Draft:Action Tendency: Difference between revisions

'''Action tendency''' is a psychological term in [[behavioral science]] which refers to an individual's urge to carry out a particular behavior, particularly as a [[Emotion#Components|component]] of emotion. In behavioral science, an individual's emotions direct their response to current circumstances or relationships; thus, the action tendency, as a constituent factor of the individual's overall emotional response, is a temporary and immediate impulse.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Frijda |first1=Nico H. |title=L. Linnenbrink-Garcia |journal=Cognition and Emotion |date=1987 |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=115-143 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02699938708408043?casa_token=fr0dccmuzNIAAAAA:-WyGw2bt_24kXPKWWLUoyil3CQyTfGAP-yEerSOELSFSkEs9pOCyYJrQV03oBRwT8HyFMpKSLGA |access-date=14 June 2023}}</ref>

Action tendency is the [[motivation|motivational]] component of emotional decision making which is responsible for the preparation and direction of motor responses. Under the emotional framework, motivation can be thought of as the state of readiness to engage in a certain action with the goal of achieving a desired result.{{sfn|Frijda|1987|p=70}} The action tendency is distinct from cognitive, physiological, and expressive components, which likewise determine an individual's behavior.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Scherer |first1=Klaus R. |title=What are emotions? And how can they be measured? |journal=Social Science Information |date=December 2005 |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=695–729 |doi=10.1177/0539018405058216 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0539018405058216 |access-date=14 June 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Shuman |first1=V. |last2=Scherer |first2=K.R. |title=International handbook of emotions in education |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |pages=13-35 |chapter=Concepts and structures of emotions}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Gartmeier |first1=Martin |last2=Hascher |first2=Tina |title=Emotions, Technology, and Learning |date=2016 |isbn=978-0-12-800649-8 |pages=121-122 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128006498000055 |access-date=14 June 2023 |chapter=Emotions in Learning with Video Cases}}</ref>

Because action tendency is, essentially, an immediate suggestion for a response in a particular set of circumstances, it is informed by an individual's set of preferences at the current point in time, which are supplied elsewhere within the emotion. Action tendency, therefore, changes as an individual moves between emotional states, and is modified by the individual's present cognitive and physiological abilities.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Posner |first1=Eric |title=Law and the Emotions |journal=Georgetown Law Journal |date=2001 |volume=89 |pages=1977-2012 |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200322161341id_/https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=2732&context=journal_articles |access-date=13 June 2023 |publisher=University of Chicago}}</ref>

Several theories and experiments support the notion that action tendencies can be primed to produce a desired result before the onset of emotion. In 2010, an experiment which trained [[addiction|addicts]] to either approach or a avoid alcohol found that the subjects' action tendency towards alcohol was positively affected in accordance with the training condition.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wiers |first1=Reinout W. |last2=Rinck |first2=Mike |last3=Kordts |first3=Robert |last4=Houben |first4=Katrijn |last5=Strack |first5=Fritz |title=Retraining automatic action-tendencies to approach alcohol in hazardous drinkers |journal=Addiction |date=February 2010 |volume=105 |issue=2 |pages=279–287 |doi=10.1111/j.1360-0443.2009.02775.x |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2009.02775.x?casa_token=19O23O_8r8MAAAAA%3AOBOo8mDrmK8GeZBPfkfd7MDoXob5xMejZkDnNfCy3JLFTW_wcxNjWDXdQHXtJy8y00t9HdAwH7xj |access-date=14 June 2023}}</ref>