Meaning & Void: Inner Experience And The Incentives In People's Lives

TABLE OF CONTENTS......Page 12
1. MEANING, GOALS, AND ACTION......Page 18
The Meaning of Meaningfulness......Page 20
How Can We Study Meaning?......Page 24
Meaningfulness and Inner Experience......Page 25
Goals Govern Life and Behavior......Page 27
Goals and Incentives: Straightening Out the Terminology......Page 29
Evidence That Incentives Control Behavior......Page 30
Incentives Work. What Else Do We Need to Know?......Page 39
The Nature and Organization of Thought......Page 42
Blank States......Page 43
Operant Segments......Page 45
Respondent Segments......Page 46
Commitment and Concern......Page 50
Concerns and the Content of Thought......Page 53
Concerns and Thoughts: The Control of Attention......Page 56
Concerns and the Control of Attention: Some Evidence......Page 60
Induction in Respondent Thinking......Page 67
Induction in Operant Thinking......Page 73
Summary......Page 77
3. INCENTIVES AND EMOTIONS......Page 79
Keeping the Terms Straight......Page 80
What Are Emotions?......Page 81
Emotions and Instincts......Page 82
Kinds of Emotions......Page 90
Components of Emotion: Affect and Gross Physiology......Page 94
Implications of This View......Page 96
Emotions as Incipient Behavior......Page 97
Emotions and Incentive Value......Page 98
Emotion as Evaluative Feedback......Page 99
Happiness, Mood, and Incentive Relationships......Page 106
Conclusions......Page 110
4. THE UPS AND DOWNS OF VALUE......Page 112
The Growth of Value......Page 113
Learning to Value......Page 114
Changes in Value Resulting from Changes in Context......Page 126
Obstacles......Page 129
Summary......Page 130
The Decline of Value......Page 131
Satiation, Extinction, and Habituation......Page 133
Is It All One Process?......Page 137
What Habituates? What Does Not?......Page 139
Habituation and Satiation of Innately Valued Incentives......Page 143
On Finding Habituation-Resistant Incentives......Page 146
Reviving Sensory Pleasures......Page 149
Moderation and Restraint......Page 150
Synergy and Peak Experiences......Page 151
5. CONSEQUENCES OF LOSING......Page 152
Invigoration......Page 156
Aggression......Page 159
Depression......Page 166
Recovery......Page 181
Do the Disengagement Phases Really Constitute a Cycle?......Page 185
Behavioral Evidence for a Cycle......Page 186
Evidence on Brain Mechanisms......Page 187
Adaptive Functions......Page 190
Individual Differences......Page 193
Factors That Dispose People to Give Up......Page 195
Inner Experience and the Incentive-Disengagement Cycle......Page 197
How Thought Is Organized during the Cycle......Page 198
Gloomy Views of Self and World......Page 201
The Sense That One\'s Life Is Meaningful......Page 202
Clinical Implications of the Incentive-Disengagement Cycle......Page 203
Implications for Clinical Research......Page 204
Implications for Treatment......Page 208
Education for Mental Health......Page 210
Summary......Page 212
6. ALIENATION, FUTILITY, DISCONTENT......Page 214
Alienation and Discontent......Page 216
Problems of Measurement......Page 219
Opportunity and Aspiration: Social Class and Education......Page 222
Alienation from Work......Page 223
Factors in Satisfaction with and Alienation from Work......Page 224
Work Enrichment......Page 228
Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction in Marriage......Page 231
Factors Related to Marital Satisfaction and Stability......Page 232
Factors Related to Marital Dissatisfaction and Divorce......Page 234
Conclusion......Page 235
Satisfaction and Advancing Age......Page 237
The Gradual Decline of Happiness......Page 238
Individual Differences in Aging......Page 240
The Changing Incentive World......Page 241
Social Constraints on the Behavior of Old People......Page 243
Engagement, Disengagement, and Satisfaction with Life......Page 245
Incentives and the Psychological Deficits of Aging......Page 246
Conclusions......Page 248
Alienation and Inner Experience......Page 249
Affect in Alienation......Page 250
Alienation, Attention, and Thinking......Page 251
Developing a Sense of Effectiveness......Page 254
Becoming Immobilized by Conflict......Page 256
Options for the Alienated......Page 258
7. TAMPERING WITH THE MESSAGE SYSTEM......Page 260
Harnessing Natural Incentive Systems......Page 262
Spiritual Approaches......Page 264
Passive Massage of the Affect System......Page 265
Value Judgments......Page 267
Incentives and the Mass Media......Page 269
Functions of Television......Page 270
Who Watches Television?......Page 271
Drugs and Life Situations......Page 272
Drug Use and Social Context......Page 273
Drugs and Incentive Impoverishment......Page 275
Enhancing the Incentive World: Marijuana and the Psychedelics......Page 279
Escape from Unpleasantness: Opiates and Other Downers......Page 283
Manufactured Optimism: Alcohol and the Amphetamines......Page 287
Preference versus Addiction......Page 291
Conclusion: Drugs and Incentives......Page 295
8. SELF-ANNIHILATION......Page 298
Group Statistics......Page 299
Special Conditions That Affect Suicide......Page 300
Patterns......Page 301
Events That Precipitate Suicide......Page 304
The Wish to Change Events......Page 310
Clearheadedness......Page 312
Meaninglessness......Page 313
The Decision for Suicide: Conclusions......Page 314
The Linkages between Incentives and Behavior......Page 317
Incentives and Thought......Page 319
Incentives and Affect......Page 321
Value......Page 323
Reactions to Loss and Impoverishment of Incentives......Page 325
Meaning and Void......Page 329
The Nature of Human Nature......Page 332
Human Rationality......Page 333
Hedonism......Page 335
\"Free Will\"......Page 337
Implications for the Social Sciences......Page 341
Innate Symbols and Universal Meanings......Page 342
Commitment and the Impact of Incentives on Behavior......Page 344
Social Organization and Role Theory......Page 345
Political Theory......Page 354
Economic Theory......Page 356
The Concept of Incentive in the Social Sciences: Conclusion......Page 359
NOTES......Page 362
REFERENCES......Page 382
INDEXES......Page 410
B......Page 412
D......Page 413
G......Page 414
K......Page 415
M......Page 416
P......Page 417
S......Page 418
W......Page 419
Z......Page 420
A......Page 421
D......Page 422
H......Page 423
L......Page 424
P......Page 425
T......Page 426
W......Page 427