out, an appropriate ecological niche^1 for himself or herself, which is the es-
sence of successful intelligence (Sternberg, 1996). The inner resources re-
quired for meeting adaptive challenges include motivational, emotional, and
cognitive ones. At the same time, social and cultural capital provides neces-
sary tools, support, as well as incentives, thus modulating to some extent how
individuals growing up and living in a specific culture or subculture cultivate
their potential.
Duality of Attention and Processing:
The Task and the Self
What is striking in the preceding chapters is that, one way or another, the au-
thors point to a fundamental duality of processing in intellectual functioning,
for example, cognitive engagement and coping (Matthews & Zeidner, chap.
6), maintaining positive affect and meeting new intellectual challenges (La-
bouvie-Vief & Gonzalez, chap. 9), improving oneself and an incremental view
of ability versus proving oneself and an entity view of ability (Dweck, Man-
gels, & Good, chap. 2). Other models have addressed the same phenomena
(e.g., learning vs. coping mode, Boekaerts, 1993; action vs. state orientations,
Kuhl, 1985; task vs. ego involvement, Nicholls, 1984; processing of task-
related information and self-related or motivational information, Rigney,
1980; Winne & Marx, 1989; text comprehension and the self, Kintsch, 1998;
see Apter, 2001, for a comprehensive treatment of the duality of mental life).
Duality of attention and processing is based on the fact that a human
agent can perform a task (object 1) and at the same time have self-awareness
that he or she is performing a task at hand and that how he or she feels about
the task or content involved (object 2). This is the doer–watcher duality
pointed out by James (1950). Piaget (1950, 1981) conceptualized the interplay
of cognition and affect in terms of this duality. Besides primary action that
defines an enactive agent (subject) and an impinging environment (object),
with cognition as instrument and affect instigating action, there is secondary
action, the agent’s reaction to his or her own action. This reaction takes the
form of feeling or affect (emotion), and regulates primary action by assigning
meaning and valence to the task, and subsequently prioritizing personal goals
(see also Simon, 1967, 1994). Damasio (1999, 2000) also sees this duality as
critical for understanding the nature of extended consciousness and the phe-
nomenal self.
From a functional point of view, the duality of attention and processing
constitutes one of the most important dimensions of the ecology of human
functioning. Many theoretical models, such as attention allocation model of
EPILOGUE: CONCLUDING THOUGHTS 421
1 1 We use the term ecological niches to indicate the person–environment fit in a psychological
and functional sense; no evolutionary meaning is intended.