CONATION

Compiled by: W. Huitt, 1993

Return to: | Readings in Educational Psychology | Educational Psychology Interactive |

Conation as a Component of Mind

     Abrams, S., & Shengold, L. (1978). Some reflexions on the topic of the 30th
Congress: "Affects and the psychoanalytic situation." International Journal of
Psycho-Analysis, 59(2-3), 395-407.
Examines affects and the psychoanalytic situation with reference to Freud, who
formulated several orienting perspectives which can be used to conceptualize affects.
Bringing affects and the psychoanalytic situation together has provided an arena for
clinical demonstration of differing beliefs, perspectives, and observations. The clinical
study of affects has been encumbered by certain historical heritages such as the rigid
compartmentalization of human behavior into affective, cognitive, and conative
components, isolating affects from other mental events and violating the complex
connectedness of human experience; the apparent paradox of unconscious affect; and
lack of differentiation of the empirical from the metapsychologically conceived
motivation force. Comments are made on the views on affects expressed by other
presenters.

     Amsel, A. (1992). Confessions of a neobehaviorist. Integrative Physiological
and Behavioral Science, 27(4), 336-346.
Provides a critical description of the factors and theoretical influences that contributed
to the ascendancy of the cognitive and the decline of the conative and affective aspects
of psychology. These included the rejection of the concept of drive, the introduction
of Skinner's concept of the operant, the statistical (stochastic) learning theories of W.
K. Estes (1950) and R. R. Bush and F. Mosteller (1951), the new field of
psycholinguistics, support for cognitive neostructuralism, and the increased prevalence
of computers coupled with the advent of artificial intelligence.

     Cawley, R. (1992). Bierer's precepts today and tomorrow. International Journal
of Social Psychiatry, 38(2), 87-94.
Discusses J. Bierer's (1951) 6 fundamental principles of social psychiatry: (1)
universality, (2) relatedness, (3) conation, (4) centripetal-centrifugal interaction, (5)
multidimensional approach, and (6) experiential treatment. Bierer is remembered as a
pioneer advocate of the cause of deinstitutionalizing mental illness who took the
broadest view of social psychiatry in practice.

     Christensen, J. (1983). Cognition, knowing, and understanding: Levels, forms,
and range. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Australian Association for
Research in Education (Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, November 23-27).
Cognition, knowing, and understanding are analysed in terms of levels, forms, and
range. It is found that cognition is knowing and that understanding is a range of
knowing. Three levels of knowing (pre-conventional, conventional, post-conventional),
three levels of understanding (prehension, apprehension, comprehension), and six
forms of knowing (linguistic, emotional, imaginal, physical, physiological, conative)
are distinguished. Levels and forms of knowing operate as a system and constitute a
range of knowing. One's range of knowing determines one's extent of understanding.
The three levels and six forms of knowing are composed and contrasted with the
categories of cognition posited by: Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill, Krathwohl, and
Masia; Bruner; Piaget; Gagne; Kohlberg; Collis and Biggs; and Maccia and Steiner.
The conclusion is drawn that the three levels and six forms of knowing are critical,
elemental categories and that the categories of knowing posited by other researchers
are either subsets, combinations, or conflations of these elemental categories. (Author)

     Hershberger, W. (1988). Psychology as a conative science. American
Psychologist, 43(10), 823-824.
Argues that B. F. Skinner overlooks the type of overt behavior that implies a
nonempty organism (namely, purposive, self-controlled input). The author notes that
voluntary overt behaviors are not to be found among an organism's elicited and
emitted outputs; the organism's input must be examined to find such behaviors.

     Kydd, R. R., & Wright, J. J. (1986). Mental phenomena as changes of state in
a finite-state machine. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 20(2),
158-165.
Examines the classical functions of the psyche--cognition, affection, and
conation--from a phenomenological viewpoint and finds them to be defined in terms of
each other. It is posited that the circularity of definition reflects the fundamental unity
of conscious experience, and, consequently, the search for the biological substrate
underlying individual functions degenerates into a morphological and biochemical
phrenology. An alternative approach, based on considerations from the field of
artificial intelligence, is discussed. It is suggested that neurobiological investigations
should be directed toward defining the processes by which state changes occur and
seeking to define mental pathology as aberrations of these dynamic processes.

     Levchenko, E. (1991). Student's subjective experience and methods of
psychological education. Voprosy Psikhologii, 2, 80-86.
Studied a 3-component system of expectations (cognitive, affective, and conative)
conditioning the comprehension of psychological theories. Human Ss: 262 normal
Russian adults (undergraduate students). Before their 1st psychology lecture, Ss were
given written questions on their ideas about the field of psychology, their reasons for
studying psychology, and their attitude toward psychology as compared with other
disciplines. (English abstract)

     Mackenzie, B. (1989). On why there are so few comparisons in comparative
psychology. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 2(3), 189-195.
Describes differing views of comparative psychology (CP) and defines CP as the study
of the evolutionary development and progression of behavior in its 3 major aspects:
cognitive, affective, and conative. It is argued that behaviorism, which developed in
response to conceptual problems in CP, has abandoned CP's comparative orientation.
Moreover, M. E. Seligman's (1970) refutation of the general process view of learning
(also known as the principle of the transsituationality of reinforcement, described by
P. E. Meehl (1950)) has helped spark a revival of interest in comparative studies of
animal adaptation and even animal minds.

