Will and its main features. Volitional action. Volitional regulation of behavior.

Will and regulation of activity.

It is traditionally believed that the main thing for the emergence of volitional regulation is the presence of barriers, obstacles in achieving the goal.L. M. Wekker believes that volitional regulation begins where there is at least a two-level hierarchy of activity programs, where it is necessary to correlate the levels of these programs and select among them the level that meets the criteria of intellectual, emotional, moral and general social value.

I.M. Sechenov put approximately the same meaning into the concept of will when he wrote that will is the active side of the mind and moral feelings.

Volitional regulation includes the following components:

1. cognitive
2. emotional
3. behavioral (active)

The structure of a volitional act includes the following components:

1. motivation and awareness of the goal;
2. struggle of motives;
3. act of decision making;
4. execution.

Volitional action is related to needs, but does not flow directly from them. It is mediated by the awareness of the incentives for action as motives and its results as goals (S. L. Rubinstein).

Will arises when a person is capable of reflecting his own drives and can somehow relate to them. The will is inextricably linked with the available plan of action. Through volitional action, a person plans to implement the goal facing him, subordinating his impulses to conscious control and changing the surrounding reality in accordance with his plan.

Basic characteristics of will. Volitional regulation of behavior. The concept of will is one of the most ancient; Aristotle tried to study it. Descartes. It was introduced as an explanatory concept. According to Aristotle, the concept of will was necessary to explain the generation of action based not on a person’s desires, but on a rational decision about his existence. Realizing that knowledge itself does not have motivation, but constantly faced with the reality of human ethical actions, when an action is carried out not because one wants to, but because it is necessary, Aristotle was forced to look for a force capable of initiating such behavior.

The problem of will, according to Aristotle, is the problem of giving the object of action a motivating force and thereby providing an incentive to action (or inhibiting, if necessary, reducing the motivating force of the object of action).

Previously, the will was considered as a supernatural force that took precedence over other mental processes. There is no absolute will. We can talk about will when an impulse arises:

1. Volition phase: desire + desire + motive.
2. Choice phase: struggle of motives, decision making.
3. The phase of implementation by action, the decision turns into bodily action. Our decision and behavior is determined by a strong motive. In Aristotle's concept, the will determined not only the initiation of voluntary actions, but also their choice and their regulation during implementation. Moreover, the will itself could be understood both as an independent force (formation) of the soul, and as a person’s ability to perform a certain activity, coming from himself.

Thus, the first paradigm within which the problem of will was posed was the generation of human action coming from himself. Consideration of the will in the context of generating action presupposes, first of all, the incentive function of the will, and such an approach can be conventionally designated as motivational; it is the most powerful in the study of will.

It is characterized by the fact that will is analyzed as the ability to initiate actions, or to strengthen the impulse to action when it is deficient, due to external or internal obstacles, the absence of an actually experienced desire for action, the presence of motives competing with the action being performed. Depending on the ideas about the mechanisms of such ability, will is understood:

• or as an independent mental formation,
• or as an independent force of non-psychological nature,
• either as a motivational or emotional formation (desire, affects, needs),
• or comes down to the state of the brain as a regulatory mechanism.

Later, a second approach to the study of will was formulated, the “Free Choice” approach. Within this approach, the will is endowed with the function of choosing motives, goals and actions. One of the trends in the development of this approach is the transfer of research on choice and, more broadly, decision-making into areas of research that are not directly related to the problem of will and have their own conceptual apparatus. Therefore, the urgent tasks of the “free choice” approach are to isolate the volitional aspects of the problem of choice and develop adequate methods for their experimental research.

Within the framework of this approach, two variants of ideas about will can be distinguished:

1. Will is considered as an independent force (voluntaristic type of theory);
2. Will is reduced to the functioning of cognitive processes (intellectualistic theories).

Thus, in modern psychology, the problem of will is presented in two ways: as a problem of self-determination (motivational approach and the “free choice” approach) and as a problem of self-regulation (regulatory approach).

When a person voluntarily accepts moral norms, the highest moral law and is guided by it in his actions, we can say that the person is morally free. To be free means to obey reason, not passions (Leibniz, Spinoza).

In psychology, freedom of choice is understood when a person, as a result of a struggle of motives, chooses the one that is stronger. Modern researchers of will are Selivanova, Ivannikov, Platonov. Will is defined by them as a person’s conscious regulation of his behavior as a result of overcoming internal and external obstacles to the path and goal. Structure of the will: Purpose; Level of aspiration; Volitional effort; The struggle of motives; Decision-making; Performance.

