Motivation, self-regulation & perfection
,Problem 1. Structure of Self-Regulation & Nudging
Vignette 1
1. What is self-regulation?
2. What types of self-regulation theories can be distinguished?
3. Which self-regulation processes and beliefs can be distinguished?
Goal-Striving and Self-Regulation Processes
Self-regulation pertains to the capacity to guide one’s
activities over time and across changing circumstances.
Self-regulation is mainly understood as a conscious
process, but evidence suggests this regulation is also
influenced in unconscious ways. As work becomes more
individualized, understanding self-regulation can make a
big influence on work-performance.
The key to effective self-regulation is the ability to act in
multiple environments while responding to internal
conditions in a flexible and context-sensitive manner. 1 Control Theory
A Taxonomy of Self-Regulation Theories
Structural theories describe the self-regulatory constructs and their interrelationship over
time, without addressing the contents of the regulation. This includes control theory and
social cognitive theory. Control theory as described in Figure one also believes in a goal
hierarchy in which lower goals serve higher goals. Social cognitive theory views self-
regulation as a cyclical process in which individuals modify behavior to reduce discrepancy
between the behavior and goals. The difference between the is that CT is aimed as
discrepancy reduction and SCT is aimed at discrepancy production by setting higher goals.
They argue that the desire to reduce discrepancy is a by-product in motivation. To adjust
lower-level goals, higher-level goals must be changed accordingly. Both theories explain the
question of why people set goals as a link between the task goals and the individuals core
personality attributes.
Phase theories focus on the
sequence of activities involved in
goal pursuit, breaking it down to
discreet steps. The motivation
process is described as containing
two phases, goal setting and goal
2 Goldwitzers four phases of self-regulation
striving. Goal setting involves
weighing the reasons for pursuing activities to determine what goal will be set. Goal stiving
involves the actions in service of goal attainment. What these theories lack is the ability to
describe the change over time or what individuals are pursuing.
Content theories describe the type of activities that individuals pursue and how a goal
affects self-regulation. To this type of theory belongs the Self-Determination theory which
,focusses on the role of human needs in driving behavior and distinguishes between intrinsic
and extrinsic motivation. It also distinguishes between the level of internalization ranging
from external motivation to introjected motivation, identified motivation, and integrated
motivation. Whether a motivation is intrinsic or extrinsic is determined by the satisfaction of
autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
The regulatory focus theory argues that goals can be promotion focused or prevention
focused minimizing either the self and their ideal-self or the self and the ought self
respectively. Individuals with a promotion focus eager for goal attainment, while prevention
focused individuals emphasize security. This theory argues that the framing of a goal as
promotion or prevention focused can impact the goals individuals select.
According to the goal orientation theory, individuals can adapt either a learning-goal
orientation or a performance-goal orientation. The LGO is focused on development while
PGO is focused on demonstrating performance and believes that performance is fixed. PGO
is divided into approach and avoidance substrates, where approach means an active role in
displaying competence whereas avoidance means to avoid displays of incompetence.
Integrative models of Self-regulation, Integrating the theories listed above will prove to be a
more competent approach to understanding self-regulation.
Attaining Self-Regulation: A Social Cognitive Perspective
A social cognitive perspective is distinctive in viewing self-regulation as an interaction of
personal, behavioural, and environmental triadic processes. Self-regulation refers to self-
generated thoughts, feelings, and actions that are planned and cyclically adapted to the
attainment of personal goals.
Behavioural self-regulation involves self-
observing and strategically adjusting
performance processes, such as one's method
of learning.
Environmental self-regulation refers to
observing and adjusting environmental
conditions or outcomes.
Covert self-regulation involves monitoring
and adjusting cognitive and affective states,
such as imagery for remembering or relaxing.
Unlike closed-loop views, which limit self-
regulation to reducing performance discrepancies reactively against an unchanging
standard.
Open-loop perspectives include proactively increasing performance discrepancies by
raising goals and seeking more challenging tasks.
From a social cognitive perspective, self-regulatory processes and accompanying beliefs fall
into three cyclical phases: forethought, performance or volitional control, and self-reflection
processes:
Forethought refers to influential processes that precede efforts to act and set the stage
for it.
, o Goal setting refers to deciding upon specific outcomes of learning or
performance. The goal systems of highly self-regulated individuals are
organized hierarchically, such that process goals operate as proximal
regulators of more distal outcome goals.
o A second form of
task analysis is
strategic planning.
For a skill to be
mastered or
performed optimally,
learners need
methods that are
appropriate for the
task and the setting.
o Self-regulatory skills
are of little value if a person cannot motivate themselves to use them.
Underlying forethought processes of goal setting and strategic planning are a
number of key self-motivational beliefs:
o Self-efficacy beliefs influence goal setting in the following way: The more
capable people believe themselves to be, the higher the goals they set for
themselves and the more firmly committed they remain to those goals.
o Outcome expectations refer to beliefs about the ultimate ends of performance.
o Intrinsic motivation or valuing that can complement and even surpass extrinsic
outcomes.
o Goal orientation also has been labelled a learning, a mastery, or a task goal
orientation.
Performance or volitional control involves processes that occur during motoric efforts
and affect attention and action.
o Self-instruction involves overtly or covertly describing how to proceed as one
executes a task, such as solving a mathematics problem or memorizing a
formula, and research shows that such verbalizations can improve students'
learning.
o Imagery or the forming of mental pictures is another widely used self-control
technique to assist encoding and performance.
o Attention focusing, is designed to improve one's concentration and screen out
other covert processes or external events.
o Task strategies assist learning and performance by reducing a task to its
essential parts and reorganizing the parts meaningfully.
o There are a number of features of self-observation that can influence its
effectiveness. The temporal proximity of one's self-observations is a critical
variable.
Self-feedback that is delayed precludes a person from taking corrective
action in a timely fashion, such as monitoring one's running time after
the completion of a long-distance track race rather than during it.
A second feature of high-quality self-observation is the
informativeness of performance feedback. Practicing a skill in a