     Panferov, V. (1987). A classification of functions of man as a subject of
communication. Psikologicheskii Zhurnal, 8(4), 51-60.
Presents a classification of the psychological, socio-psychological, and social functions
of humanity as a subject of communication. Communicative, informational, cognitive,
emotive, conative, and creative functions in the structure of the communication
process are described. (English abstract)

     Pascual-Leone, J. (1990). Intension, intention, and early precursors of will:
Constructive epistemological remarks on Lewis's research paradigm.
Psychological Inquiry, 1(3), 258-260.
Suggests that M. Lewis failed to make a necessary distinction between 2 senses of the
concept of intentionality (or intention). The distinction between referential and
conative intentionality is discussed in terms of Piaget's theories.

Conation and Personality

     Gillett, G. (1991). Multiple personality and irrationality. Philosophical
Psychology, 4(1), 103-118.
Uses the phenomenology of multiple personality syndrome to derive an explanation of
the failure to achieve rational integration of mental content. An S with multiple
personality disorder is best understood as having failed to master the techniques of
integrating conative and cognitive aspects of mental life. This suggests that in
irrationality, the S may lack similar skills basic to the proper articulation and use of
mental content in belief formation and control of action. An account of intention is
forwarded and compared with that offered by D. Davidson (e.g., 1986) and others,
and elucidates both self-deception and akrasia. Formation of mind and personality is
an active project and even when partitions exist in the mind, these are best explained
in mental rather than causal or mechanistic terms.

     Grieger, P. (1985). Le diagnostic d'une personalite. (A personality diagnosis.)
Personnalite, 12, 27-35.
Discusses current issues in personality diagnosis, focusing on the continuing search for
reliability and validity in personality assessment tests. The author favors objective tests
that allow for result quantification. He cites H. J. Eysenck's description of the human
personality as having 4 dimensions (conative, affective, cognitive, and moral), noting
that noncognitive personality tests and cognitive intelligence (or aptitude or
performance) tests are totally different, operating in different dimensions. Personality
tests discussed include subjective tests (questionnaires), interview techniques, and
projective devices probing the individual's unconscious (e.g., the Rorschach test), all
of which should be used as compelementary personality diagnosis instruments. It is
concluded that weaknesses and biases persist in all diagnosis devices discussed, and a
realistic acknowledgment of the limitations of all personality tests will make them less
controversial and more effective.

     Hobson, R. P. (1900). On the origins of self and the case of autism.
Development and Psychopathology, 2(2), 163-181.
A review of philosophical, psychological, and developmental theories and research
suggests that a concept of persons as subjects of experience, founded in a knowledge
of the personal relatedness that exists between persons, is necessary to the
development of a concept of self. In autism, the child's awareness of self and others
as subjects of experience is limited by the disruption of affectively patterned
interpersonal relations. Such children's perceptually anchored understanding of
affective-conative relatedness between people and the outside world also is deficient.
These impairments restrict such children's grasp of the ways in which a person may
construe reality and be both a self and relate to other selves. Thus, the study of such
children may illuminate normal cognitive development and the emergence of reflective
self-awareness.

     Hosek, A., Momirovic, K., & Dugic, D. (1986). Canonical and quasicanonical
relations between personality and dimensions of social status. Revija za Psihologiju,
16(1-2), 33-45.
Studied canonical and quasicanonical relationships between personality and
socioeconomic status (SES) indicators. Human subjects: 375 normal female
Yugoslavian adults (19-27 yrs). S data were collected using 18 personality tests and 31
indicators of SES. The SES indicators were selected under the cybernetic model of
social differentiation, and the personality tests were constructed or selected under the
cybernetic model of regulation and control of conative functions. Canonical covariance
analysis and computation of generalized coefficient of correlation and principal
components were conducted. The complete analysis procedure was implemented using
a macrocomputer program--GENCORRL. (Serbo-Croatian abstract; language: English)

     Miller, A. (1988). Toward a typology of personality styles. Canadian
Psychology, 29(3), 263-283.
Argues for the use of personality typologies by examining the current status of
nomothetic traits and providing evidence for the practical usefulness of such traits. A
typology is suggested for use in clinical, educational, and industrial/organizational
areas. Issues discussed include the use of prototypes in personality theory, the search
for basic genotypic traits, depicting cognition on a single dimension, the concept of
emotion, the conative dimension (i.e., striving and volition), and the application of
these areas to practical problems using a 3-dimensional typology of personality styles.
(French abstract)

     Miller, A. (1991). Personality types, learning styles and educational goals.
Educational Psychology, 11(3-4), 217-238.
Outlines a personality typology that, it is argued, provides a coherent system within
which to construe and conduct research on learning styles. This typology comprises 3
dimensions: cognitive, affective, and conative. Four personality styles (analytic,
holistic, objective, and subjective) are detailed.

