Self-Regulation Flashcards
SELF-REGULATION
what is the loose definition of self-regulation
the process by which people direct their thoughts and behaviours to achieve their goals
what is ‘a fajita needs to be adopted and managed, its more than a meal’’s definition of self-regulation?
Fujita, 2011- the general process by which people adopt and manage various goals and standards for their thoughts, feelings and behaviour to ensure that these goals are met
what does the Fujita paper basically say
that self-control is more than the inhibition of impulses
what two types of things can self regulation measure
feelings like anger and also behaviours like exercise
what is the difference between self-control and self-regulation
Self-control, the process of advancing distal over proximal motivations when two are competing.
Its a type of self-regulation, not all self-reg includes self control
what other ways can we use to use self-control
things like choosing 2 equally appealing modules, you aren’t inhibiting any goal because both work towards the end goal. you are just regulating which is the most appropriate
‘off krose I ate those ice-creams every night because I bought them’
Krose, 2019- said that people with good self-reg have created adaptive routines to make it easier to behave in accordance with long-term goals. They don’t buy the biscuits at the supermarket so they don’t even have the choice to eat them
‘when the biscuits come out, im hoff! doesnt work for some’
Imhoff et al., 2014= got people to rate their self-control, those who rated themselves higher were actually the ones more likely to give into temptations. But this shows that they did have good self-regulation because they were aware that they had low self-control so would usually use adaptive routines to avoid being exposed to the temptation in the first place.
‘if i’d intervened in phillip hoffman, he kotabeen here still/
Hoffman and Kotabe, 2012- defined two types of self-control.
Anticipatory- preventative self control. Not buying the biscuits
Momentary- interventive self control. Resisting the temptation when it is present
‘milast self-control is gone when love island starts’
Milyavskaya et al., 2019- defined two more different types of self-control
State self-control- depletes throughout the day and varies over time
Trait self-control- the actual self-control abilities of an individual
why do we care about self regulation?
‘hoffman writes in his diary about wanting drugs 75% of the time’
Because its so bloody common!
Hoffman et al., 2011- gave people electronic notebooks and asked them to report if they had any desires, and how strong they were, every time it beeped.
Results: people had a desire 75% of the time.
50% of the time, they conflicted with long term goals
42% of the time, they resisted it
what were the most common desires
eat, sleep, toilet, phone, leisure activity
what was Baumeister’s book called and what did he say in it
‘Losing Control’ said that lack of self-control is the fall of society and results in all the bad stuff like divorce, violence, lack of exercise
what was Krose’s point about cheese and wine
that the underlying processes behind success and failure are completely different. French people eating a lot of cheese and wine doesn’t represent bad self-regulation because they aren’t obese so actually represents good self-reg.
Successful self-reg can be down to adaptive routines rather than increase effort
‘john probs cheated at school’
Vohns and Schooler, 2008- found that what you tell people about free will has a huge effects on their behaviour.
2 groups read an essay that argued free will isnt real or read a neutral essay
then did a task which allowed them to cheat without the experimenter knowing
found that those who read the essay explaining free will wasnt real were more likely to cheat
why is this relevant
self-regulation is important to the debate over free will, do we have control over out actions
what are some conscious ways to self-regulate
routines, rewards, weighing up long term consequences, adding rewards if the current goal seems to much
CYBERNETIC MODELS
Who coined control theory
William Powers, used engineering principles to explain human behaviour
Who made it accessible
Carver and Scheier.
outline control theory by carver and sheier
You have a reference value which is what you decide is your goal.
You have the input function which is your current state.
Comparator- is what detects the discrepancy between input function and reference value
Output function- action that needs to be taken to reduce discrepancy
Impact on the environment- when there is no longer a discrepancy
Also have disturbances
what makes control theory get complicated
these reference values are usually smaller goals that are part of a larger goal
what types of control theory loops are there
negative feedback loops which are discrepancy reducing loops and can also have discrepancy enlarging loops. which are goals framed in avoidance
what is a key point about the way control loops are organised
control loops are hierarchically organised, the output from one loop is the input for the next. basically achieving one goal is usually the new input value (current state) for the next goal. specific goals feed into bigger ones
how else can goals be organised
can also be organised horizontally. avoiding one goal results in approaching the next one. this idea of inhibitory links, have to cut down on things to achieve other things, goals can facilitate the next (socialise less means can study more)