Volitional resource and its distribution

The article is devoted to the problem of limited volitional resource and the phenomenon of willpower depletion. The objective of the paper is to systematize the concepts used in this sphere and to identify a possible method of rational volitional resource distribution among the main and subordinate aims of the project. We have clarified the conceptual apparatus of the psychology of will. In particular, the will is defined as the ability of an individual to consciously regulate his own activities aimed at overcoming obstacles encountered in achieving the goal. The expression of will is treated as a single act of will manifestation in the process of overcoming an obstacle encountered on the way to achieving the goal. The act of overcoming individual obstacles is referred to as "work of will expression", and the measure of significance of the corresponding action as its volume. A volitional resource is the quantitative measure of the ability to exhibit volitional efforts to overcome all obstacles on the way to achieving the goal. The energy of the organism is renewable. Therefore, in general case volitional resource is renewable as well. However, in the context of fast-moving activities unfolding for a short period of time, it is difficult to renew energy. This allows us speaking about limitations of volitional resource. It opens up the possibility of measuring volitional resource. The unit of measurement of volitional resource is introduced. To understand the mechanism of volitional resource distribution, we have introduced the category "goal" as an ideal result, which is obtained by thinking and the achievement of which depends on the internal motivation of the thinking subject, and its types - the general and intermediate goals. The action of the internal mechanism of the volitional resource distribution among the main and subordinate goals of the activity is revealed by means of a decision tree. To build the decision tree, the general goal becomes a system of interconnected subgoals. Along with the connections they create a directed graph with n arcs and n+1 vertices. The development of such a graph is implemented in accordance with the laws of deduction (i.e., in the direction from general to particular). As a result, the goals of lower levels define the goals of higher levels and serve as a means of achieving the objectives of the highest level. After uncovering all the goals it is necessary to divide them into more and less significant ones. Building a tree of objectives ends with the establishment of the relative importance criteria. They serve as the basis for assessing the importance of all goals of the project. This is necessary for comparison of the goals according to their significance and the importance of their practical implementation. The significance of the goal is expressed by its coefficient of relative importance. These ratios are used to assess the contribution of each goal to achieving the general goal. We have shown how the distribution of the volitional resource among the goals which are at the same level of the decision tree can be implemented using coefficients of relative importance of all these goals. There are examples illustrating the essence of the method of limited volitional resource internal distribution. The results may serve as the explanation of the mental mechanism of the volitional resource internal distribution in achieving the general goal of the activity.

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