     Pelechano, V. (1986). Una nota acerca de la definicion de la Psicologia de la
Personalidad: el caso de la estabilidad y de la consistencia. (Reflections on a proposed
definition of the psychology of personality: The case for stability and consistency.)
Boletin de Psicologia Spain, 13, 9-25.
Proposes a conceptualization of personality psychology that includes structural and
behavioral dynamics characterizing human beings in their genesis, development, and
organization and determinants of situational reactivity vs behavioral invariants. The
term "behavioral" covers conative, cognitive, affective, constitutional (physical and
endocrine), and directly or indirectly measurable behaviors. (0 ref)

Conation and Attitudes

     Alwitt, L. (1990). Attitude strength: An extra-content aspect of attitude. Paper
presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association (98th,
Boston, MA, August 10-14).
Attitude strength is considered as an extra-content aspect of attitude. A model of the
relationship of attitude strength to attitude direction and behavior proposes that attitude
strength is comprised of three dimensions that moderate the relationship between
attitude direction and behavior. The dimensions are parallel to the tripartite dimensions
of attitude content: cognitive, affective, and conative. A survey of attitudes and usage
of fast food restaurants was completed by graduate and undergraduate business
students (N=96). Respondents rated their beliefs about going to fast food restaurants;
overall liking of a particular chain; evaluation how each of 17 attributes applies to the
chain; and perceptions of how well others think of them when they go to the chain in
six usage situations. Evidence from four analyses of usage and attitudes about a fast
food restaurant generally support the model. The research is somewhat limited in
scope and methodology. Because attitude strength measures used in the current
research may have confounded theoretically-based distinctions and method, a
multitrait-multimethod approach might provide further evidence about dimensionality
of attitude strength.

     Ashworth, P. (1985). Phenomenologically-based empirical studies of social
attitude. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 16(1) 69-93.
Explored the phenomenology of attitude in an empirical study of the written accounts
of 6 people describing situations in which they were especially aware of holding a
certain attitude. The situations concern theft, smoking, posterity, probation service,
social work, and politics. Issues related to the phenomena of subjectivity, tolerance,
conation, intention, and focus are discussed. Attitude is viewed as an intentional
phenomenon, a modality of consciousnesss, directedness, or relatedness, that has an
object focus (the source of the cognitive component) and that structures the field of
awareness in an affective manner. Implications for the development of a self-concept
are discussed.

     Bagozzi, R. (1992). The self-regulation of attitudes, intentions, and behavior.
Social Psychology Quarterly, 55(2), 178-204.
Argues that attitudes and subjective norms are not sufficient determinants of intentions
(INTs) and that INTs are not a sufficient impetus for action, as maintained by leading
theories of attitude. The role of cognitive and emotional self-regulatory mechanisms is
addressed as a means to deepen attitude theory. The attitude-INT link is hypothesized
to depend on conative processes. The subjective norm-INT relationship is hypothesized
to be governed by cognitive activities inherent in perspective taking and by emotional
reactions associated with expectations concerning the shared social meaning of a focal
act. An INT behavior relationship is posited to be conditioned on decision making
needed to achieve a goal and to motivational processes associated with commitment
toward the means. (Special Issue: Theoretical advances in social psychology.)

     d'Amorim, M. (1992). Atitudes e tracos de personalidade. (Attitudes and
personality traits.) PSICO, 23(1), 79-84.
Discusses the similarities and differences between personality traits and attitudes.
Emphasis is on methods of inferring personality traits and behavioral attitudes based
on cognitive, conative, and affective responses. A hierarchical model of attitudes and a
planned action model relating personality traits and behavioral attitudes are also
described.  (Language: Portuguese).

     Droge, C. (1989). Shaping the route to attitude change: Central versus
peripheral processing through comparative versus noncomparative advertising.  Journal
of Marketing Research, 26(2), 193-204.
Tested the hypothesis that comparative advertisements were processed centrally and
noncomparative ads were processed peripherally in 178 students, using a 2-group
LISREL model. A 2 * 2 factorial design was used in which the 1st factor was
comparative vs noncomparative copy and the 2nd was product attribute vs market
standing copy. Results show that positive attitudes toward the ad were a significant
predictor of attitude toward the brand (AB) only in the noncomparative case, whereas
consistency between AB and the inclination to act in response to the ad (conation) was
higher for comparative ads.

