On the Self-Regulation of BehaviorOn the Self-Regulation of Behavior presents a thorough overview of a model of human functioning based on the idea that behavior is goal-directed and regulated by feedback control processes. It describes feedback processes and their application to behavior, considers goals and the idea that goals are organized hierarchically, examines affect as deriving from a different kind of feedback process, and analyzes how success expectancies influence whether people keep trying to attain goals or disengage. |
Contents
Introduction and Plan | 1 |
Some Limitations and Some Grandiosity | 2 |
Observations and Origins | 3 |
The Books Plan | 4 |
Emotion | 5 |
Confidence and Doubt Persisting and Giving Up | 6 |
Problems in Behavior | 7 |
Control versus Emergence of Behavior | 8 |
Responses to Fear | 183 |
Persistence | 184 |
Mental Disengagement Impaired Task Performance and Negative Rumination | 185 |
SelfFocus Task Focus and Rumination | 186 |
The Great Divide | 188 |
Is Disengagement Good or Bad? | 189 |
Disengagement Issues and Comparisons | 190 |
Problems with Limited Disengagement | 191 |
Goal Engagement and Life | 9 |
Principles of Feedback Control | 10 |
The Ubiquitous Thermostat | 13 |
Sloppy versus Tight Control | 15 |
Intermittent Feedback | 17 |
Positive Feedback Loops | 18 |
Open Loop Systems | 19 |
Feedforward | 20 |
Interrelations among Feedback Processes | 22 |
Interdependency | 23 |
How Do They Differ? | 24 |
Hierarchies | 26 |
Concluding Comment | 28 |
DiscrepancyReducing Feedback Processes in Behavior | 29 |
Early Applications of Feedback Principles | 30 |
SelfDirected Attention and Comparison with Standards | 31 |
SelfDirected Attention and Conformity to Standards | 34 |
Brain Functioning SelfAwareness and SelfRegulation | 37 |
How Does Attention Shift to the Self in Ordinary Life? | 38 |
Broadening the Application of Feedback Principles | 40 |
Use of Feedback for SelfVerification | 42 |
Social Comparison and Feedback Control | 44 |
Summary | 47 |
DiscrepancyEnlarging Loops and Three Further Issues | 48 |
Downward Social Comparison | 49 |
Feared Self and Unwanted Self | 50 |
Positive Feedback Process Constrained by Negative Feedback Process | 51 |
The Ought Self | 54 |
Reactance | 55 |
Feedback Loops in Mutual Interdependence | 57 |
The Search for Discrepancies | 59 |
The Issue of Will | 60 |
Goals and Behavior | 63 |
TaskSpecific Goals | 65 |
Hierarchical Conceptions of Goals | 67 |
A Control Hierarchy | 68 |
Hierarchical Functioning Is Simultaneous | 73 |
Action Identification | 74 |
Comparisons Outside PersonalitySocial Psychology | 76 |
Hierarchical Models of Motor Control | 77 |
Comparisons From PersonalitySocial Psychology | 78 |
Hierarchicality behind Task Efforts | 79 |
Hierarchicality in Other Models | 81 |
Summary | 82 |
Goals Hierarchicality and Behavior Further Issues | 83 |
Are the Qualities of the Proposed Hierarchy the Wrong Sorts? | 85 |
Responsibility for Details | 86 |
Further Issues Regarding Hierarchical Functioning | 87 |
Multiple Paths to HighLevel Goals Multiple Meanings in Concrete Action | 89 |
Goal Importance | 90 |
Approach Goals and Avoidance Goals within a Hierarchy | 91 |
Approach and Avoidance Goals and WellBeing | 92 |
Multiple Simultaneous Goals | 93 |
Multiple Goals Satisfied in One Activity | 94 |
Programs Seem Different from Other Goals | 95 |
Opportunistic Planning and Stages in Decision Making | 96 |
Goal Hierarchies and Traits | 97 |
Viewing Others in Terms of Traits versus Actions | 98 |
Traits and Behaviors in Memory | 99 |
Goals and the Self | 100 |
SelfDetermination Theory and the Self | 101 |
Public and Private Aspects of the Self | 103 |
Further Distinctions | 105 |
Recent Statements | 107 |
Aspects of Self and Classes of Goal | 108 |
Behavioral SelfRegulation and Private versus Social Goals | 110 |
