Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-nr592 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-21T18:11:32.516Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Agency enhancement and social psychology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2018

Matthew Taylor
Matthew Taylor*
Affiliation:
Philosophy Department, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306. Mattaylo87@gmail.com matthew-c-taylor.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This commentary has two aims. First, I raise a practical challenge for accounts of responsible agency: Provide empirically informed strategies for enhancing responsible agency so that actors can become more resistant to the influence of defeaters. Second, I offer an initial sketch of a solution to this practical challenge. My solution is supported by empirical evidence suggesting that responsible agency can be enhanced via self-regulatory strategies (expertise and implementation intentions).

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 41 , 2018 , e59
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Bargh, J. A. & Chartrand, T. L. (1999) The unbearable automaticity of being. American Psychologist 54:462–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Muraven, M. & Tice, D. M. (1998) Ego depletion: Is the active self a limited resource? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74:1252–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Choudhry, N. K., Fletcher, R. H. & Soumerai, S. B. (2005) Systematic review: The relationship between clinical experience and quality of health care. Annals of Internal Medicine 142:260–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cramer, R. E., McMaster, M. R., Bartell, P. A. & Dragna, M. (1988) Subject competence and minimization of the bystander effect. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 18:1133–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darley, J. M. & Latané, B. (1968) Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 8:(4, Pt. 1):377–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeWall, C. N., Baumeister, R. F., Gailliot, M. T. & Maner, J. K. (2008) Depletion makes the heart grow less helpful: Helping as a function of self-regulatory energy and genetic relatedness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 34:1663–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Doris, J. M. (2015b). Talking to our selves: Reflection, ignorance, and agency. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ericsson, K. A., Whyte, J. & Ward, P. (2007) Expert performance in nursing: Reviewing research on expertise in nursing within the framework of the expert-performance approach. ANS Advances in Nursing Science 30:E58–E71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Forgas, J. P., Dunn, E. & Granland, S. (2008) Are you being served…? An unobtrusive experiment of affective influences on helping in a department store. European Journal of Social Psychology 38:333–42.Google Scholar
Gallo, I. S., Keil, A., McCulloch, K. C., Rockstroh, B. & Gollwitzer, P. M. (2009) Strategic automation of emotion regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 96:11–31.Google Scholar
Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999) Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist 54:493–503.Google Scholar
Gollwitzer, P. M. & Sheeran, P. (2006) Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38:69–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hui, S.-K. A., Wright, R. A., Stewart, C. C., Simmons, A., Eaton, B. & Nolte, R. N. (2009) Performance, cardiovascular, and health behavior effects of an inhibitory strength training intervention. Motivation and Emotion 33:419–34.Google Scholar
Mendoza, S. A., Gollwitzer, P. M. & Amodio, D. M. (2010) Reducing the expression of implicit stereotypes: Reflexive control through implementation intentions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 36:512–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morewedge, C. K., Yoon, H., Scopelliti, I., Symborski, C. W., Korris, J. H. & Kassam, K. S. (2015) Debiasing decisions: Improved decision making with a single training intervention. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2(1):129–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muraven, M., Baumeister, R. F. & Tice, D. M. (1999) Longitudinal improvement of self regulation through practice: Building self-control strength through repeated exercise. Journal of Social Psychology 139:446–57.Google Scholar
Olin, L. & Doris, J. M. (2014) Vicious minds. Philosophical Studies 168(3):665–92.Google Scholar
O'Malley, M. & Andrews, L. (1983) The effect of mood and incentives on helping: Are there some things money can't buy? Motivation and Emotion 7:179–89.Google Scholar
Parks-Stamm, E. J. & Gollwitzer, P. (2009) Goal implementation: The benefits and costs of IF-THEN planning. In: The psychology of goals, ed. Moskowitz, G. B. & Grant, H., pp. 362–91. Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Plant, E. A. & Peruche, B. M. (2005) The consequences of race for police officers' responses to criminal suspects. Psychological Science 16:180–83.Google Scholar
Plant, E. A., Peruche, B. M. & Butz, D. A. (2005) Eliminating automatic racial bias: Making race non-diagnostic for responses to criminal suspects. Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology 41:141–56.Google Scholar
Shiffrin, R. M. & Schneider, W. (1977) Controlled and automatic human information processing. II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending and a general theory. Psychological Review 84:127–90.Google Scholar
Stepanikova, I., Triplett, J. & Simpson, B. (2011) Implicit racial bias and prosocial behavior. Social Science Research 40:1186–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tetlock, P. (2009) Expert political judgment: How good is it? How can we know? Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Trötschel, R. & Gollwitzer, P. M. (2007) Implementation intentions and the willful pursuit of prosocial goals in negotiations. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 43:579–98.Google Scholar
van Baaren, R. B., Holland, R. W., Kawakami, K. & van Knippenberg, A. (2004) Mimicry and prosocial behavior. Psychological Science 15:71–74.Google Scholar
Webb, T. L. & Sheeran, P. (2002) Can implementation intentions help to overcome ego-depletion? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 39:279–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webb, T. L., Schweiger Gallo, I., Miles, E., Gollwitzer, P. M. & Sheeran, P. (2012) Effective regulation of affect: An action control perspective on emotion regulation. European Review of Social Psychology 23:143–86.Google Scholar
Wieber, F., Gollwitzer, P. M. & Sheeran, P. (2014) Strategic regulation of mimicry effects by implementation intentions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 53:31–39.Google Scholar