     Shrigley, R., Koballa, T., & Simpson, R. (1988). Defining attitude for science
educators. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 25(8), 659-678.
Analyzes the complexities of the concept of attitude: the origin and history;
subcomponents; related concepts including beliefs, opinion, and values; traditional
trilogy--cognition, affection, and conation. Examines the concept of attitude in relation
to teacher and student behavior in the classroom. Characterized as central to the
affective domain of learning, it is suggested that a distinct and complex definition of
attitude is evolving within the literature. A mental readiness to respond and a
correlational consistency between attitude and behavior, although controversial, remain
subcomponents within the definition. Subconcepts within attitude include evaluative
quality, consistency, predisposition or readiness, social influence, the learned nature of
attitudes, and the attitude object. The traditional attitude trilogy includes cognition,
affection, and conation. Most authors agree that evaluation is the heartbeat of attitude.
The impact of social influence on attitudes is viewed as increasingly important.

     Taylor, T., & Chemel, C. (1991). White South Africans' reactions to Black
advancement: A two-sample confirmatory investigation of the structure of attitude
using an analogy to the multitrait-multimethod design. Multivariate Behavioral
Research, 26(1), 25-47.
Administered a questionnaire measuring affective, conative, and cognitive responses to
3 aspects of Black advancement to 2 groups of White South Africans. Ss were English
speakers employed by a large private-sector company and Afrikaans speakers
employed by the government. Confirmatory techniques were employed to investigate
the structure of the data. Single-group analysis procedures adapted from K. F.
Widaman were initially performed to establish a model satisfactory for both samples.
Multigroup procedures were then performed on the 2 samples to investigate group
differences in data structure. The data structure was very similar in the 2 samples,
although domain variances were smaller in the English-speaking sample.

     Torabi, M., & Seffrin, J. (1986). A three component cancer attitude scale.
Journal of School Health, 56(5), 170-174.
A scale was developed to measure college students' attitudes toward cancer and cancer
prevention. The three components of attitude were feeling (affective), belief
(cognitive), and intention to act (conative). Development of the scale is discussed. 

     Torabi, M., & ; Veenker, C. H. (1986). An alcohol attitude scale for
teen-agers. Journal of School Health, 56(3), 96-100.
About 700 Indiana high school students were administered a scale designed to measure
the affective, cognitive, and conative components of teenagers' attitudes toward the
use of alcohol. Findings are discussed.

     Williams, C. (1992). The relationship between the affective and conative
dimensions of prejudice. College Student Journal, 26(1), 50-54.
Examined the relationship between the affective and conative dimensions of prejudice
between 10 Black and 10 White Ss. The affective dimensions of prejudice were
determined by assessing physiological responses to a specifically designed slide
presentation, developed to evoke a measure of reaction (galvanic skin response). A
significant inverse relationship was found between the physiological and conative
dimensions of prejudice. This suggests that a person may respond physiologically to a
stimulus that he/she may disagree with, but it may not be interpreted as a prejudicial
attitude. It may also mean that a person can respond to a pencil and paper instrument
that reveals a prejudicial attitude, but it may not be identified.

     Yarber, W., Torabi, M., & Veenker, C. H. (1989). Development of a three-
component sexually transmitted diseases attitude scale. Journal of Sex Education and
Therapy, 15(1), 36-49.
Constructed a summated-rating scale of the Likert-type to measure the cognitive,
affective, and conative components of young adults' attitudes toward sexually
transmitted diseases (STD). A table of specifications was developed to include a
subscale for each of the 3 attitude components with conceptual emphasis, including the
Nature of STD, Prevention of STD, and Treatment of STD. Three experimental forms
of 45 items each were administered to 467 undergraduates, and a scale reduced to the
best 45 items was administered to 100 high school students. Analysis of this
administration produced a 33-item scale having 11 items per subscale, which was
given to 2,980 7th-12th graders. Statistical analysis produced a final scale of 27 items,
with 9 items for each subscale. The scale's reliability, validity, internal consistency,
and discriminatory power are noted.

The Measurement of Conation

     Haymes, M., & Green, L. (1982). The assessment of motivation within
Maslow's framework. Journal of Research in Personality, 16(2), 179-192.
Reports progress in the development of the Needsort, a research tool, for the
assessment of the three developmentally earliest, within Maslow's framework,
conative needs (physiological, safety, belongingness). Discusses item analyses, item
selection methods, reliability studies, and validation studies across a broad range of
populations.

     Palincsar, A., & Winn, J. (1990). Assessment models focused on new
conceptions of achievement and reasoning. International Journal of Educational
Research, 14(5), 409-483.
Five papers concerning standardized testing are presented. Topics addressed include
measures for distinct aspects of human intelligence (multiple intelligences), the use of
portfolio assessments with regard to instructional planning, practical reasoning,
cognitive and conative constructs, and cognition and assessment practices.

