Fourth lecture of the CBI course. The document contains a detailed summary, discussing the topics of self-regulation and self-control.
The part about self-regulation is based on chapter 8 of the CBI book 'Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Core Principles for Practice' (O’Donohue & Fisher, 2012). The ...
College 4 – Self-regulation and self-control
Self-regulation
Self-regulation can be described as a sequence of actions intended to attain a personal
goal. Personal goals are thoughts about desired consequences to be achieved or
undesired consequences to be avoided.
Approach and Avoidance Goal pursuit
An approach goal is a goal one wishes to attain, which are motivated by positive
incentives.
An avoidance goal is a goal one wishes to avoid, which are motivated by anxiety over
loss or fear of direct punishment.
Goals can be situated at different levels. At the highest level, we talk about human or ‘higher
order’ goals. Ford & Nichols developed the Taxonomy of Human Goals.
Goal orientation (Higgins)
Many people tend to have a preferential goal orientation. Based on this, Higgins made a
distinction between promotion focused goal orientation and prevention focused goal
orientation.
Promotion focus – Concern advancement, growth and personal development.
o Situations are judged as a ‘gain’ or ‘non-gain’.
o Making good things happen.
o Goal attainment results in happiness, while failure results in distress.
Prevention focus – Concern with protection, safety and a strong sense of
responsibility.
o Situations are judged as a ‘loss’ or ‘non-loss’.
o Keeping bad things from happening.
o Goal attainment results in relief and contentment, while failure results in
agitation and anxiety.
Mood disorder & goal orientation
When a person doesn’t engage in the right way or amount with his or her personal goal
orientation, this can lead to mood disorders.
Dysphoric moods and clinical depression are characterized by inadequate
engagement of the promotion system. This means that depressed patients are not
sufficiently occupied with growth and moving forward in life.
Agitated moods and clinical anxiety by excessive engagement of the prevention
system. So anxious patients put too much emphasize on being safe, and don’t take any
risks in life.
Therapy options, based on this distinction, entail;
Enhancing the attainment of promotion goals by learning the client to cope with
distress, such as learning to overcome obstacles.
Decreasing the clients prevention focus, through cognitive restructuring, for example
by tackling the expectation that efforts will always end up in failure.
Importance of self-regulation for therapy
Many clinical disturbances reflect dysfunctional self-regulation of;
Thought processes or cognitions (e.g. catastrophizing)
Emotionality (e.g. in borderline personality disorder)
Physiological responses (e.g. bodily tension and its relationship with pain)
Behavior (e.g. in substance abuse).
Therefore, clients should re-learn skills to self-regulate thoughts, emotional arousal, actions,
or social exchange. Effective, lasting therapeutic change is best achieved when individuals
acquire and apply self-regulatory skills, basically becoming their own therapist.
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