Draft:PSI theory (Kuhl)

Julius Kuhl's theory of personality-system interactions (PSI theory) is a theory of volitional action control that attempts to integrate motivational, volitional, cognitive, developmental, and personality psychology theories.

Kuhl's PSI theory seeks to address the shortcoming of existing schools of personality psychology, which have often relied heavily on only a single system of psychology (in the sense of PSI theory). Taking into account well-known findings from Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, Hans Jürgen Eysenck, Carl Rogers, Ivan Pavlov and Kurt Lewin, as well as from brain research, the theory offers a system-theoretical approach to personality and motivation that encompasses seven levels. This approach stands out from traditional typologies and factor-analytical concepts, as the interaction between system levels is the primary focus of PSI theory.

Theory

PSI Theory provides different explanations for the corruption phenomenon, where intrinsic motivation is destroyed, using various system levels (corresponding to different psychological schools). When behavior, which was initially motivated intrinsically, is suddenly regulated by external incentives (instructions, rewards), inner involvement decreases (see also here ). This renders the self-motivation function, which provides the experience of pleasure derived from the activity itself (known as "flow"), ineffective. This example and its different explanations at each system level demonstrate that all known personality-psychological schools have their place in explaining behavior, but are nevertheless too one-sided to provide a complete picture of personality structure.

Kuhl identifies different individual capabilities related to self-control under stress as action- and situation-oriented. He further distinguishes between the ability to make decisions and implement corresponding intentions (i.e. Prospective Action- vs. Situation-Orientation: HOP/LOP) and the ability to control aversive emotions and thoughts after failure or in threatening situations (Action- vs. Situation-Orientation After Failure: HOM/LOM).

Kuhl assumes that these abilities are more related to socialization than to inheritance, which is reflected in the System Conditioning Hypothesis, which can be seen as an addition to the modulation assumptions. This refers to a form of classical conditioning in childhood, whereby the mother responds to the needs of the infant in a temporally and content-wise coordinated manner. Through this, the connections between the self-system ("Extension Memory", EM) and the affected affect-generating systems are formed, so that the child can later generate these connections by itself and no longer has to depend on the affect-regulating influence of the mother.

The significance of the Extension Memory (EM) in this context is high, as it can also be referred to as the core of the self. People with good access to their self are known to be more flexible, assertive, and in inner harmony, while people with lower access to their self can appear more rigid and imbalanced. Kuhl refers to the ability to integrate new experiences into the extended memory as an "emotional dialectic".

System levels

1. Automatic Control (Learning)
2. Temperament (Activation and Arousal)
3. Affect and Motivation
4. Progression and Regression
5. Fundamental Motives
6. Cognition (Thinking vs. Feeling)
7. Consciousness and Will (Self-control, self-regulation and volition)

Macrosystems

The theory assumes that the connections between system levels are modulated by changes in positive and negative affect (A+ and A-) or their inhibition (A+() and A−()). These dynamics are constructed by the four macrosystems:

1. Extension Memory (EM, A(−), Feeling, right prefrontal): Coherent contextual and self-knowledge with a focus on congruency and parallel holism.
2. Intention Memory (IM, A(+), Thinking, left prefrontal): Perseverance of intentions, shielding, planning, sequential-analytical attention.
3. Object Recognition System (ORS, A−, Sensing, left parietal): Attention focused on incongruency.
4. Intuitive Behavior Control (IBC, A+, Intuition, right parietal): Intuitive behavioral routines.

Modulation assumptions

The seven modulation assumptions describe how the interplay of the individual perceptual systems and the associated macrosystems influence individual affective states. The first two of these are considered to be the basic modulation assumptions.

