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)
what 2 predictions can we use to judge whether this is a useful framework for self-regulation
1) Substantial discrepancies increase goal directed behaviour (big discrepancies mean you try harder to shrink them)
2) No discrepancy (or positive discrepancy) leads to coasting, down-regulating the behaviour
Evidence for these predictions. ‘lifes too full of goals’
Fulford et al., 2010- people identified 3 goals and then 3 times a day for 21 days they recorder
1) how much effort they’d put in so far that day
2) how much closer they were since the last recording
3) how much closer do you expect to be by the next
Results- more effort was put into the goals if there was a bigger discrepancy between current and reference value.
But- this was only in the people who had recorded an intention to get closer to goal that day. those who had unexpectedly got closer to their goal without intending, ended up coasting.
what does this suggest
we only need to put in effort when there’s a discrepancy
Evidence for the fact that big discrepancies don’t always lead to more effortful goal-directed behaviour. ‘fuck it, i’ll just do it to louro- or just give up’
The Multiple Goal Pursuit model-
Says that there are 2 things that determine how much effort we put into a goal.
1) discrepancies (as fulford says)
2) expectations about how likely you are to achieve the goal
Louro says that when you’re close to achieving the goal, fulford theory still stands. you coast of step up efforts.
But, being far away from the goal has the opposite effect- you decide that the goal is unattainable and you give up.
what does the multiple goal pursuit model claim signals whether a goal is attainable or not
emotions
what was louro, pieters and zeelenburg’s study into this idea, procedure
They asked people to imagine they were athletes and then they manipulated goal proximity and perceived progress.
Goal proximity-
- Things aren’t going well. you only got a good time 20% of the time
- Things are going well. you achieved a good time 95% of the time
Perceived progress-
- You achieved a bad time in your most recent 12 trials
- You achieved a winning time in all your 12 trials
Then they introduced alternative goal of a part-time, sought after job. A goal conflict decision introduced
what were the results
Distal goal and bad progress- they gave up and took the job, reducing efforts
Close goal and good progress- they were so on track that they took the job- coasted
Distal goal but with good progress- they didn’t take the job because they wanted to step up the efforts
What ate the 2 ways to reduce goal discrepancy with this in mind
can either try harder and step up efforts, or you can revise the goal= downward goal revision
‘most students won’t become champions and lords, have to be born into that’
Champion and Lord, 1982- measured students grades and their predicted grades
Found that when they fell short of expectations they increased efforts but if they had consistent discrepancies they revised the goal, went for lower goals.
study into the nature of goal revision. ‘serena williams, dodgeball’
Williams, Donovan and Dodge, 2000= found that athletes set goals that are higher than their previous performances 67% of the time. Continuous upward goal revision
what did Bandura say about upward goal revision
that following success, individuals create further discrepancies by setting new, higher goals. success doesnt give lasting satisfaction
why is this a problem with control theory
control theory doesnt articulate how and why upward goal revision or abandonment happens. its just about how we achieve goals
what did Wang and Mukhopadhyay add to control theory
Test-operate-test model- they added the ‘goal calibrator’ which gives you the option to modify, abandon or upwards goal revision the next goal
CRITICAL POINTS FOR CONTROL THEORY-
‘jolly chang and lord’
Johnson, Chang and Lord 2006- said that although the relevance of control theory is disputable, it has provided a meta-framework to incorporate other’s perspectives
own critical point of it
Carver and Scheier assume that the reference value is always static
to recap. what things have been added by who to the control theory
Louro, Pieters and Zeelenburg, added the multiple goal pursuit model
Wang and Mukhopadhyay added the goal calibrator
ROLE OF AFFECT IN CYBERNETIC MODELS
What about cybernetic models is investigated in this lecture
How does a person know there is a discrepancy? Is there an automatic process which tells us?
