Cross-Cultural Difference in Perspectives on the Self features the latest research in a dynamic area of inquiry and practice. Considered in these pages are cross-cultural differences in the idea of the person and in models of balancing obligations to the self, family, and community. Revisiting and questioning the concepts of self and self-worth, the authors investigate the extent to which factors traditionally associated with psychological effectiveness (intrinsic motivation; assuming personal responsibility for one's actions; and feeling in control, unique, hopeful, and optimistic) are...

This volume marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, the longest continuously running symposium in the field of psychology.

The motivational processes involved in drug abuse, the largest health problem in the United States, are the subject of eight thought-provoking essays that probe behavioral, cognitive, evolutionary, and physiological perspectives. George F. Koob discusses the implications of an allostatic view of motivation in psychopathology. Harriet de Witt considers the dual determinants of drug use in humans, reward and impulsivity, while R. D....

Capturing the complexity of human behavior has been a recurring theme in the Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. The contributors to this volume describe contemporary approaches to the modeling of complex cognitive and behavioral processes, ranging from molecular to molar phenomena. Although the essays reflect a wide range of theoretical and epistemic perspectives, they all incorporate complex frameworks of dynamic, systemlike relationships involving perception, learning, concept formation, emotion, motivation, intention, behavior, and the social context in which behavior occurs.The editors...

In what ways do individuals influence the course of their lives? How do people construct a unique life path within the opportunities and constraints afforded by their world?

This volume examines how agency in the life course can be conceptualized and investigates the specific ways in which personal characteristics and contextual variables play a role in shaping individual lives. The contributors offer differing perspectives on agency, how its expression changes over a lifetime, and how it is constrained, channeled, or altered by cultural and social institutions.

Each chapter focuses...

Moral Motivation through the Life Span is the fifty-first volume in the Nebraska Symposium on Motivation series, the longest continuously running symposium in the field of psychology. This work focuses on moral development theory and research, an area of academic study that began early in the twentieth century but has never before been addressed by the Symposium. What is morality, such theorists ask, and what exactly makes a "moral person"? The contributors to this volume are of diverse theoretical orientations and take different stances on a number of major themes: What motivates moral...

Modern conceptualization of the multidimensional nature of anxiety, panic, and fear are examined from a variety of perspectives, including theories of emotion and cognition, neuropsychology, and conditioning.

Carroll E. Izard and Eric A. Youngstrom open with a review of Differential Emotions Theory. In the second chapter, Jeffrey A. Gray and Neil McNaughton summarize and update Gray's neuropsychological theory of anxiety. Susan Mineka and Richard Zinbarg consider what modern conditioning theory contributes to the understanding of emotion, and Richard J. McNally offers an overview of the...

In this volume, the concept of motivation is used to shed light on a range of complex issues surrounding the maltreatment of children. Cathy Spatz Widom investigates the role of motivation in the intergenerational transmission of violence, where victimized children themselves become perpetrators of violence as adults. Joel S. Milner looks at the way abusive parents process social information related to children. The biological, psychological, and social-contextual regulatory processes in maltreated children are considered by Dante Cicchetti and Sheree L. Toth. Deborah Daro discusses the...

Recent media coverage of the controversial theory of sexual violence as a product of biological evolution has once again brought the question of the origins of human motivation into the public eye. In this volume, leading scholars in behavioral studies examine the value of evolutionary perspectives in understanding psychological motivations. Beginning with the fundamental fact that humans are part of the biological world, evolutionary psychologists contend that human motivations and mental processes should be understood as by-products of natural selection. By viewing human psychology both...

The question of whether personal gratification is compatible with social good is one of the fundamental problems of motivation. The family, an institution that has undergone extraordinary change in the last generation, is perhaps the most profound context in which to consider this issue. This volume is tinged with prophetic concern about the state of contemporary family life and about the (un)likelihood of reconciling individual family members interests with those of the family as a whole.The nine contributors backgrounds are diverse anthropology, economics, law, and clinical, community,...

The 53rd Nebraska Symposium on Motivation developed under the past Series Editor, Richard A. Dienstbier. Prof. Dienstbier oversaw the symposium for many years and he is largely responsible for its continued success. His broad and thoughtful view of the field of psychology has guided the symposium into the twenty-first century. Everyone connected to the symposium is extremely grateful for his leadership. With his retirement, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Department of Psychology developed a new administrative structure for oversight of the symposium and selected Debra A. Hope as the new...