This thesis investigated the functional significance ofthe personality construct of action-state orientation (Kuhl, 1981), which is suggested to mediate the efficiency of the volitional approach taken to overcome the difficulties associated with goal initiation, maintenance and completion under competitive pressure. The role of volition, defined as 'the act of deciding upon a course of action and initiating it' [Syn. Will] (German Dictionary of psychology, 1934, p.283) in sport has emerged from unequivocal findings taken from coaches and athletes regarding the effectiveness of goal setting as a performance enhancement strategy (Burton, Weinberg, Yukelson & Weigand, 1998; Weinberg, Burton, Yukelson & Weigand, 2000). Further research exploration of goal setting practices concluded that the most realistic explanation for the lack of goal attainment when utilising goal setting is the lack of an adequate 'action plan' (Burton, Naylor & Holliday, 2000). Whilst goal setting is a process of motivation that ends with a decision to act (Beckmann, 2002; Heckhausen, 1991; Kuhl, 1987), the processes of goal initiation and completion are related to action plans and goal striving, which are issues of volition (Kuhl, 1984; Latharn 2000). Volitional competence is determined by the opposing personality dispositions of action- versus state-orientation. Action-orientation is characterised by an efficient present focus on action and making plans under pressure, whereas state-orientation is associated with an increased propensity to ruminate over real or imagined failure and the state the individual is in, rather than focus on the task at hand (Kuhl, 1994a). Study 1 explores the performance strategies and coping skills utilised by action- and state-oriented athletes under competitive pressure. Scores on the Athlete Coping Skills Inventory (ACSI-28; Smith, Schultz, Smoll & Ptacek, 1995)demonstrated a significantly higher usage of goal setting, relaxation and imagery as well as better emotional control and lower levels of negative thinking in the actionoriented group. Results from the Test of Performance Strategies (TOPS; Thomas, Murphy & Hardy, 1999) showed comparable scores between action- and stateoriented athletes in the areas of self-talk and coachability. A similarity which highlights an increased propensity in state-oriented athletes to submit to external control and the beliefs of others in preference to their own personal judgement. Study 2 documents the impact of 5-month intervention with endurance athletes to enhance volitional functioning and self-access to their personal wants, needs and beliefs utilising Personality Systems Interaction theory (PSI; Kuhl, 2000a), which contends volition efficiency is facilitated by positive affect. Eight out of eleven baseline state-oriented athletes scores on the Volitional Components Inventory (VCI; version 6, US-I; Kuhl & Fuhrmann, 1998) showed significantly improved differences in 23 out of a total 35 areas of volitional functioning, including enhanced levels (p<O.05) of emotional control, initiating and self-determination. Significantly decreased scores (p<O.05) in areas including inhibition and fear of failure were also shown. Study 3 presents follow-up interviews with intervention programme athletes to specifically investigate personal experiences and perceptions of behaviour change. Qualitative exploration indicated more pronounced use of avoidance coping strategies related to self-awareness and the adoption of mental skills in three athletes who showed no improved volitional competency. These athletes demonstrated inappropriate and performance impairing methods of enacting their intentions. Overall, results suggest that volitional efficiency is related to the ease of access to personal beliefs, needs and wants as these self-related constructs provide goals with the dynamic properties of being self-determined and intrinsicallymotivated. Goal pursuit can be severely debilitated by intentions that lack energising and protective qualities because limited self-awareness and the use of denial create a situation where intentions are never actually associated with the constructs that govern motivational meaning and action initiation. It is necessary that athletes learn to trust their own judgements and function quickly and correctly when under competitive pressure. If athletes do not develop the ability to appropriately access the mechanisms that enable them to overcome the difficulty of goal enactment, their performance can be compromised. A key implication for professional practice is the need to develop easily adhered-to self-monitoring tools and functionally relevant affect regulation training programmes. Future research directions including the furthering of both the issues of theoretical understanding and the role played by volition in sport are presented.

The purpose of this study was to identify whether three achievement motivation variables (LGO, GNS, and AO) were positively related to work-family balance, and to investigate plausible interactions between these variables and work-family stressors on balance perceptions. Relationships of these variables to work-family conflict and facilitation outcomes were also analyzed in order to identify differential relationships. Data were collected from 428 individuals through a web-based survey. Results indicated that all three achievement motivation variables were clearly related favorably to work-family balance and facilitation, while only AO was negatively related to conflict. The relationships between schedule flexibility and all work-family outcomes were moderated by both LGO and GNS. The majority of proposed interactive effects between achievement motivation variables and work-family stressors on balance were not significant. However, several interactions were significant when conflict or facilitation served as the criterion measure. Overall, the results provide support for LGO, GNS, and AO as both direct and indirect contributors to work-family balance.

