Using functional fields to represent accounts of the psychological processes that produce actions

Personality traits are regularly described as a person's characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and in turn it is regularly assumed that individuals think, feel, and do things they perceive to be most functional. Here, we elaborate on earlier discussions of how functional field models can be used to more rigorously model the psychological processes and dynamics that produce behavior (Wood, Lowman, Harms, & Spain, 2017; Wood, Spain, & Harms, 2017). We particularly focus on how the verbal descriptions people provide to explain their behaviors can be more formally represented and modeled as forces shaping their decisions for how to respond to specific situations. We illustrate how these models can be used to formally represent decision making with a series of progressively more complex field models, beginning with simple single-reason expectancy-value models, and culminating in a model of the reasons Frank Abagnale provided for his decision to embark on an odyssey of high-profile check fraud at age 16, and then to cease these activities at age 21, as recounted in his book Catch Me If You Can. More generally, we discuss how functional field representations can be used to more formally evaluate the coherence of an individual's decision-making processes, to formally represent verbal statements and psychological process variables, and ultimately to identify potential ways we might be able to intervene to alter a person's behavior.