A Theory of Action Identification (Basic Studies in Human Behavior Series) by Vallacher, Robin R., Wegner, Daniel M. (1985) Hardcover

by Robin R. Vallacher

First published in 1985. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Genres: Psychology

Hardcover

First published August 1, 1985

About the author

Robin R. Vallacher is Professor of Psychology at Florida Atlantic University, a Research Associate in the Center for Complex Systems, University of Warsaw, Poland, and a Research Affiliate in the Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity at Columbia University. He has been a visiting scholar at University of Texas at Austin, University of Bern (Switzerland), Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research (Germany), and University of Montpellier (France). Dr. Vallacher has authored or edited seven professional texts, and has published over 100 book chapters and journal articles on a wide range of topics in social psychology, including self-concept, self-regulation, social judgment, close relationships, prejudice and discrimination, sport psychology, social justice, and intergroup conflict. In recent years, he and his colleagues have adapted concepts and methods from the study of nonlinear dynamical systems in the natural sciences to the investigation of personal, interpersonal, and societal processes.

Reviews

[Rob Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The authors explore the idea of how we describe what we are doing at any given time quite thoroughly in an academic format. I'm mostly interested in the way language and perception and behavior interact along with attention, motivation and self-identity. "The idea that an action admits to many potential identities can be seen as a manifestation of the more fundamental principle that the perceptual field can be organized in many ways." I find the ideas about how people identify actions stimulating because I can hear it in almost every conversation when people talk. People can't help but explain themselves and the world as they see it. There are many interesting insights to be gleaned from Action Identification Theory and I found their use of piano playing and tennis as examples personally relevant. I don't think this book will ever be reissued at a reasonable price because there's no market and it's too expensive to buy used so check it out on an interlibrary loan if you're interested. I borrowed it again last week after having borrowed it and first read it about 20 years ago from my county library. There are some related PDF articles you can search and read free online by various authors that can give you a taste of the ideas and some relevant applications.