Emerging Adulthood in Hong Kong by Chau-kiu Cheung

Author:Chau-kiu Cheung [Cheung, Chau-kiu]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367272982
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2019-03-21T00:00:00+00:00

Voluntaristic explanation for challenging institutions

Challenging institutions, including opposition to government, occupying commitment, and radicalism, is possibly explicable by voluntaristic theory. This theory comprises four componential theories about the mechanisms of utilitarian optimization, power realization, normative integration, and idealistic consistency maintenance to identify voluntarism in formation of action (Munch 1987; Parsons 1968). Voluntarism in this theory refers to the person’s determination to make efforts through the four mechanisms. The mechanisms correspond to four requisite functions of adaptation, goal attainment, integration, and latency to uphold an organic system. The function of goal attainment and the mechanism of power realization represents the most rudimentary way of influence, such that the person just acts to realize power, strength, capability, or resources. One simplest example of the power realization mechanism is that a strongly built person is likely to perform heavy work. As such, power realization does not involve reasoning, learning, conformity, and maintaining consistency among ideas and actions. The power realization, mechanism, nevertheless, does not fully embody a person’s action process. To perform a human action, reasoning in the sense to optimize utility is another integral mechanism. This simply reflects thinking or planning before acting in order to harvest from the action. Nevertheless, the person is susceptible to others, notably their social norms, to which the person is inclined to conform. The susceptibility and conformity stems from the nature and function of social integration. Such normative conformity may displace or preempt the person’s utilitarian optimization, which is primarily self-centered. All those mechanisms of power realization, utilitarian optimization, and normative conformity evolve to become the person’s habit or mindset. The latter is the foundational idea for the person to maintain consistency. An exemplary idea is the person’s character for shaping actions. This mechanism of idealistic consistency maintenance for the function of latency capitalizes on the person’s memory and other cognitive and general psychological qualities. In all, voluntaristic action relies on spontaneous power realization, effortful utilitarian optimization, passive normative conformity, and autonomous idealistic consistency maintenance.

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