Séminaire Agnès Moors (KU Leuven). Towards a goal-directed model of emotional and maladaptive behavior in daily life and psychopathology

Séminaire invité
Agnès Moors (Université de Louvain) 
https://www.kuleuven.be/wieiswie/en/person/00012693

Title: Towards a goal-directed model of emotional and maladaptive behavior in daily life and psychopathology


Abstract:
I discuss and contrast two versions of dual-process models to explain emotional (e.g., avoidance, aggression) and maladaptive behavior in daily life (e.g., action slips, weak-willed behavior, behavioral reluctance) and psychopathology (e.g., impulsive and compulsive behavior in addiction and OCD). In tradition dual-process models, emotional and maladaptive behavior is typically explained by stimulus-driven processes and adaptive behavior by goal-directed processes.
This model, moreover, holds a default-interventionist architecture in which stimulus-driven processes are automatic and therefore the default determinant of behavior whereas goal-directed processes are nonautomatic and can therefore only occasionally intervene (i.e., when there is sufficient opportunity, capacity, and motivation). In recent years, I proposed an alternative dual-process model with a parallel-competitive architecture in which goal-directed processes can also be automatic and will therefore often operate in parallel with stimulus-driven processes. Here, the goal-directed processes will often win the competition and be the main determinant of behavior, including maladaptive behavior. This model explains seemingly maladaptive behavior as the result of a goal-directed process at the service of hidden goals and truly maladaptive behavior as the result of biases in the goal-directed process. While empirical evidence for the traditional model has recently come under pressure, evidence for the alternative model is growing. Both models also have different implications for interventions for behavior change.