Expectations and Actions

Originally published in 1982, this book examines the current status of expectancy-value models in psychology. The focus is upon cognitive models that relate action to the perceived attractiveness or aversiveness of expected consequences. A person's behavior is seen to bear some relation to the expectations the person holds and the subjective value of the consequences that might occur following the action. Despite widespread interest in the expectancy-value (valence) approach at the time, there was no book that looked at its current status and discussed its strengths and its weaknesses, using contributions from some of the theorists who were involved in its original and subsequent development and from others who were influenced by it or had cause to examine the approach closely. This book was planned to meet this need. The chapters in this book relate to such areas as achievement motivation, attribution theory, information feedback, organizational psychology, the psychology of values and attitudes, and decision theory and in some cases they advance the expectancy-value approach further and, in other cases, point to some of its deficiencies.

Norman T. Feather, Emeritus Professor, Flinders University, Australia

Preface. 1. Introduction and Overview Norman T. Feather Part 1: The Context of Achievement Motivation 2. Old and New Conceptions of How Expected Consequences Influence Actions John W. Atkinson 3. Actions in Relation to Expected Consequences: An Overview of a Research Program Norman T. Feather 4. Future Orientation, Self-Evaluation, and Achievement Motivation: Use of an Expectancy x Value Theory of Personality Functioning and Change Joel O. Raynor 5. The Expectancy-Value Approach within the Theory of Social Motivation: Elaborations, Extensions, Critique Julius Kuhl Part 2: The Context of Attribution Theory 6. An Attributionally Based Theory of Motivation and Emotion: Focus, Range, and Issues Bernard Weiner Part 3: The Context of Information Feedback 7. Expectation and What People Learn from Failure Ronnie Janoff-Bulman and Philip Brickman Part 4: The Context of Social Learning Theory 8. Social Learning Theory Julian B. Rotter Part 5: The Context of Values and Attitudes 9. Human Values and the Prediction of Action: An Expectancy-Valence Analysis Norman T. Feather Part 6: The Context of Organizational Psychology 10. Expectancy-Value Models in Organizational Psychology Terence R. Mitchell Part 7: The Context of Decision Making 11. The Experienced Utility of Expected Utility Approaches Baruch Fischhoff, Bernard Goitein, and Zur Shapira 12. Conflict Theory of Decision Making and the Expectancy-Value Approach Leon Mann and Irving Janis 13. Expectancy-Based Decision Schemes: Sidesteps Toward Applications Barbara H. Beach and Lee Roy Beach 14. Expectancy-Value Approaches: Present Status and Future Directions Norman T. Feather. Author Index. Subject Index.