Lecture 04 - Sacrificial Goals: Goals, Self-Control, and Misregulation in Elite Women's Gymnastics Flashcards
What is Baumeister’s Analysis applied to Women’s Elite Gymnastics?
“While seriously injured and while knowing an intensely painful and possibly harmful experiences is awaiting one, one must still execute a strenuous and demanding routine with world-class skill”
What is self-control defined as?
“The capacity to alter one’s responses especially so as to bring them into line with standard such as ideals, values, morals, and social expectations, and to support the pursuit of long-term goals”
more deliberate, conscious, and effortful subset of self-regulation
What is transcendence?
Seeing beyond the immediate stimulus environment by focusing on more long-range goals that are higher in value
*Higher process involve:
- longer time-spans
- more extensive networks of meaningful associations
- more distal and abstract goals
What are the ingredients for successful self-regulation?
- Standards
- Monitoring of feedback
- Self-regulatory strength
–> under-regulation most common
What self-regulation practices do Elite Gymnasts adopt in?
No hanging out
No watching TV
No going on dates
No spontaneous, uncontrolled eating
No giving in to minor injuries
What is misregulation?
exerting self-control in a way that fails to bring about the desired results because the efforts are misguided or wasted
What are the types of misregulation?
misunderstood contingencies
- example: unrequited love
trying to control the uncontrollable
- example: choking in a performance setting
In the longitudinal study of young adults’ sacrifice of basic psychological needs in purusit of career goals, what were the outcomes?
sacrifices for career goals:
- maintenance activities
- leisure activities
- psychological needs
antecedents of sacrifice:
- motivation for career, for sacrifice
outcomes:
- goal progress
- psychological distress
mediator:
- need frustration over year
What is Jack Block’s analysis of ego-control?
extent to which impulses and feelings are expressed or suppressed
impulsive and distractible
compulsive and joyless
“We should not favour the replacement of unbridled impulsivity with categorical, pervasive and rigid impulse control”
What distinguishes healthy self-control?
“What counts is the capacity to CHOOSE WHETHER AND WHEN to persevere, to control oneself, to follow the rules - rather than the simple tendency to do these things in every situation… this is what children will benefit from developing”
what is the problem wth elite gymnastics?
focus on self-control sacrifices satisfaction of essential psychological need
goal action plan:
- focus attention
- give effort
- persist
What does sacrificing basic psychological needs do to our pursuit of extreme career goals?
it not only leads to psychological distress, but it impairs successful pursuit of the original goal
What were the key points of this lecture?
we must consider whether goals satisfy or thwart basic psychological needs
we should question whether self-control is always adaptive