1. Modulation assumption (Volition Assumption) proposes that dampening of positive affect (A(+)) inhibits the execution system (more precisely, the inhibition of the connection between the IM and IBC) and thereby facilitates the further maintenance and processing of an intention in the intention memory and associated support systems (e.g., analytical thinking). The implementation of "intentions" in the sense of explicitly desired actions is facilitated by externally or self-generated positive affect (volition), which reverses the dampening of positive affect and deactivates the intention memory including its associated support systems.
2. Modulation assumption (self-guidance assumption) proposes that the downregulation of negative affect (A(-)) facilitates the inhibitory influence of integrated self-representations and other context representations on the experience of incongruous or unexpected object perceptions and feelings ("repression") and thus prevents "alienation" from one's own interests ("self-guidance") and excessive sensitization of self- or expectation-discrepant object perceptions".
3. Modulation assumption: Will inhibition
4. Modulation assumption: Self-soothing
5. Modulation assumption: Self-motivation
6. Modulation assumption: Self-actualization
7. Modulation assumption: Penetration

STAR model: Personality styles based on PSI theory

The STAR Model describes eight (personality) styles based on the different coalition of four psychological systems.

Extension Memory (EM), Intention Memory (IM), Object Recognition System (ORS), and Intuitive Behavior Control (IBC) form short-term alliances. For example, EM and IBC form an ambitious style when modulated by the dampening of negative affect and the presence of positive affect.

The following styles are differentiated:

Personality Style	Affect
Self-determined style	A{+} / A(−)
Individualistic style	A(+) / A(−)
Restrained style	A(+) / A{−}
Self-critical style	A(+) / A−
Careful style	A{+} / A−
Foreboding style	A+ / A−
Lovable style	A+ / A{−}
Ambitious style	A+ / A(−)

Legend:

A+	positive affect
A(+)	dampened positive affect (stress)
A−	negative affect (threat)
A(−)	dampened negative affect
{ }	affect is neither strong nor dampened

Diagnostics

Training and Therapy Accompanying Osnabrück Personality Diagnostics (TOP), IMPART GmbH

This diagnosis is based on the PSI theory. The tests are developed and disseminated by IMPART GmbH (a spin-off of the University of Osnabrück). Julius Kuhl, author of the tests and majority shareholder of IMPART, says that the "Therapy-accompanying Osnabrück Personality Diagnosis (TOP) is a new diagnostic system for determining the causes of mental illness that lie in the area of ​​personality (...) An essential difference compared to classical personality tests lies in the fact that personality is not recorded statically (...) but as a system of interacting, mutually influencing processes, many of which are subject to change. This difference is expressed above all in the distinction between first and second reactions [that is, it] takes into account what becomes of the first reaction [for example] in order to adjust itself to the requirements of the concrete situation “. More precisely, it „depends on self-regulation whether someone remains stuck in a first reaction or can switch to other system configurations if necessary“. „For the development of personal competences, action-oriented coping competence is more important than the emotional first reaction“. The TOP exists in three versions:

• a short version (TOP-K) (duration: 120 minutes)
• a long version (TOP-L) (duration: max. 180 minutes)
• as EMOSCAN (duration: 40–60 minutes)

TOP-K diagnostics (short version)

Components:

