Overview
Intentionality is broadly the capacity to direct oneself towards something else. If that sounds vague, it’s because intentionality takes on a variety of meanings depending on the specific context.
Philosophers of the mind discuss intentionality as a property that separates the physical world from constructs of the mind. From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
In philosophy, intentionality is the power of minds and mental states to be about, to represent, or to stand for, things, properties and states of affairs. To say of an individual’s mental states that they have intentionality is to say that they are mental representations or that they have contents. 1
The American Psychological Association (APA) defines intentionality as:
a characteristic of an individual’s acts that requires the individual (a) to have goals, desires, and standards; (b) to select behaviors that are in the service of attaining the goal (e.g., means to an end); and (c) to call into conscious awareness a desired future state. Investigators differ as to whether (a) alone, (a) and (b) but not (c), or (a), (b), and (c) are required for intentionality to be attributable to an individual. 1
In therapeutic modalities like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), intentionality is used by clinicians to refer to decision-making rooted in values instead of habits or immediate reactions.