     Savickas, M. (1984). Interpreting the career maturity inventory attitude scale's
relationship to measures of mental ability. Paper presented at the Annual Convention
of the American Psychological Association (92nd, Toronto, Canada, August 24-28).
Westbrook (1983) challenged the validity of the construct "career maturity" because
measures such as the Career Maturity Inventory Attitude Scale (Crites, 1973) correlate
to measures of mental ability. Rather than interpreting this association as evincing lack
of discriminant validity, the association should be interpreted as supporting the
convergent validity of the Career Maturity Inventory Attitude Scale (CMI-AS) because
career development theory postulates that career maturity should relate to other
dimensions of general maturity, including mental maturity and intelligence (Super,
1955; Super, et. al., 1957). Some minimum level of intelligence is required for the
development of career attitudes and competencies because intelligence is, presumably,
directly related to the acquisition and application of domain-relevant behaviors. More
importantly, a measure of a conative variable like attitudinal career maturity may
relate to intelligence as long as it also relates to other variables which, in turn, are
unrelated to intelligence. A key test to determine if the CMI-AS measures something
other than intelligence is whether or not the CMI-AS correlates to measures of other
dimensions of general maturity that do not correlate to intelligence. (Studies showing
the indirect or circumstantial validity of the CMI-AS are presented to support its
construct validity as a measure of career maturity.)

     Snow, R. (1989). Toward assessment of cognitive and conative structures in
learning. Educational Researcher, 18(9), 8-14.
Reviews new conceptions of cognitive and conative aptitude, learning, development,
and achievement and their assessment. Argues that different purposes for educational
assessment require different levels and models of assessment. Strongly suggests
research on construct validity and teacher understanding and use of assessment. 

     Snow, R. (1992). Aptitude theory: Yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Educational Psychologist, 27(1), 5-32.
Reviews and reconstructs the concept of aptitude. Its original sense of reciprocity
between person and situation and appropriateness of person-situation fit is restored.
Modern interpretation emphasizes readiness to learn in particular instructional
situations, and recognizes conative, affective, and cognitive sources of aptitude.
Limitations of old aptitude theories are noted. Requirements for new aptitude theories
are listed. A new conceptual language for aptitude theory is suggested by the
Thorndike-Thomson sampling theory, J. J. Gibson's (1966, 1979) affordance theory,
H. A. Simon's artifact theory, and current research.

     Snow, R., & Swanson, J. (1992). Instructional psychology: Aptitude,
adaptation, and assessment. Annual Review of Psychology, 43, 583-626.
Discusses theoretical issues in instructional psychology and focuses on individual
differences in learning and adaptive instructional design. A theme that emerges from
the literature is the need for better assessment instruments. Arguably, the key to
combining information on cognitive, conative, and affective aptitude with information
on knowledge and skill acquisition in the progress of instruction lies in new
assessment design. The key to steering individuals toward optimal learning based on
such information lies in assessment designs integrated with instruction. 

     Tarrow, N., & Lundsteen, S. (1981). Activities and Resources for Guiding
Young Children's Learning. Hightstown, NJ: McGraw-Hill.
Written from a developmental interactionist viewpoint, this guide for teachers provides
practical and useful ideas for working with infants through 9-year-olds.
(Developmental interactionists contend that activities designed to foster one area of a
child's development will tend to foster development in other areas as well.) Section I
of the guide provides general resources relevant to the field of early childhood
education. These resources are divided into three categories: a partially annotated
bibliography of books and periodicals for teachers; a non-annotated bibliography of
books and periodicals for children; and names and addresses of suppliers and sources
of commercial, free or inexpensive, audiovisual, and community learning meterials.
Sections II, III, IV, and V contain objectives, activities, and specific resources for
four developmental areas: psycho-physical motor, cognitive, linguistic, and affective.
Concepts, activities, and resources designed for use in a multicultural approach to
teaching and learning are provided in Section VI. Finally, some ideas and guidelines
for the education of children with special needs are presented in Section VII. Sample
activity forms which teachers can duplicate in order to create additional activities for
each developmental level are provided in the appendix.

     Taylor, N., & Pryor, R. (1986). The conceptualisation and measurement of
vocational and work aspect preferences. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling,
14(1), 66-77.
Administered the Vocational Preference Inventory and the Work Aspect Preference
Scale to 287 Australian technical college students (aged 17-42 yrs). Results indicate
that vocational and work preferences are distinct psychometric domains that cannot be
measured by the same instrument. Findings suggest that previous theoretical and
psychometric obstacles to the research and counseling use of values/preferences related
to work are no longer valid. It is implied that a taxonomy of concepts associated with
psychological measurement techniques is needed to assist counselors' understanding of
the cognitive, affective, and conative domains and to help them choose among and
interpret the plethora of available psychological techniques.

