[Akrasia in ancient and modern thought--towards a cognitive model of akrasia].

Akrasia is a philosophical concept that denotes the tendency to act in contradiction with one's best judgement. This study aimed to clarify the phenomenon in psychological terms through a working construct drawn from the available philosophical and sociological literature. After redefining akrasia in terms more appropriate to cognitive science, the authors designed a self-description test suitable for measuring the latent dimensions hypothetically related to the akratic process. The questionnaire was administered to a group of 197 subjects aged between 18 and 60 years and the collected data underwent a confirmatory factorial analysis involving Structural Equations Models. The successive verification of the instrument's reliability and coherence showed the questionnaire to be a good indicator of the construct examined and confirmed that akratic behaviour--as the authors have defined it--is in fact explained by the factors which emerged.