What does Carver say about this
Emotions trigger psychological states which signal the discrepancy to us
what is the overarching theme of this lecture
There is lots of good evidence to say that emotions signal discrepancies to us, but what about whether this DRIVES a change in discrepancy reducing behaviour
what was added to control theory when the effect of affect was taken into consideration
a second ‘meta-monitoring’ loop which measures the rate of discrepancy reduction in the main loop= and its output function is affect!
what was said about rate of discrepancy vs size
you don’t feel bad about massive discrepancies as long as your progress is good. the rate of them means a lot more than the size
what is the specificity of affective feedback
Carver- says that we experiences different affective stats when approaching or avoiding a goal. positive for both but
- if making progress towards achieving an exciting goal- elation and eagerness
- if successfully avoiding something unpleasant- calmness and relief.
sum up the meta-monitoring loop
constantly compares desired progress with actual progress rate. this is what signals affect and thats what signals behaviour!
so what 2 things do we need to know about the meta-monitoring loop
whether it actually makes us feel worse when there are discrepancies in progress
whether this feeling worse actually changes our behaviour
‘people moperly over WAT goal’ Evidence for discrepancies making us feel bad
Moberly and Watkins. 103 people recorded their negative affect and most salient goal
- what is the goal
- is it important
- extent to which you’re completing it
- how do you feel (anxiety, sadness, irritation)
Results- people recorded feeling worse when they aren’t successfully achieving their important goals.
‘carver- cope. lawrence- wasnt my ideal self. big discrep.’
Carver, Lawrence and Scheier- used self theory to get people to describe their ideal, ought and feared selves, and then to decide how close they are to each trait. creates discrepancy
discrepancies should predict negative affect which they also measured.
results showed that discrep between idea and current or ought and current= depressed
discrep between feard and current- happiness
does rate of progress always cause positive affect?
‘fanning myself in the sun with a becks would be a sick second goal’
Phan and Beck- showed that the nature of your next goal, has an effect on how rate of progress makes you feel.
had participants do 2 simulated work tasks.
first they did a contract task and indicated either fast or slow progress
then they were told they would fo a hiring task next which was described as either fun and exciting or boring and annoying
results- they only reported positive affect if the hiring task was described as exciting
recap- what are the 3 studies that can be used for evidence about the affective consequence of rates of progress
Moberly and Watkins- feel shit if not making prog towards important goals
Carver, lawrence and scheier- self-discrepancy theory
Phan and Beck- only pos affect if next goal is appealing
now we know that progress drive affect, we need to know if affect drives behaviour. ‘ruchi for the ball’
Mizruchi, 1991- analysed data between 1947-1988 basketball games, results showed that if they won a previous game, they were more likely to lose, and vice versa
good and bad thing about this study
good- uses real world examples
bad- doesn’t account for competition standard, also most of the evidence doesn’t fit with the idea of coasting or complacency
what did Baumeister say about negative affect
usually, unpleasant emotional states cause self-regulation to break down
Evidence for negative affect driving behaviour= ‘story sounds horrifically enticing, baboom chush’
Tice, Bratslavsky and Baumeister- manipulated people’s mood with a horrible story about a child dying or a nice one about them being saved, then gave them cheesy goldfish as a ‘taste test’
results- those with negative story ate way more goldfish. the negative affect doesnt even need to be about your goals or progress specifically, general bad mood still affects them
a study that did look into negative affect specifically to do with goals- ‘need rennies after eating loads of shit’
Reynolds and Webb 2018- participants asked to reflect on all the good or all the bad stuff they had eaten over the week. then they were asked about their progress and their intentions to eat healthily over the week.
results: after a manipulation check which found that the different conditions did change the way they felt about their progress, it was found that the positive group did have more intentions to eat healthily
how does this dispute control theory
control theory postulates that when in negative progress you would step up efforts, but actually you find the opposite. control theory didnt account for the role of affect
what did Baumeister, Vohs, DeWall, and Zhang (2007) say about emotions
it isnt emotions that directly cause behaviour, its the feedback that emotions provide that informs us. emotions let us know what things will feel like if it happens again. therefore, it is anticipated emotions that drive us to do/not do something
so according to baumeister, why does negative affect make us avoid things more?
because you know how bad you’ll feel if you fail again, so you then want to AVOID that negative feeling by not trying anymore