     Winegar, L. (1989). Child as Cultural Apprentice. Paper presented at the
Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development (Kansas City,
MO, April 27-30). (ERIC NO: ED307060.
"Child as cultural apprentice" is a developmental psychologist's heuristic metaphor
which is embedded in an individual-socioecological frame of reference. A basic
theoretic feature of this metaphor is the explicit recognition of the interdependence of
the process of child development and the socially provided resources for that
development. The most important methodological implication of this way of viewing
the child is the following: that which is potential in development will be expressed as
actual under certain circumstances before it will be expressed more usually and
generally. Cognitive performance in interaction with more expert others is one context
in which the beginning phases of development can be observed and studied; fantasy
play, organization of the child's physical environment, and friendship may be others.
Child as cultural apprentice is a multifaceted representation of children's development
within culturally structured environments. However, this representation is guided by a
limited number of constructs, such as internalization, potential leading to actual, and
interpsychological leading to intrapsychological. It is this use of a limited number of
constructs enabling the representation of complex aspects of development that makes
viewing the child as cultural apprentice especially valuable for developmental
psychology.

Developing Conation

     Atman, K., & Romano, P. (1987). Conation, goal accomplishment style and
wholistic education. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American
Educational Research Association (Washington, DC, April 20-24).
Conation is a domain of behavior or mental processes associated with goal directed
action. Wholistic education stresses an integrated approach to an individual's learning
process; thus, consideration of the integration of the four domains (cognitive,
affective, psychomotor and conative) can find a receptive niche among educators who
seek to facilitate personal growth for learners. The Conation Cycle provides a means
of examining the steps that occur between setting a goal and the achievement of that
goal. Four instruments were used in the examination of personality attributes related to
goal accomplishment capability: the Goal Orientation Index, the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator, the Rotter Locus of Control (I/E) Scale and the Bass Orientation Inventory.
Data from two studies involving Pennsylvania pupil serivces administrators and
industrial engineering students at West Virginia University suggest that: (1) personal
information from inventories enables an individual to make decisions concerning
his/her personal or professonal development; (2) correlation data can be used to tailor
individualized prescription for self-monitored behavior change; and (3) development of
metacognitive and intrapersonal skills is a necessary element in the wholistic
development of individuals. Conation provides a theoretical framework which brings
together the mind/body/values foci of wholistic education.

     Brann, C. M. B. (1986). Triglossia in Nigerian education. The Journal for the
National Association for Bilingual Education, 10(2), 169-178.
Describes how triglossia in Nigerian education lies in the complementary distribution
of languages by functions, with the languages of home, community, and school
corresponding roughly to the affective, conative, and cognitive psychological
categories. Provides a triglottic model which describes actual function of language in
education in Nigeria.

     Ellett, F., Jr., & Shumener, B. (1978). Defensible educational goals and
needs-assessment strategies. Studies in evaluation and decision making. Work unit 3:
Philosophic inquiry into evaluation. California Univ., Los Angeles. Center for the
Study of Evaluation.
Many difficulties exist in establishing defensible educational objectives on the basis of
student and community needs. Needs assessment strategies differ in subject matter, not
in method. Preference, or data collection, is the first phase followed by an evaluation
of actual conditions. The strategies concentrate on the "needs" of desire. Preference
data will not enable educators to determine defensible goals. Six concepts of "need" to
be analyzed are obligation, subsistence, required means, useful means, "need" of
desire and of conative dispositions. Only certain "needs" have ethical implications
about what ought to be done. Every need of desire does not have to be fulfilled. The
authors conclude that since prominent needs-assessment strategies rely mainly on
needs of desire, they cannot determine defensible educational objectives. Different
techniques and principles must be incorporated into the strategies to determine
defensible goals. The prominent strategies must be modified to establish defensible
educational goals. The ultimate worth of an educational program depends on the worth
of its objectives. The authors feel the prominent needs assessment strategies are in
urgent need of modification and reform.

     Gholar, C. and others (1991). Wellness begins when the child comes first: The
relationship between the conative domain and the school achievement paradigm. Paper
presented at the Annual Convention of the American Association for Counseling and
Development (Reno, NV, April 21-24).
This paper examines the role of the conative domain in the acquisition of sustainable
school achievement. The focus of the conative domain is to embrace the learner with
an all-encompassing determination to achieve. It is set in motion by a clear and
self-directed sense of purpose in an environment of challenge and cognitive
dissonance. Counselors and educational leaders need to understand the correlation
between the will to do and school performance. When learning is nurtured by the
support of caring, responsive professionals, the desire to achieve is heightened. Thus,
the affective/cognitive connection is buttressed to a level where students becomes
empowered to reach beyond themselves. The power of the affective/cognitive
connection is unleashed when school counselors and other educational professionals
factor in the role of conation in the formula for school success. Through
understanding the role of the learner's will, desire, and determination to achieve in an
academic setting, educators can more clearly understand the significance of using their
skills as change agents to activate student success. When viewed as an integral part of
a sound educational plan for developing competent and caring young people, students
will emerge from our educational institutions with a healthy sense of self, their
abilities, and the world around them.