Volitional effort can occur at any stage of volitional action associated with overcoming obstacles. Volitional effort is a form of emotional stress that mobilizes all a person’s internal resources, creating additional motives for action and experienced mental states of significant stress (Ivannikov). The psychological mechanism of volitional effort is the attraction of a new motive, thereby changing the meaning of the action in order to strengthen the primary impulse.

Volitional personality traits

The qualities of a strong-willed personality include, first of all: independence, determination, perseverance, perseverance, and self-control.

Independence is a strong-willed quality that manifests itself in a person’s ability to set goals on his own initiative and realize them, overcoming obstacles. An independent person is convinced of the correctness of his goal and will fight with all his might to achieve it. At the same time, independence does not exclude the use of advice and suggestions from other people to assess the possibility of achieving a goal. The opposite qualities of independence are suggestibility and negativism. All weak-willed people who do not know what to do in the current situation are susceptible to the motivating nature, and are always waiting for advice or instructions from other people.

Negativism is a negative quality of will, under the influence of which a person commits actions that contradict the correct and appropriate advice of other people. Negativism most often manifests itself in adolescents who want to demonstrate their independence and autonomy from adults.

Determination is one of the important volitional personality traits, which manifests itself at the initial stage of volitional behavior, when a person has to make efforts to choose the goal of action.

Indecisiveness is a negative volitional trait that prevents a person from quickly making the right decision and performing a volitional action.

Perseverance is the most important quality of will, which manifests itself in a person’s ability to patiently overcome all difficulties that arise on the way to achieving a goal. This quality is inherent in people who can exert strong will over a long period of time to solve a problem in the best possible way and achieve the best results.

Persistence is a quality of will that helps a person achieve his goal at any cost, despite all obstacles and opposition. A persistent person is convinced of the correctness of the chosen path, understands the expediency of his actions and the need to achieve the desired results.

Stubbornness is a negative quality of will, the opposite of perseverance. A stubborn person recklessly strives for a goal, even if it is of little importance to him and cannot be realized at the moment. Self-control is a strong-willed trait that gives a person the ability to self-regulate in the most difficult, extreme conditions of existence, mobilizing all his mental and physical resources.

All these qualities are not present in a person in finished form, but are formed and developed in the process of life. They are formed in childhood under the influence of upbringing and play activities. Parents try to raise their children to be strong, dexterous, persistent, courageous, able to overcome difficulties and consciously regulate their behavior.

Play is especially important for the development of volitional skills. Role-playing and rules-based games encourage children to exercise willpower to best fulfill their role and perform better than others in the game in following the rules.

At school age, the development of will is influenced by educational activities, which are mandatory and require students to behave not “as they want,” but “as they should.” To successfully acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes, students must use their mental and physical energy, perseverance and perseverance in overcoming difficulties.

“Self-education is of great importance in the development of strong-willed qualities. In no other area of ​​mental activity does self-education play such a role as in the formation of the will. Only self-education can give a person the opportunity to control himself, show volitional efforts, mobilize all his resources to overcome difficulties, overcome negative personality traits and bad habits.”

Theory of “Action Control” Yu. Kul

Yu. Kul abandoned the concept of “will” (“Wille”) in the traditional sense and replaced it with the concept of “control over action.” This concept is also conveyed by the term “Volition”. The concept of “action control” is broader and describes not only volitional regulation when suppressing competing tendencies of action, but also the entire set of processes that mediate the implementation of intention.

Yu. Kul explores the volitional sphere as a system consisting of a set of subsystems. The implementation of its functions is possible only with flexible and coordinated interaction of subsystems that ensure that intentions to achieve a goal are kept active in favorable situations and the cessation of targeted activity in unfavorable situations.

It describes the following subsystems:

1. Motivational control is aimed at strengthening the basic motivational tendency underlying the intention. The subject's attention is focused on positive expectations and external stimuli that are favorable for performing the activity.

2. Attention control ensures that attention is directed to information related to the implementation of intentions. This is important when “losing sight” of the target object is possible.

3. Perceptual control. The perceptual system is more sensitive to information related to intention and blocks interfering information. Her work leads to the fact that it takes less time to process the necessary information and she quickly gains access to action regulation systems.

4. Emotional control. The subject has “knowledge” about emotional states that promote or hinder the implementation of intentions. If the emotional background makes it difficult to achieve a goal, then the action control system strives to change it.

5. Control of failures. Failures act as effective feedback in the implementation of intentions. Information about possible failures either leads to the mobilization of additional efforts, or to disappointment and a decrease in efforts, up to a temporary refusal to achieve the goal due to unfavorable circumstances.

