Self-Regulation and Goal Pursuit: Understanding Behavior and Achieving Success

1. Chapter Thirteen The Self-Regulation Perspective

2. Schemas Revisited • Schemes for events include information about behavior • Help understand others’ behavior • Help determine what to do in situations • Mirror neurons • Active when doing behavior or watching same behavior • Strong link between thinking and doing

3. Intentions • Not all behavior derives from situational schemas for action • Some behavior is purposeful and results from intention Personal beliefs Personal Desire for outcome attitude Intention Behavior Belief about others’ desires Subjective Desire to do what others want norm

4. Types of Intentions • Goal Intention—intent to obtain a particular outcome or goal • Implementation Intention—intent to take specific actions (process) given a specific situation • Serves goal intentions (subordinate to)

5. Goals and Goal Setting • Goals form central feature of human behavior • Energize activities • Direct movements • Provide meaning for life • Path of goal pursuit varies from person to person • Setting higher goals results in higher performance • Greater effort • More persistence • Greater concentration • Caveat: As long as goal is realistic

6. Comparator Feedback Control Basic components of a discrepancy-reducing feedback loop: Goal, reference value Output function (changes to make?) Input function (perception of behavior) Effect on environment

7. Implications of Feedback Control • Behavior is purposeful • Self-regulation is continuous • Goals may be dynamic over time

8. Self-Directed Attention • Idea is that directing attention toward yourself engages the comparator in the feedback loop • Individual differences in self-directed attention • Experimental manipulations (mirror, video camera, audience) • Increases evaluation of current behavior to goals • Difficult to evaluate directly • Information seeking behavior • Behavior more closely matches goals • Evidence across a range of behaviors

9. Hierarchical Organization of Goals • Provides a way to link physical action to higher order goals • Assumptions: • High-level and low-level goals • Feedback loops are arranged in layers • Behavioral output of high-level loop provides goal for next lower-level loop • Higher Levels of Hierarchy • System concepts—ideal self • Principle control—broad overriding guidelines (traits) • Program control—vague scripts

10. Lower Levels of Hierarchy • Relationships • Sequences • Transitions • Configurations • Sensations • Intensity (of muscle tension) Move toward motor movements

11. Output 1 and Goal 1 Output 2 and Goal 1 Highest level Goal 1 C1 C2 C3 Input 1 Input 2 Input 3 Feedback Hierarchy Ideal Self-image (System concept) Be Healthy (Principle) Exercise (Program) Output

12. Issues Related to Hierarchical Organizations • Not all levels may be functional all the time • Much behavior is guided by program levels of control (functionally superordinate) • Higher level goals can be satisfied by a number of lower-level goals • A single lower-level activity can service multiple higher-level goals • Goals at any one level may be compatible or incompatible with each other • Being frugal and environmentally responsible • Being frugal and being well-dressed

13. Is Behavior Organized in Hierarchies? • Action Identification—asking people to think about their actions • People identify their behavior as high-level a way as they can • Example of different identifications associated with playing tennis: Running, sweating, hitting a ball, swinging a racquet, lifting an arm, playing tennis • When difficulty occurs at higher level, people retreat to lower level identification

14. Emotions • Provide crucial information about goal priority • Serve as a cue for reprioritization (Simon) • Anxiety—personal well-being • Anger—autonomy • Reflect “rate of progress” toward goals (Carver & Scheier) • Positive rate of progress = positive affect • Negative rate of progress = negative affect • A faster rate of progress = greater intensity of affect • Implications for behavior • Negative affect triggers trying harder • Positive affect may influence coasting and reprioritization

15. Stimulus-Based Action • Goals can be activated without a person’s awareness • Research on subliminal stimuli • Stimuli presented outside of awareness • Stimuli affect subsequent behaviors • The idea is that behavioral schemas have been activated by the subliminal prime

16. Difficulties Confidence of success Obstacles to Goals • Expectancies influence engagement Stop, Generate expectancy of success Absolutely No Absolutely Yes Complete disengagement Renewed effort

17. Assessment • Individual differences in self-regulatory processes • Private self-consciousness—tendency to think about your feelings, motives, and actions • Two aspects: • Reflection—suggesting curiosity, fascination, and inquisitiveness • Rumination—suggesting negative feeling states and not being able to put something behind • Behavioral Identification Form—identifies the level at which people tend to view their behaviors

18. Problems in Behavior • Conflicts Among Goals • Examples from class? • Ill-Specified Goals • Identification of abstract, high-level goals but lack of know-how to reach them • Inability to Disengage • Particularly relevant to self-defining goals • Patterns of sporadic effort, distress, disengagement, and reconfrontation with goal

19. Therapy • Reduce automaticity of problem behavior— more careful monitoring of actions • Make new behaviors automated • Role playing, imagery • Means-ends analysis • Assess difference between current and desired state • Identify actions • Break actions into subgoals • Seek accurate feedback