     Miserandino, A. (1989). Supervision for growth: A practitioner's perspective.
Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research
Association (San Francisco, CA, March 27-31). ERIC NO: ???
AB ABSTRACT: A successful program for staff development focused on moral
development will view teachers as growing adults who will become more professional
and successful as they are provided with a work environment that demands choice,
automony, dialogue, and reflection. Such a working environment comes from the
close collaboration of the administrator, the teaching staff, and the students. This
paper describes a staff development effort which moved the faculty closer to the ideal
of a new professional culture centered upon student learning. While this model
examines policies within schoolhouse walls, it does have the power to effect policy
changes outside of the individual school since it seeks to establish a richer
understanding of the teaching profession. A case study is given of a faculty workshop,
organized around the theme of developing new norms to enhance the
professionalization of the teaching staff by attending more responsibly to students'
needs. Three dominant areas which needed to be addressed by the faculty were
identified: (1) the students thought the teachers were unfair in grading; (2)
instructional styles needed to be enhanced and expanded; and (3) the faculty endorsed
both short and long term responsibilities for professional development. Within this
presentation, supervision by the principal is seen as an obligation which seeks to
promote the moral growth of the staff by attending to issues of injustice as perceived
by the school community.

     Nelli, E., & Atwood, V. (1986). Teacher education students and classroom
teachers: A comparison of conative levels. Journal of Teacher Education, 37(3),
46-50.
Seventy-three preservice elementary teachers and 41 experienced elementary teachers
in the same state participated in a study to examine whether prospective teachers
measure at the same conative level as practicing teachers. No significant difference
was found, and three possible explanations are offered.

     Orwoll, L., & Achenbaum, W. A. (1993). Gender and the development of
wisdom. Human Development, 36(5), 274-296.
Discusses the links between the realms and processes of growing wiser and gender
theory and research documenting variation in human development. Drawing on an
integrative model of wisdom including components in 3 domains (personality,
cognition, and conation) and across 3 levels (intrapersonal, interpersonal, and
transpersonal), potential differences in the ways that women and men attain and
express wisdom are highlighted. A search for interactive patterns across the
components of wisdom is initiated. Although it would be premature to claim that men
and women differ globally in wisdom, there is sufficient evidence of divergences
across the sexes to warrant more systematic inquiry.

     Robson, S. (1991). Developing autonomous children in the first school.
Early Child Development and Care, 77, 17-35.
Discusses the value of the autonomy as an educational aim for children. The history of
efforts to promote autonomy as a philosophical aim in education encompasses 3
strands: intellectual, moral (conative), and emotional autonomy. The question for
educators is whether autonomy is an inherent quality in human beings, or whether it
needs to be engendered. Piaget proposed a hierarchical order of development from
heteronomy to autonomy. Two themes (the relationship of the individual to society and
the necessity for autonomy to involve action as well as thought) provide the basis for
thinking about autonomy in the young child. The development of autonomy concerns
both the development of independent individuals and the ability to enter into
cooperative social action.

Conation and Moral Development

     Green, L. (1981). Safety need resolution and cognitive ability as interwoven
antecedents to moral development. Social Behavior and Personality, 9(2), 139-145.
Studied moral development as a nonadditive, interactive function of both recognized
cognitive abilities and interpersonal security. Data showed preservice teachers
(N=139) had a mean moral development score at about the national norm. Suggests
constraints placed on moral thought by one's prepotent conative level should be
considered in curricular planning.

     Quinn, R. (1987). The humanistic conscience: An inquiry into the development
of principled moral character. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 27(1), 69-92.
Criticizes humanistic theories that relate moral behavior to the drive for
self-actualization and proposes a multidimensional model of the humanistic conscience
(HC) that stresses the integration of conative, affective, and rational processes within
the person. Among 30 persons (aged 22-50 yrs), this form of conscience correlated
positively with humanistic core values in the family-of-origin, the experience of
humanistic/flexible child-rearing modes, and late adolescent or adult moral life crises
that resulted in a deepened sense of moral character. A case study of a 49-yr-old
mother illustrates HC development.