6. Encoding control and RAM. Intent-related information is processed using a lean strategy (saving effort and time). This opens up the shortest path to initiating an action associated with an intention. If the action is delayed for some reason, then information about the intention is stored in RAM in a special, “activated” state. Even being unconscious, this information is easily accessible to the subject when a situation arises that is favorable for resuming the action associated with the intention.

7. Behavioral control. This mechanism consists of forethought, which protects a person from temptations by eliminating from the field of activity and the environment objects that provoke undesirable actions.

Yu. Kul was one of the first to suggest that there is an alternative form of action regulation, in which no additional resources are required to overcome obstacles, and regulation is carried out through the redistribution of “responsibilities” between the components of the mental system. He talks about two types of volitional regulation:

Ø about self-control, which manifests itself in deliberate attention and maintaining the subject’s efforts to increase the level of his own activity. This type corresponds to the traditional understanding of will.

Ø About self-regulation. This is a type of volitional regulation, it manifests itself in involuntary attention to the target object and in the absence of efforts on the part of the subject aimed at energizing his behavior. At the same time, the system operates in such a way that “constant control of the “I” is not needed.

Methodological recommendations for studying the topic:

To solve the problem of will, it is important to answer two questions - “What or who is the source of human mental activity” and “How does the will relate to other mental processes.”

On the first question in the history of psychology there are different points of view.

The opinion was expressed that the human will is a manifestation of an intense spiritual substance (R. Descartes originally wrote about this); these ideas were later developed by theological concepts. Will was also considered as a manifestation of a person’s internal forces (B. Spinoza, G. Hobbes), which is consistent with the principle of self-organization. V. Wundt derived the will from affects, other authors derive the will from needs and motives or connect it with the personality as a whole, and the needs are assigned only the role of the initiator of impulsive behavior.

There are also many opinions on the second question. Traditionally, will is considered in a trinity with cognitive and emotional properties: “cognition - feeling-will”. Recently, the opinion has been expressed that will is a more complex phenomenon - it is the ability of an individual to control his motives-goals, states, actions, thoughts, it is their derivative. In a number of cases, will is opposed to consciousness - with the help of consciousness, a person comprehends the phenomena of objective reality, with the help of will, he is freed from the captivity of actual needs. V.I. Selivanov believes that the will should correlate with the entire consciousness as a whole, and not with its individual parts.

In the twentieth century in psychology, the concept of will was pushed to the periphery, and it was not among the main concepts. Intensive theoretical and experimental research was carried out abroad in the 1930s, then interest sharply declined. Psychology textbooks did not even have a chapter devoted to will. There is now a resurgence in research on will.

Regarding will, it should be remembered that this concept was introduced because there are real mental phenomena of volitional regulation of behavior, and the task of psychology is to find one or another mechanism (or mechanisms) that ensures volitional regulation.

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Psychology of human motivation 2

... The lag in the study of the motivational sphere of a person is also explained by the following: giving a lot of ... will and some interesting psychological facts and specific patterns have been established. It can be considered that it was K. Lewin’s research that laid the foundation for the study of human needs in psychology. ...

Will is also studied by other sciences, so the problem of free will and responsibility is the subject of legal sciences, philosophy, and physiology.

When studying the topic, it is necessary to understand how voluntary regulation of behavior differs from volitional regulation. You should pay attention to what the problem of will in psychology is.

Will as a regulator of human behavior

Will helps to exercise self-government of behavior. This occurs due to consciousness, which presupposes the independence of the individual not only in the decision-making process (the so-called “free will”), but also in the initiation of actions, including their implementation and control.

The main essence of the will is represented by the self, which distinguishes voluntary control from involuntary control. Aristotle discovered this quality when considering voluntary regulation.

One of the simplest forms of motor manifestations is spontaneous movements. They are the result of a discharge of energy that has accumulated in the central nervous system. A baby who has just been born screams and moves his arms and legs randomly. These movements are considered partly reflexive, as they are caused by external stimuli. They are partly spontaneous, since the accumulated energy required a discharge, which is expressed through movements.

The next stage includes imitative movements. They are represented by the perception of movements that are performed by other living beings. Next, motor impulses arise that are concentrated on performing the same movements. This type of movement is always conscious or at least semi-conscious. They are classified into the following groups:

• free,
• Involuntary.

The highest level consists of conscious voluntary movements. They are characterized by a difference from other movements in that they include a new element - volitional tension.