Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-01T21:26:27.216Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Selfish goals must compete for the common currency of reward1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2014

George Ainslie
George Ainslie*
Affiliation:
School of Economics, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa. http://www.picoeconomics.org Department of Veterans Affairs, Coatesville, PA 19320. George.Ainslie@va.gov
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Selfish Goal Theory is compatible with a behaviorally based theory that recognizes mental processes as behaviors. Both envision choices as made by the competition of purposive processes, which are autonomous in that they are not coordinated by an agentic “self.” However, the survival of mental processes – termed “goals” or “interests,” respectively – depends on a well-documented active mechanism: reward.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , April 2014 , pp. 135 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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.)

Footnotes

1.

© George Ainslie 2014. This is a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States.

References

Ainslie, G. (1992) Picoeconomics: The strategic interaction of successive motivational states within the person. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ainslie, G. (2007) Can thought experiments prove anything about the will? In: Distributed cognition and the will: Individual volition and social context, ed. Spurrett, D., Ross, D., Kincaid, H. & Stephens, L., pp. 169–96. MIT.Google Scholar
Ainslie, G. (2012) Pure hyperbolic discount curves predict “eyes open” self-control. Theory and Decision 73:3–34. doi: 10.1007/s11238-011-9272-5.Google Scholar
Ainslie, G. (2013) Grasping the impalpable: The role of endogenous reward in process addictions. Inquiry 56:446–69. DOI: 10.1080/0020174X.2013.806129. Avialable at: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/8fGTuFsnfFunYJKJ7aA7/full..Google Scholar
Baars, B. J. (1986) The cognitive revolution in psychology. Guilford.Google Scholar
Bargh, J. A. (1997) The automaticity of everyday life. In: Advances in social cognition, vol. 10, ed. Wyer, R. S. Jr., pp. 1–61. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bargh, J.A. (2006) What have we been priming all these years? On the development, mechanisms, and ecology of nonconscious social behavior. European Journal of Social Psychology 36:147–68. Available at: http://www.yale.edu/acmelab/articles/Bargh_EJSP_2006.pdf.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barnes, J., Dong, C. Y., McRobbie, H., Walker, N., Mehta, M. & Stead, L. F. (2010) Hypnotherapy for smoking cessation. Cochrane Database System Review 2010; (10): CD001008.Google Scholar
Berns, G. S., Laibson, D. & Loewenstein, G. (2007) Intertemporal choice –Toward an integrative framework. Neuroeconomics 11:482–88.Google Scholar
Daw, N. D. & Doya, K. (2006) The computational neurobiology of learning and reward. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 16:199–204.Google Scholar
Gilbert, R. M. (1972) Variation and selection of behavior. In: Reinforcement: Behavioral analyses, ed. Gilbert, R. M. & Millenson, J. R., pp. 263–76. Academic Press.Google Scholar
Kable, J. W. & Glimcher, P. W. (2007) The neural correlates of subjective value during intertemporal choice. Nature Neuroscience 10(12):1625–33.Google Scholar
Mischel, W. (1997) Was the cognitive revolution just a detour on the road to behaviorism? On the need to reconcile situational control and personal control. In: Advances in social cognition, vol. 10, ed. Wyer, R. S. Jr., pp. 181–86. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Rachlin, H. (1985) Pain and behavior. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 8:43–83.Google Scholar
Vaughan, W. Jr., & Herrnstein, R. J. (1987) Stability, melioration, and natural selection. In: Advances in behavioral economics, vol. 1, eds. Green, L. & Kagel, J. H., pp. 185–215. Ablex.Google Scholar