"This case study examined the implementation of the Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) at a high school that was labeled as a turnaround school (overall academic achievement proficiency below 55%) in 2006-2007. The foundation of PLCs is built on a shared vision and mission. The PLC principles of learning for all students, a collaborative culture, and a focus on results were the components most identified in the literature review, which helped shape the design of the methodology. Under the leadership of a new principal and with the implementation and focus on PLCs, Ocean Breeze High School's (OBHS) academic achievement proficiency grew from 48.6% to 87.5% within a three-year period. Based on this phenomenal progress, this case study investigated the relationship between PLC characteristics and instructional practices at this school. The data sources included fourteen interviews with eleven teachers and three administrators, observations of two PLC meetings, fourteen classroom observations, and a document review. The data from the interviews were transcribed and themes were matched to reflect common perceptions from teachers and administrators on PLC practices. PLC meetings were observed to identify collaborative interactions between team members. A document review included any documents or artifacts that the school has used to implement PLC principles or similar practices. Classroom observations were conducted to compare if instructional practices correlate with interview responses, PLC meetings, and the documents reviewed. This study found that there is a relationship between PLCs and instructional practices. The findings included: (a) teachers ensure that all students learn by developing common instructional guides that support the state curriculum; (b) teachers meet to discuss the curriculum, pedagogical strategies, and assessments in PLC meetings; and (c) teachers and administrators analyze data to make instructional decisions to enhance teaching and learning. / Ed. D.

Proactive organizational behavior is characterized by self-started and long-term oriented activities involving forward thinking and the intention to effect change in one's work environment. The primary objective of this research was to investigate relationships of supervisory behaviors with subordinates' personal initiative, voice behavior, and proactive service performance and to reveal moderators and mediators of these associations. Whereas personal initiative represents a wide range of proactive behaviors, voice behavior specifically reflects challenging and constructive forms of change-oriented communication. Drawing on the proactivity, service, and performance literatures, the proactive service performance construct was newly conceptualized as self-started and long-term oriented service behavior exceeding prescribed requirements.Twelve hypotheses were developed based on the implications of several leadership, performance, and motivation theories as well as previous empirical studies. Data from 229 supervisor-subordinate dyads were collected in a large financial services organization across three lines of business and ten U.S. states. Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that proactive service performance, voice behavior, and task performance were distinguishable performance dimensions. Participative leadership related positively and active-corrective transactional leadership negatively to supervisor ratings of subordinate proactivity. Transformational leadership was positively associated with personal initiative, proactive service performance, and task performance. In hierarchical regression analyses, the block of leadership variables explained significant increments in the variance of all criteria, after several control, subordinate, and task variables were accounted for.Moderated hierarchical regressions revealed that transformational leadership positively predicted voice only when combined with high participation or low levels of co rrective leadership. Similarly, transformational leadership was more strongly and positively associated with initiative when corrective leadership was low. Participative leadership more strongly and positively related to voice for action-oriented subordinates low in hesitation and to all proactivity criteria for subordinates low in affective organizational commitment. Mediated regression analyses as well as structural equation modelling identified trust in leadership as a mediator of most of the relationships between the leadership predictors and the proactivity criteria. The discussion focuses on practical implications for leadership development, conceptual implications for the distinction between task performance and proactivity, and directions for future research on the antecedents and consequences of proactive behavior.

Using action orientation after failure as a measure of individual differences in emotion regulation abilities (ERA), this thesis’ studies investigated the impact of ERA on cognition, behavior, and own versus imposed goals differentiation. The first study used cortisol as a physiological stress marker to replicate the link between ERA and the ability to make intuitive judgments under stress. High ERA were associated with increased performance in an intuition task under stress. In contrast, when feeling no stress, low ERA were associated with increased performance in an intuition task. The second study showed that ERA can compensate for depression-associated biased processing of negative stimuli. This effect was present even at mild to moderate depression levels. Replicating earlier findings, the third study showed that ERA are associated with an increased ability to distinguish self-chosen from imposed goals. Most importantly, the study identified activation in the right medial prefrontal cortex as a neural correlate of identifying self-chosen goals, and activation in the anterior cingulate cortex, as a correlate of falsely identifying imposed goals as self-chosen ones. Altogether, these studies show the necessity to consider individual differences in ERA in stress, clinical, and motivational research. The findings are discussed with respect to three theories that relate to motivation and personality from behavioral and neurobiological perspectives, namely, Personality Systems Interaction Theory, Predictive and Reactive Control Systems Theory, and Self-Determination Theory.

