Personality psychology chapter13 the self regulation

Schemas Revisited• Schemes for events include information about behavior – Help understand others’ behavior – Help determine what to do in situations • Mirror neurons – Active when doin

Chapter Thirteen

The Self-Regulation Perspective

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

• Not all behavior derives from situational

schemas for action

• Some behavior is purposeful and results

from intention

Desire for outcome attitude Intention Behavior Belief about others’ desires Subjective

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)

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

Feedback Control

Basic components of a discrepancy-reducing feedback loop:

Goal, reference value

Output function (changes to make?)

Effect on environment

Input function (perception of behavior)

Comparator

Implications of Feedback Control

• Behavior is purposeful

• Self-regulation is continuous

• Goals may be dynamic over time

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

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

Lower Levels of Hierarchy

• Relationships

• Sequences

• Transitions

• Configurations

• Sensations

• Intensity (of muscle tension)

Move toward motor movements

Feedback Hierarchy

Highest

level

Goal 1

Input 1

C1

Output 1

and

Goal 1

Input 2

C2

Output 2

and

Goal 1

Input 3

C3

Ideal Self-image

(System concept) Be Healthy

(Principle) Exercise

(Program)

Output

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

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

• 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

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

Obstacles to Goals

• Expectancies influence engagement

Stop, Generate expectancy

of success Difficulties

Confidence

of success

Absolutely No Absolutely Yes

• 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

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

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