Purposive action

From Geography

Defenition.

Purposive action can be seen as actions that are performed by actors with the intention of reaching a certain goal. Purposive action suggests that the behaviour that the actor performs is therefore a concious decision. This is in contrast with the theories of spatial behaviour that assume that people perform actions in an unconcious decision modell in reaction to stimuli in their environment (Butterfill, N.D.).

An example is the constantly repeating dilemma that students have to deal with when they have to decide if they go to college or not. Performing one of the two options (to go, or not to go) is a concious decision. The student who is in this case the performing actor creates his own conclusions about the action to perform he does this because he is aware of the consequences of the two different options.

Two kinds of purposive action?

Butterfill suggests in his article that there are two types of purposive action instead of the usual assumption that there is only one kind of purposive action. He points out that one of these types is a type in which actors are aware of the reasons for there actions and that in the other they do not know the reasons for their actions but act in response tot stimuli. The one that is dominant in scientific research is the first form. Butterfill points out that a lot of actions are performed because of desire, hate and other feelings that take away our view of the consequences of those actions.

Conclusion

Purposive action is literally what the name says. It is performing a certain action with a purpose, or a reason to perform that way. The scientific discussion whether there are one or two types of Purposive action is very interesting and will continue in the future. For the time being scientists will stick to the type that suggests that we act in a conscious way. We can conclude that this approach gives us very usefull insights in how, and why people act in a certain way.

References

Butterfill, stephen (N.D.) Two kinds of purposive action. St. Catherine’s College, Oxford. United Kingdom

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Created by: Jan-Peter Hoste, s4026349