The role of non-intentional processes, affect, and evaluation

This chapter presents several mental processes that are related to intentions and provides a challenge for volitional control. It focuses on the short-term perspective of intentional self-development and examines the fleetingness of the moment, non-intentional processes, and affect. The chapter illustrates the rich and complex phenomenon of intentional states and their relations to events by means of an example from everyday life. Intentions depend on the cognitive and volitional orientations of the acting person and the rules one knows or accepts. Intentional constructs can vary idiosyncratically from person to person, and what individuals want in one moment may change within a short time span, depending on situational factors that become salient. There are many possible ways to explain why some of our intentions are non-durable, but others are durable. Emotion regulation occurs when an emotional reaction is valued as good or bad, and this evaluation leads to an intention to change this particular emotion.