The function of volitional regulation is to increase the efficiency of the corresponding activity, and volitional action appears as a conscious, purposeful action of a person to overcome external and internal obstacles with the help of volitional efforts.
At the personal level, will is manifested in such properties as willpower, energy, perseverance, endurance, etc. They can be considered as primary, or basic, volitional qualities of a person. Such qualities determine the behavior that is characterized by all or most of the properties described above.
The willful person is distinguished by:
deter manipulation, courage, self-control, self-confidence.
Such qualities usually develop in ontogenesis (development) a little later than the group of properties mentioned above. In life, they are manifested in unity with the character, so they can be considered not only as volitional but also as characterological. Let's call these qualities secondary.
Finally, there is a third group of qualities, which, reflecting the will of a person, are associated with his moral and value orientations. These are responsibility, discipline, integrity, and commitment. The same group, referred to as tertiary qualities, can include those in which the will of the individual and his or her attitude to labor simultaneously appear: businesslikeness, initiative. Such qualities of a person are usually formed only in adolescence.
According to V.A. I. Vannikov, the main psychological function of will is to strengthen motivation and improve conscious regulation of actions on this basis. The real mechanism of generating additional motivation for action is a conscious change in the meaning of the action by the person performing it. The meaning of action is usually connected with the struggle of motives and changes with certain intentional mental efforts.
Willful action, the need for it arises when there is an obstacle in the way of implementation of motivated activity. A volitional act is connected with its overcoming. However, it is necessary to realize and comprehend the essence of the arisen problem beforehand.
Inclusion of the will in the activity begins with the statement of a person in front of a question: "What happened?"
The nature of the question in itself indicates that the will is closely related to the awareness of action, activity and situation. The primary act of including the will in action actually consists in the arbitrary involvement of consciousness in the process of implementation of the activity.
Will regulation is necessary in order to keep in the field of consciousness for a long time the object over which a person thinks, to maintain the attention concentrated on it.
Will participates in the regulation of almost all basic mental functions: feelings, perception, imagination, memory, thinking and speech. The development of these cognitive processes from the lowest to the highest means that a person acquires willful control over them.
Willful action is always connected with the consciousness of the purpose of activity, its importance, with subordination of this purpose of performed actions. Sometimes there is a need to give a special meaning to any goal, and in this case, the participation of will in the regulation of activity is reduced to finding an appropriate meaning, the increased value of this activity. Otherwise, it is necessary to find additional stimuli for performance and completion of already started activity, and then the volitional meaningful function is connected with the process of performance of activity. In the third case, the aim may be to learn something and the willful nature of the actions become related to learning.
Energy and the source of willful actions are always connected in one way or another with the actual needs of a person. Relying on them, a person gives conscious meaning to his or her arbitrary actions. In this regard, the willful actions are not less determined than any other, only they are associated with consciousness, hard work of thinking and overcoming difficulties.
Willful regulation can become involved in the activity at any of the stages of its implementation: initiation of the activity, choice of means and methods of its implementation, following the planned plan or deviations from it, control over execution.
The peculiarity of the inclusion of volitional regulation at the initial moment of the activity is that a person consciously abandons some drives, motives and goals, prefers others and implements them in spite of the momentary, direct motives. The will in the choice of action is manifested in the fact that, consciously abandoning the usual way of solving the problem, an individual chooses another, sometimes more difficult one, and tries not to deviate from it.
Finally, the willful regulation of control over the execution of the action consists in the fact that a person consciously forces himself to thoroughly check the correctness of the performed actions when the strength and desire to do it is almost gone.
Particular difficulties in terms of volitional regulation is for a person such activity, where the problems of volitional control arise on the whole way of implementation of the activity.