Ausgangspunkt sind Video-Aufzeichnungen von drei Unterrichtsstunden im Fach Musik. Sie werden zunächst in einen musikdidaktischen Rahmen eingeordnet, der es erlaubt, eine Stunde primär der „Handlungsorientierung“ im Sinn der 1980er Jahre zuzuordnen, die zweite Stunde primär dem musikdidaktischen Modell eines „Aufbauenden Musikunterrichts“ und die dritte Stunde „offenen“ Unterrichtskonzeptionen. Der zweite Abschnitt fragt nach dem Verhältnis von Lernen und Lehren und mündet in die These, dass „natürliches“, informelles Lernen und das Lernen in der Institution Schule in einem unauflösbaren Spannungsverhältnis zueinander stehen. Diese These wird dann an einigen Teilaspekten der aufgezeichneten Schulstunden konkretisiert. Im abschließenden Abschnitt wird die These auf das Spannungsverhältnis zwischen den schulischen Leistungserwartungen und der individuellen Leistungsbereitschaft der Schüler bezogen. Der Beitrag mündet in einem Plädoyer für die Anerkennung und Förderung der grundlegenden Leistungsbereitschaft der Schüler sowie der Selbstwahrnehmung ihrer individuellen Leistungen und ihres individuellen Erfolgs im Sinn einer zunehmenden Leistungsbewusstheit. / The point of departure consists of video recordings of three music lessons. These are first of all localised within a music-didactic framework, allowing one lesson to be classified primarily along the lines of “action-oriented” processes in the 1980s sense of the term, the second to be classed primarily with the music-didactic model of “progressive music learning” and the third lesson with “open” teaching concepts. The second section is an enquiry into the relationship between teaching and learning, resulting in the thesis that there is an irresolvable tension between “natural” informal learning and learning within the school institution. In the following section this thesis is concretised along various partial aspects of the recorded lessons. The thesis is then applied in the final section to the tension between the school’s performance expectations and the pupils’ individual willingness to perform. The piece ends by arguing for the recognition and promotion of the pupils’ fundamental willingness to perform as well as of their self-awareness of their individual performance and individual success in the sense of an increasing awareness of performance.

Ausgangspunkt sind Video-Aufzeichnungen von drei Unterrichtsstunden im Fach Musik. Sie werden zunächst in einen musikdidaktischen Rahmen eingeordnet, der es erlaubt, eine Stunde primär der „Handlungsorientierung“ im Sinn der 1980er Jahre zuzuordnen, die zweite Stunde primär dem musikdidaktischen Modell eines „Aufbauenden Musikunterrichts“ und die dritte Stunde „offenen“ Unterrichtskonzeptionen. Der zweite Abschnitt fragt nach dem Verhältnis von Lernen und Lehren und mündet in die These, dass „natürliches“, informelles Lernen und das Lernen in der Institution Schule in einem unauflösbaren Spannungsverhältnis zueinander stehen. Diese These wird dann an einigen Teilaspekten der aufgezeichneten Schulstunden konkretisiert. Im abschließenden Abschnitt wird die These auf das Spannungsverhältnis zwischen den schulischen Leistungserwartungen und der individuellen Leistungsbereitschaft der Schüler bezogen. Der Beitrag mündet in einem Plädoyer für die Anerkennung und Förderung der grundlegenden Leistungsbereitschaft der Schüler sowie der Selbstwahrnehmung ihrer individuellen Leistungen und ihres individuellen Erfolgs im Sinn einer zunehmenden Leistungsbewusstheit. / The point of departure consists of video recordings of three music lessons. These are first of all localised within a music-didactic framework, allowing one lesson to be classified primarily along the lines of “action-oriented” processes in the 1980s sense of the term, the second to be classed primarily with the music-didactic model of “progressive music learning” and the third lesson with “open” teaching concepts. The second section is an enquiry into the relationship between teaching and learning, resulting in the thesis that there is an irresolvable tension between “natural” informal learning and learning within the school institution. In the following section this thesis is concretised along various partial aspects of the recorded lessons. The thesis is then applied in the final section to the tension between the school’s performance expectations and the pupils’ individual willingness to perform. The piece ends by arguing for the recognition and promotion of the pupils’ fundamental willingness to perform as well as of their self-awareness of their individual performance and individual success in the sense of an increasing awareness of performance.

