Chapter 1 - Towards theoretical integration

Summary

In this first chapter, I explain why theoretical integration across different (sub)fields and (sub)disciplines is a good thing and why scholars who study social motivation should seek it more. The main argument is that theoretical integration provides a deeper understanding of social motivation that is unbounded by ‘local’ definitions, constructs, and methods in the many different and often isolated fields and disciplines in which social motivation is studied. Theoretical integration thus constitutes progress. To illustrate this view, I preview how a shift from self to selvations enables a synthesis of six theories that suggest that selvations reflect our essence whereas the culturally construed self makes us unique. Furthermore, I preview the two steps in the motivational process proposed in selvations theory.