     Schaefer, E., & Edgerton, M. (1982). Circumplex and spherical models for
child school adjustment and competence. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the
American Psychological Association (90th, Washington, DC, August 23-27).
The goal of this study is to broaden the scope of a conceptual model for child
behavior by analyzing constructs relevant to cognition, conation, and affect. Two
samples were drawn from school populations. For the first sample, 28 teachers from 8
rural, suburban, and urban schools rated 193 kindergarten children. Each teacher rated
up to eight children, half of whom were white, half black. In the second sample, 12
kindergarten teachers from the 6 schools of a small urban community rated the 293
children in their classrooms, using the Classroom Behavior Inventory. Scales
measuring the two major dimensions of the circumplex model for social and emotional
behavior were supplemented with scales measuring conation/motivation and cognition.
Factor analyses of scale scores for the two samples (including a principal factor
analysis and varimax rotation) identified major dimensions of classroom behavior.
Scales and factors were arranged according to Guttman's order of neighboring. A
three-dimensional model was generated with plots of the factor loadings, and a
generalized model was developed which integrated previous research on circumplex
models. Results are discussed.

     Schaefer, E., and others. (1985). Spherical model integrating academic
competence with social adjustment and psychopathology. Paper presented at the
Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development (Toronto,
Ontario, Canada, April 25-28).
This study replicates and elaborates a three-dimensional, spherical model that
integrates research findings concerning social and emotional behavior,
psychopathology, and academic competence. Kindergarten teachers completed an
extensive set of rating scales on 100 children, including the Classroom Behavior
Inventory and the Child Adaptive Behavior Inventory. Factor analysis of these
behavior rating scales replicated the major dimensions of academic competence,
considerateness versus hostility, and extraversion versus introversion.
Multidimensional scaling analysis revealed a spatial configuration or map of the
interrelationships of the various behavior scales. Scales that had been developed to
measure apathy and asocial behavior contributed to a more detailed description of
sectors in the model. Sectors of the unified model that integrate domains of cognition,
conation, and affect corresponded with the major diagnostic categories of the
"Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder" (3rd ed.) and with dimensions
of child behavior identified in other studies. Thus, it is suggested that the unified
spherical model may contribute to more comprehensive studies of child behavior and
to the integration of research findings within and across studies. (Author/RH)

     Tappan, M. (1990). Hermeneutics and moral development: Interpreting
narrative representations of moral experience. Developmental Review, 10(3), 239-265.
Outlines a hermeneutic approach to the study of moral development that focuses on
interpreting narrative representations of real-life moral experience. This approach
assumes that lived moral experience entails 3 fundamentally interdependent
psychological dimensions: cognitive, affective, and conative. The approach assumes
that individuals' representations of their lived moral experiences, in the narratives they
tell in open-ended, semiclinical interviews, can be interpreted in ways that highlight
the complex interplay between these 3 dimensions. Methodological and theoretical
implications of this approach are explored, and an example of an interpretive analysis
of an interview narrative is provided.

Conation and Problem Solving/Decison Making

     Gleason, J. (1989). What Price Entrepreneurship? Vocational Education
Journal, 64(8), 38-39.
Offering first-rate entrepreneurial skill development will require new program designs,
increased options, and less focus on traditional structures. Entrepreneurship education
should be offered as a career option and should be taught only to those who are
intellectually, emotionally, and functionally ready.

     Haddad, W., & Others. (1990). Education and development: Evidence for new
priorities. World Bank Discussion Papers No. 95. Washington, DC: World Bank.
ERIC NO: ED326471.
Education has been recognized as the cornerstone of economic and social
development. Now it is even more important as technological change and new
methods of production transform the world economy. Development will depend more
and more on knowledge-intensive industries, agriculture, and services. The continuing
economic crisis, however, is jeopardizing the ability of many countries to maintain
even the present quality of their educational services. These countries are falling
behind in providing the education and training needed by their youth to create and
adapt available knowledge and technologies to the local environment. This report
examines the relationship between education and economic development and evaluates
various measures designed to improve the quality of education in developing countries.
It draws on the successes and failures of past educational policies to recommend
strategies that address a number of different economic conditions. Among the topics
addressed by the report are: (1) the effect of education on the achievements of women;
(2) a comparison of the benefits of vocational/technical and academic education; (3)
the effect of education on mortality, nutrition, and fertility; (4) management of the
educational system; and (5) cost recovery and private education. Thirty tables of data
appear throughout the report and an extensive bibliography is included.

     Reid, I., & Crompton, J. (1993). A taxonomy of leisure purchase decision
paradigms based on level of involvement. Journal of Leisure Research, 25(2),
182-202.
Introduces a taxonomy of 5 decision-making paradigms that describe how participants
make decisions about purchasing a leisure service and that incorporate the influence of
involvement level. The paradigms are: hierarchy-of-effects, dissonance-attribution
hierarchy, alternative attribution hierarchy, low involvement hierarchy, and single or
integrated hierarchy. Differences in involvement level and ability to differentiate
between attributes of service alternatives lead to differences in sequencing of the
cognitive, affective, and conative components of the decision process. These different
sequences differentiate the 5 alternative paradigms. Nine research propositions are
offered to guide future involvement research efforts.