Duale Prozessmodelle unterscheiden implizite und explizite Formen der Informations-verarbeitung (Strack & Deutsch, 2004). Implizite Verarbeitung erfolgt schnell und un-bewusst und basiert auf affektiv-assoziativen Netzwerken. Explizite Verarbeitung geschieht überlegt und langsam und beinhaltet bewusste, kognitive Entscheidungsprozesse. In dualen Prozessmodellen der Motivation sagen implizite Motive langfristiges Verhalten und explizite Motive bewusste Entscheidungen vorher (McClelland, et al., 1989). Hoher positiver Affekt sowie geringer negativer Affekt aktivieren implizite kognitive Systeme während eine entgegen gesetzte Ausprägung explizite Informationsverarbeitung bahnt (J. Kuhl, 2000a). Drei Feldstudien untersuchen die diskriminante Validität impliziter vs. expliziter motivationaler Prozesse für das Verhalten in unbewussten vs. bewussten kritischen Situatio-nen im Hochleistungssport. In Studie 1 und 2 wird bei Tennis- (N = 60) und Basketballspielern (N = 56) die Fähigkeit erhoben, positiven und negativen Affekt zu regulieren (ACS-90; J. Kuhl, 1994). In Studie 3 (N = 86) werden zusätzlich implizite (OMT; J. Kuhl & Scheffer, 1999) und explizite Motive (PRF; D. N. Jackson, 1999) sowie die Fähigkeit zur bewussten Selbstregulation (VCQ; J. Kuhl & Fuhrmann, 1998) gemessen. In Studie 1 sagen explizite Formen der Verarbeitung (niedrige positive Affektregulation) die Tennisleistung in objektiv kritischen (wie Tie Breaks) aber nicht in bewusst kritischen Situationen vorher. In Studie 2 führt implizite Verarbeitung (hohe negative Af-fektregulation) zu besseren Basketballleistungen in objektiv kritischen Spielen. In Studie 3 unterstützt explizite Verarbeitung Leistungen in bewusst kritischen Situationen im Rückschlagsport. In unbewusst kritischen Situationen erzielen dagegen Sportler mit ausgeprägten impliziten Motiven bessere Ergebnisse. Die Befunde werden hinsichtlich der Sportartenspezifik, dem Grad der Bewusstheit sowie Persönlichkeitsunterschiede diskutiert. / Dual-process models distinguish implicit and explicit ways of information processing (Strack & Deutsch, 2004). Implicit processes are based on associative affective networks and operate fast and unconsciously. Explicit processing is a cognitive, usually slow, deliberate, and conscious way of decision-making. Dual-process models of motivation propose that implicit motives predict long-term behavior and explicit motives predict deliberate decisions (McClelland, Koestner, & Weinberger, 1989). Up-regulation of positive affect and down-regulation of negative affect activate implicit cognitive systems while regulation in the opposite direction triggers explicit information processing (J. Kuhl, 2000a). Within three field studies it is investigated whether implicit vs. explicit motivational processes are of discriminant validity for professional athletic behavior in unconsciously vs. consciously critical situations. In study one and two, tennis (N = 60) and basketball professionals’ (N = 56) abilities to regulate positive and negative affect (ACS-90; J. Kuhl, 1994) are assessed. In study three (N = 86) the additional measures of implicit (OMT; J. Kuhl & Scheffer, 1999) and explicit motives (PRF; D. N. Jackson, 1999) as well as conscious self-regulation (VCQ; J. Kuhl & Fuhrmann, 1998) are used. Study one proposes that explicit processing supports performance in objective critical situations (tie breaks) in tennis. However, in consciously critical situations no advantage for explicitly processing athletes could be found. In study two implicitly processing basketball players perform better in objectively critical games. In the final study racquet sportsmen who process explicitly perform better in consciously critical situations. In contrast, in unconsciously critical situations athletes with high implicit motives gain better results. Findings are discussed from the perspective of task specificity, degree of awareness, and individual differences.