consistently negative impact on television viewing, and there appeared to be some gender specific inducements for termination of television viewing.

Symposium of Social Theory Preface

In one sense, the classics in the human sciences remain permanently relevant and Aristotle is as relevant to present theorizing as Max Weber. But this is not a common view. The curious way sociological theory typically privileges the classics is by treating the accounts of modern society mainly by Comte, Marx, Durkheim and Weber as timeless theory. This has left sociological theory open to the charge that its concepts are zombies in the global age (Beck, 2000). Donald Levine (1995) has sought to transcend this self-restriction by examining ‘national traditions’ of social theory and their dialogue in a pluralistic perspective (Camic and Joas, 2004). In this symposium, while welcoming the disciplinary approach to the historical development of the social sciences (Wallerstein et al., 1996), Hans Joas wishes to go further by displacing another cornerstone in the conceptual edifice that confines social theory to the classical era. He argues that we should replace the notion of nomothetic social science, including impersonal laws of social development, with an ‘action-theoretical perspective’ and ‘a more contingencyoriented understanding of social change’. In his response, Immanuel Wallerstein makes a plea for the recovery of the idea of ‘substantive rationality’ as the focus of unified thinking and action in face of the deep trouble of the existing world-system. My own article can be considered an affirmative action on behalf of the conceptual views of the changing world since 1918 that are usually excluded from social theory. It discards the possibility of an abstracted and allegedly timeless social theory, and further claims that the period since 1918 (and not just the global era) is one of tremendous social change that is as significant as that of the long 19th century. Following Peter Wagner’s (2001) example but with a less institutional and more global perspective, I attempt to historicize social theory by grounding it in the changing world of the last hundred years and its shifting value-ideas.

Between Altruism and Narcissism: An Action Theoretical Approach of Personal Homepages Devoted to Existential Meaning

This article aims to examine existential meaning constructions from an action theoretical perspective in a specific Internet environment: the personal homepage. Personal homepages are on-line multi-media documents addressing the question ‘Who am I?’ Authors of personal homepages provide information on both their personal and public identity. These identity constructions sometimes include reflections on the meaning of life. Answers to questions on the meaning of life reflect the way in which individuals assign ultimate meanings to human life, and consist of three key components: orientation (goals and objectives), beliefs, and experience. This paper aims to examine existential meaning constructions from a action theoretical perspective in a specific Internet environment: the personal homepage. Findings are reported of a qualitative content analysis of answers to the meaning of life provided in a sample of 42 personal homepages. We found that most answers to the meaning of life could be interpreted either as ‘divine/religious’, ‘experience centered’, ‘cosmic’, or ‘social utopian’. The answers provided on the homepages showed similarities with findings reported in other studies on existential meaning. In addition, we found that this Internet environment offers new venues for expressing orientation (goals and objectives), beliefs, and experience reflecting answers to the meaning of life.

The ‘Media Use as Social Action’ Approach: Theory, Methodology, and Research Evidence So Far

An action theoretical perspective for communication research is sketched and a general reference model of the so-called 'Media Use as Social Action' Approach is outlined; how an audience deals with the media of communication (including mass media) is considered a form of social action that is not only conceptualized as external action, but also as external action being accompanied by internal action during the process of self-interaction. This change in perspective obviously implies a shift of accent in communication research. Some of the implications for research designing and choice of adequate research methods are discussed and research evidence gained so far is critically reviewed

An Action Theoretical Frame of Reference for the Study of TV News Use

As overviews of recent TV news research show, the amount of (empirical) studies devoted to TV news is overwhelming. However, as critics have been stressing for years, the results of TV news research - due to a lack of systematic approaches, inconsistencies and a-theoretical foundations - are much less impressive. Obviously, the large amount of TV news studies has not yet led to a systematic, consistent and theoretically coherent view on TV news. In the present contribution an action theoretical perspective on TV news is proposed and a reference model for the study of TV news use outlined, allowing the formulation of some new research questions as well as a strategy for the study of the use people make of TV news.

Die handlungstheoretische Perspektive empirischer (Massen-) Kommunikationsforschung. Theoretischer Ansatz, methodische Implikationen und forschungspraktische Konsequenzen

Article Die handlungstheoretische Perspektive empirischer (Massen-) Kommunikationsforschung. Theoretischer Ansatz, methodische Implikationen und forschungspraktische Konsequenzen was published on January 1, 1992 in the journal Communications (volume 17, issue 2).

The Action-Theoretical Perspective1

In view of the increasing variety of action-theoretical concepts on the one hand and their growing importance in social and sport sciences on the other, it is the aim of this contribution to outline the action-theoretical perspective against its historical background and with its basic assumptions, and to indicate intentions and achievements as well as deficiencies. Four basic assumptions are considered to be characteristic of the action-theoretical perspective: the conception of action as a system process (system postulate), as being intentional, i.e., goal-, purpose- and value-oriented (intentionality postulate), as psychologically regulated (regulation postulate), and as a process that can only be fully understood in the context of biological, psychological and societal development (developmental postulate).