The Control of Everyday Behaviour

Abstract

It has recently been claimed by several authors that all behaviour is causally determined by unconscious mechanisms, and not under our conscious control. What this amounts to is that none of our everyday behaviour can be regarded as intentional, as action. The aim of the present paper is to discuss the evidence on which this claim is based. The conclusion is that though numerous psychological phenomena (like perception, memory, feeling, mood, mannerisms and automatisms) have unconscious determinants, the data do not show that everyday behaviours like talking, writing, working and moving one's body are outside our conscious control.

Living in the Pink

“…Yet the role of intentions in data collection and laboratory experiments is usually ignored [Vollmer, 2001]. It plays an equally prominent role in cognitive experiments, with special significance for cognitive science.…”

Intentional Contents and Self-Control

“…The simple fact that scientists are disposed to evaluate participants' intentions contradicts (or at least qualifies) any claim that performances are automatic. The contrast with uncooperative performances makes more salient the spheres of intentionality that surround every cooperative performance (Vollmer, 2001). Otherwise, the attribution of uncooperative performance is paradoxical.…”

“…It is still the case that no generally accepted definition exists that can distinguish automatic laboratory performances from intentional performances. Now, as in the past, definitions of the term automatic behavior lean precariously and exclusively on intuition and a few illustrative laboratory performances (Vollmer, 2001).…”

Do Products Respond to User Desires? A Case Study. Errors and Successes in the Design Process, under the Umbrella of Emotional Design

“…First, human behaviour is determined by the conscious mechanism [23]. Second, it is possible to distinguish two stages: one preliminary with an automatic activation by external stimulus and another where the effect on the previous system can be observed [24]. In this sense, conscious and unconscious behaviours are related, respectively, to explicit and implicit needs [21] that will have to be taken into account by product and industrial designers in order to achieve good designs ( Figure 2).…”