Name of procedure:	Number of items:	Response category; constructs:	Statement options:
MUT-K = Motive implementation test (short version)	80, 96 including additional scale	First reaction; Conscious or explicit motivational dominance (4 motives x 4 implementation styles x number of questions and additional scales)	1. Describing conscious motivational initial reaction (a person reacts spontaneously and consciously with what stimulus and implementation of what motive? What are the dominant motivational strengths)? 2. Make a comparison: Do their conscious and unconscious initial motivational responses match? (Discrepancies tend to create more stress/symptoms).
OMT = Operant Multimotive Test	15-20 depending on choice	First reaction; Unconscious or implicit motivational dominance (4 motives x 5 implementation styles)	1. Describe unconscious motivational initial reaction (a person reacts spontaneously and unconsciously with which stimulus and implementation of which motive?) 2. Make a comparison: Do their conscious and unconscious initial motivational responses match? (Discrepancies tend to create more stress/symptoms).
BEF = emotional state	23	First reaction; Conscious initial emotional reaction (mood)	1. Describe conscious emotional initial reaction (a person reacts spontaneously and consciously with which mood?) 2. Make a comparison: Do their conscious and unconscious initial emotional reactions match? (Discrepancies tend to create more stress/symptoms).
IMPAF = Implicit affect	6	First reaction; Unconscious initial emotional reaction	1. Describe unconscious emotional initial reaction (a person reacts spontaneously and unconsciously with which mood?) 2. Make a comparison: Do their conscious and unconscious initial emotional reactions match? (Discrepancies tend to create more stress/symptoms).
PSSI = Personality style and disorder inventory	140 (long version)	First reaction; Personality style in general	1. Describe the general personality style (a person reacts spontaneously to many situations with a reserved, quiet, etc. style) 2. Make a comparison: Do their general styles match that under stress? (Differences here could also represent adaptive skills to stress).
SEKS = Scales for emotional and cognitive styles	44	First reaction; Personality style especially under stress (11 styles x 4 questions per style)	1. Describe the stress-specific personality style (a person spontaneously responds to stress with a reserved, quiet, etc. style) 2. Make a comparison: Do their general styles match that under stress? (Differences here could also represent adaptive skills to stress).
SSI-K3 = Self-control inventory	52	Second reaction; Basic regulatory competence and efficiency (with problem pressure and task load).	1. Describe and evaluate competencies and efficiencies 2. Looking at (e.g., rigid) first reactions: Is a person flexible or stuck/hanging? Can they "regulate themselves out"? 3. Make connections to symptoms
HAKEMP = Action control after success and failure	36	Second reaction; Special reactions to failures and unfinished intentions	1. Describe how a person responds to failure/sorrow or unfinished business 2. For particularly high/low proficiencies, assess which skill would be appropriate as a counterbalance. 3. Make connections to symptoms
BES = Complaints and symptom manifestation	30	Symptoms	1. Describe/evaluate symptoms 2. Discover resources through minor symptoms
SCL32 = Symptoms checklist	32	Symptoms	1. Describe/evaluate symptoms 2. Discover resources through minor symptoms

See also

• Volition (psychology)
• PSI-theory (Dörner)

Literature

• IMPART (Hrsg.): TOP Manual. Kuhl & Alsleben. sonderpunkt Verlag, Greven 2009, ISBN 978-3-938329-52-8.
• IMPART (Hrsg.):Kuhl, J.. OMT Auswertungsmanual für den Operanten Multi-Motiv-Test. sonderpunkt Verlag, Greven 2009, ISBN 978-3-95407-008-4.
• Julius Kuhl, Jürgen Beckmann (Hrsg.): Volition and Personality. Action versus state orientation. Hogrefe und Huber, Göttingen 1994, ISBN 3-8017-0338-X.
• Julius Kuhl: Motivation und Persönlichkeit. Interaktionen psychischer Systeme. Hogrefe, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-8017-1307-5.
• Falko Rheinberg und Joachim Stiensmeier-Pelster (Hrsg.): Diagnostik von Motivation und Selbstkonzept. Hogrefe, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-8017-1674-0.
• Heinz Heckhausen: Motivation und Handeln. Springer, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-540-50746-9.

• T. D’Angelo: Die Selbststeuerung und die Modulation durch Affekte im Rahmen der Theorie der Persönlichkeits-System-Interaktionen von Julius Kuhl. Proseminararbeit am Pädagogischen Institut der Universität Zürich, Lehrstuhl PP, 2007 (PDF-Datei; 240 kB)
• Ursina Degen: Das Konzept der Selbststeuerung bei Julius Kuhl. 2005 (PDF-Datei; 244 kB – Seminararbeit/ Pädagogisches Institut Universität Zürich). 
• Sven Hoyer: Die Ordnung der Welt. Dissertation, 2006 (PDF, Verständliche Darstellung inklusive auch kritischer Aspekte zu den Themen Gedächtnis, Emotion und makrofunktionaler Zusammenfassung in PSI).
• Udo Luckey: Zwischen Eigentlichkeit und Uneigentlichkeit. Dissertation, 2009, urn:urn:nbn:de:gbv:700-2009042213:{{{2}}} (PDF; 5,1 MB, Umfassende Darstellung der PSI-Theorie).