Differential Valuation of Personal and Social Goals | 112 |
SelfConsciousness and SelfAwareness in SelfRegulation | 113 |
Conformity | 115 |
Attitudes Subjective Norms and Behavior | 116 |
Private Preferences and Subjective Norms Vary in Their Content | 118 |
Control Processes and Affect | 120 |
Goals Rate of Progress and Affect | 121 |
Progress Toward a Goal versus Completion of Subgoals | 124 |
Evidence on the Affective Consequences of Progress | 125 |
Lawrence Carver and Scheier | 126 |
Brunstein | 128 |
Affleck and Colleagues | 129 |
Questions | 130 |
Does Positive Affect Lead to Coasting? | 131 |
A CruiseControl Model of Affect | 133 |
Subjective Experience of Acceleration and Deceleration | 134 |
Surprise | 135 |
Research | 136 |
Affect from DiscrepancyEnlarging Loops | 137 |
Doing Well Doing Poorly | 138 |
Activation Asymmetry between Dimensions | 139 |
Affect and Behavior | 140 |
Affect from Recollection or Imagination | 141 |
Merging Affect and Action | 142 |
Other Applications | 144 |
Breadth of Application | 146 |
Affect Issues and Comparisons | 148 |
Influences on Stringency | 149 |
Changing MetaLevel Standards | 150 |
Further Issues | 153 |
Goal Attainment and Negative Affect | 154 |
Conflict and Mixed Feelings | 155 |
Time Windows for Input to MetaMonitoring Can Vary | 156 |
Are There Other Mechanisms that Produce Affect? | 158 |
Relationships to Other Theories | 159 |
SelfDiscrepancy Theory | 161 |
Positive and Negative Affect | 164 |
Biological Models of Bases of Affect | 166 |
Expectancies and Disengagement | 171 |
Feelings and Confidence | 172 |
Mood and Decision Making | 173 |
Confidence and Brain Function | 174 |
Interruption and Further Assessment | 175 |
Assessment of Expectancies | 176 |
Generality and Specificity of Expectancies | 178 |
Effort versus Disengagement | 180 |
Comparisons with Standards | 182 |
Scaling Back Goals as Changing Velocity Reference Value | 192 |
When Giving Up Is Not a Tenable Option | 193 |
Inability to Disengage and Responses to Health Threats | 195 |
Helplessness | 196 |
Watersheds Disjunctions and Bifurcations among Responses | 197 |
Other Disjunctive Motivational Models | 198 |
Does Disengagement Imply an Override Mechanism? | 200 |
Disengagement or Competing Motives? | 201 |
Loss of Commitment | 203 |
Further Theoretical Comparisons | 204 |
The Sense of Personal Control | 205 |
Engagement and Disengagement in Other Literatures | 208 |
Goal Setting | 209 |
Upward and Downward Social Comparison | 210 |
SelfVerification | 211 |
Performance Goals and Learning Goals | 212 |
Curiosity | 213 |
Stress and Coping | 214 |
Summary | 215 |
Applications to Problems in Living | 217 |
Automatic Distortion of Feedback | 218 |
Goals Operating out of Awareness | 219 |
Doubt as a Root of Problems | 220 |
Automatic Use of Previously Encoded Success Expectancies | 221 |
Premature Disengagement of Effort | 222 |
Social Anxiety | 224 |
Failure to Disengage Completely When Doing So Is the Right Response | 226 |
Hanging On Is Related to Distress | 227 |
When Is Disengagement the Right Response? | 228 |
Complexity of the Self | 230 |
Rumination as Problem Solving and Attempted Discrepancy Reduction | 231 |
Rumination as Dysfunctional | 232 |
Hierarchicality and Problems in Living | 234 |
Problems as Conflicts among Goals | 236 |
Problems as Absence of Links from High to Low Levels | 237 |
Making Low Levels Functionally Superordinate | 238 |
Relinquishing or Abandoning HighLevel Control as Escape from the Self | 241 |
Relinquishing or Abandoning HighLevel Control as Problem Solving | 242 |
Further Comparisons | 243 |
Symmetry in Application | 246 |
Residing Too Much at High Levels | 247 |
Chaos and Dynamic Systems | 250 |
Nonlinearity | 251 |
Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions | 254 |
Phase Space Attractors and Repellers | 256 |
