Carver, C. S. (2006). Approach, avoidance, and the self-regulation of affect and action. Motivation and Emotion, 30, 105-110.
Several literatures converge on the idea that approach and
avoidance/withdrawal behaviors are managed by two partially distinct
self-regulatory system. The functions of these systems also appear to
be embodied in discrepancy-reducing and -enlarging feedback loops,
respectively. This article describes how the feedback construct has
been used to address these two classes of action and the affective
experiences that relate to them. Further discussion centers on the
development of measures of individual differences in approach and
avoidance tendencies, and how these measures can be (and have been)
used as research tools, to investigative whether other phenomena have
their roots in approach or avoidance.
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