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Self-regulation: a definition and introduction

What is self-regulation? Which mental processes compose it, and how do thoseprocesses work together? Self-regulation is the conscious and nonconsciousprocesses by which people regulate their thoughts, emotions, attention, behavior,and impulses. People generate thoughts, feelings and actions and adapt those tothe attainment of personal goals. Behavioral self-regulation invovles self-observing and strategically adjusting performance processes, such as one'smethod of learning, whereas environmental self-regulation refers to observing andadjecting environmental conditions or outcomes. Covert self regulation involvesmonitoring and adjusting cognitive and affective states, such as imagery forremembering or relaxing. Someones performance and regulation is going to bechanged by their goals, motivations, and decisions, People self-regulate their ownfunctioning in order to achieve goals or change how they are thinking.

Someones actions and mental processes depend on one's beliefs and motives. Self-regulation is cyclical - that is, feedback (information, responses) fromprior actions and performances changes the adjustments made during current efforts.Adjustments are necessary because personal, behavioral, and environmentalfactors are constantly changing during the course of learning and performance.Someones performances are constantly being changed by their attention and actions.Forethought is the phase that precedes efforts to act and sets the stage for aperformance. A person self-reflects on performances afterwards, and thisreflection influences their responses.

Forethought phase

In the forethought phase people engage in a) task analysis and b) self-motivationalbeliefs. Task analysis involves the setting of goals and strategic planning.Self motivational beliefs involves self- efficacy, outcome expectations, intrinsicinterest/value, and goal orientation.

Performance phase

In the performance phase people perform self-control processes and self-observation strategies. Self-control involves self-instruction (variousverbalizations), imagery (forming mental pictures), attention focusing and taskstrategies (which assist learning and performance by reducing a task to itsessential parts and organizing the parts meaningfully. For example, when studentslisten to a history lecture, they might identify a limited number of key pointsand record them chronologically in brief sentences. People do those things whilelearning (say in education), and in non- educational settings.

Also as part of someone's performance they do self-observation. This refers to aperson's tracking of specific aspects of their own performance, the conditions thatsurround it, and the effects that it produces. You can set goals in forethoughtabout how you are going to do self- observation.

Self-reflection phase

Bandura (1986) Bandura, A. (1986). Social Foundations of Thought and Action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. has identified two self-reflected processes that areclosely associated with self-observation: self- judgment and self-reactions. Self-judgment involvesself-evaluating one's performance and attributing casual significance to the results. Self-evaluationrefers to comparing self-monitored information with a standard or goal, such as a sprinter judging practiceruns according to his or her best previous effort. Previous performance or self-criteria involvescomparisons of current performance with earlier levels of one's behavior, such as a baseline or the previousperformance.

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Source:  OpenStax, Emotion, cognition, and social interaction - information from psychology and new ideas topics self help. OpenStax CNX. Jul 11, 2016 Download for free at http://legacy.cnx.org/content/col10403/1.71
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