More Americans now play video games than go to the movies (NPD Group, 2009). The meteoric rise in popularity of video games highlights the need for research approaches that can deepen our scientific understanding of video game engagement. This article advances a theory-based motivational model for examining and evaluating the ways by which video game engagement shapes psychological processes an...

Brain motivational circuitry in human adolescence is poorly characterized. One theory holds that risky behavior in adolescence results in part from a relatively overactive ventral striatal (VS) motivational circuit that readily energizes approach toward salient appetitive cues. However, other evidence fosters a theory that this circuit is developmentally underactive, in which adolescents approa...

Background and Purpose: What drives some athletes to achieve at the highest level whilst other athletes fail to achieve their physical potential? Why does the ‘fire’ burn so brightly for some elite athletes and not for others? A good understanding of an athlete’s motivation is critical to a coach designing an appropriate motivational climate to realize an athlete’s physical talent. This paper e...

Motivation is a key neurobehavioral concept underlying adaptive responses to environmental incentives and threats. As such, dysregulation of motivational processes may be critical in the formation of abnormal behavioral patterns/tendencies. According to the long standing model of the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST), motivation behaviors are driven by three neurobehavioral systems mediati...

In this book we address the problem of introducing flexibility and adaptability in autonomous agent design in the context of agents situated in regulated environments. We argue that current cognitive architectures such as those based on BDI theory fall short in performing autonomous reasoning in agents. One of the important reasons is the lack of clear motivations for choosing a goal or an acti...

BACKGROUND Cross-cultural research on minority school achievement yields mixed findings on the motivational impact of future goal setting for students from disadvantaged minority groups. Relevant and recent motivational research, integrating Future Time Perspective Theory with Self-Determination Theory, has not yet been validated among minority students. AIMS To replicate across cultures the ...

a r t i c l e i n f o Individuals orient themselves in relationships using different goals and preoccupations, often conceptualized as four distinct attachment styles (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991). Individuals also orient themselves in the social world more broadly using different motivational preferences and styles. Self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987) and regulatory focus theory (Higgins,...

Many modern theories of drug use and dependence assign central prominence to the role of craving in drug use and relapse. However, some continue to debate whether drug craving has any motivational significance in terms of drug-using behaviors. Cognitive social learning theory adds additional perspective by imbedding craving within a network of cognitive processes that, as they inter-relate, inf...

Cognitive therapy for depression is common practice in today's National Health Service, yet it does not work well. Aaron Beck developed it after becoming disillusioned with the psychoanalytic theory and therapy he espoused and practised. But Beck's understanding of psychoanalysis appears to have been seriously flawed. Understood rightly, the psychoanalytic approach offers a cogent theory and th...