ABSTRACT
At any given time a person can manifest an array of needs and motivations. Needs will be based on values and worldviews, and beliefs about what is proper or possible will direct the intentionality of figure formation (and satisfaction). That will give rise to behavior, some kind of action. Working with dyads includes considering choice, motivation, and purpose. That is because couples have to navigate that territory with each other. Gestalt practitioners would say it also must include interest, and that is because a common assertion has been that interest organizes one’s field, and the dyad is a non-independent, two-person field. This chapter deals with decision-making and purposive striving in dyads as related to their values and motivations. It defines motivation in relation to the field. It defines purposive behavior in the context of the differences between agent causation and contextual causation.