Another Way of Picturing Attractors | 258 |
Variability and Phase Changes | 260 |
Simple Applications of Dynamic Systems Thinking | 262 |
Goals as Attractors | 263 |
Shifts among Attractors and Motivational Dynamics | 265 |
Variability in the Construing of Social Behavior | 266 |
Variability and Consciousness | 268 |
Chaotic Variation as Frequency Distributions | 271 |
Variability of Behavior in Iterative Systems | 273 |
Catastrophe Theory | 275 |
Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions | 276 |
Hysteresis | 278 |
Catastrophes in Physical Reality | 279 |
Variability | 281 |
Applications of Catastrophe Theory | 282 |
Dating and Mating | 284 |
Relationship Formation and Dissolution | 285 |
Groups | 286 |
Persuasion and Belief Perseverance | 287 |
Rumination versus Action | 288 |
Expectancies | 289 |
Effort versus Disengagement | 290 |
Importance or Investment as a Critical Control Parameter | 294 |
Further Applications to Problems in Living | 296 |
Care Less | 299 |
Chaotically Caring | 301 |
Further Possible Manifestations of the Cusp Catastrophe | 302 |
Dynamic Systems and the Change Process | 303 |
Stability Adaptation and Optimality | 305 |
Minima in Specific Problems | 306 |
Therapy | 307 |
Destabilization and the Metaphors of Dynamic Systems | 309 |
Extensions | 311 |
Psychological Growth | 312 |
Is Behavior Controlled or Does It Emerge? | 317 |
Some Apparent Complexity Need Not Be Created | 318 |
Properties Emergent from Social Interaction | 320 |
Does Emergence of Some Imply Emergence of All? | 321 |
Two Modes of Functioning? | 322 |
Connectionism | 323 |
Need Everything Be Distributed? | 327 |
Planning and GoalRelevant Decisions | 329 |
DualProcess Models | 331 |
TwoMode Models in PersonalitySocial Psychology | 332 |
CognitiveExperiential SelfTheory | 333 |
Deliberative and Implemental Mindsets | 334 |
Comparisons among Theories | 335 |
Two Automaticities | 336 |
Autonomous Artificial Agents | 337 |
Complexity and Coordination | 338 |
Another View of Goals in Autonomous Agents | 339 |
Comparison with TwoMode Models of Thinking | 343 |
Conclusions | 344 |
Goal Engagement Life and Death | 346 |
Conceptualization | 347 |
Goal Engagement and WellBeing | 350 |
Disengagement and Passive Death | 352 |
Disengagement Disease and Death | 353 |
Doubt Disengagement and Adverse Responses to Disease | 354 |
Disengagement Recurrence Disease Progression and Death | 356 |
Conclusions | 357 |
Dynamics and Engagement | 358 |
Aging and the Reduction of Importance | 361 |
References | 365 |
423 | |
435 | |
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Common terms and phrases
action activity anxiety argued aspects attainment attractor avoidance basin Carver & Scheier catastrophe catastrophe model catastrophe theory Chapter cognitive Cognitive Therapy concept concrete confidence connectionism connectionist create cusp catastrophe deindividuation depression desired discussion disengagement doubt dynamic systems effort emerge emotion engagement example expectancies experience feedback loop feedback processes feedforward feelings Figure focus focused global minimum goals hierarchical higher level human behavior idea imply important influence interaction involve issues Journal of Personality level of abstraction lower level meta Miller motivation move negative affect occurs outcome pattern perception performance Personality and Social phase space principle problem progress qualities reactance reference value reflect relationship response rumination Self-Determination Theory self-discrepancy theory self-focus self-regulation self-regulatory sense shift situation social anxiety social comparison Social Psychology sometimes standard suggests superordinate task tendency test anxiety theory there's tion trying Vallacher variability velocity versus