Action and Consciousness in Psychology

This topic concerns with the interaction between consciousness, action and behavior.  It explores questions such as: Does consciousness cause behavior? Can an action be executed in the absence of consciousness?  Does every action have a conscious purpose?  What psychological mechanisms or motivations inspire the different types of actions? These questions are fundamental to the understanding of when, how and why actions are produced.   

This is a relatively broad topic but a good place to start is the edited book Pockett 2004.  Another critical work is that of  Libet 1982 whose seminal experiment drew the temporal relationship between intention, causation and action.