ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes that individuals' self-defeating and seemingly "irrational" behavior serves as means to salient and important goals and therefore represents strategic goal pursuit rather than self-regulatory failure. The individual's motivational map consisting of interrelated goals and means has important implications for understanding both initiation and perpetuation of self-defeating behaviors. Risk behavior has often been discussed in relation to social acceptance, prevention-related goals, achievement goals, and regulation of negative affect. Risky sexual behavior including sex with multiple partners, with casual and commercial partners, and unprotected sex may also be enacted to fulfill specific goals. Goal pursuit is dependent on resource mobilization and executive control. Resource mobilization is a function of goal importance and difficulty of pursuit. The saliency of the goal of emotion regulation coupled with the availability of cognitive resources might have allowed them to consider the negative consequences and possibly to use them as an indicator of the instrumentality of the behavior.
