Browsing by Subject "Self-regulation"

The present research tested whether the lower educational achievement and greater incidence of parenthood among Latino relative to Anglo high school students arise from differences across ethnic groups in the standards held for these behaviors and whether these different standards and differential success across groups at meeting them contribute to ethnic group differences in self-esteem. I tested this regulatory model in two different research designs. In the first study, I used longitudinal data on race/ethnicity and attitudes, expectations, and behavioral outcomes for education and parenthood from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health, Udry, 2003). In the second study, I used an experimental design to test the causal mechanisms involved in this regulatory process. I assessed Anglo and Latina adolescent girls' standards in terms of explicit self-report ratings and then prompted them to imagine themselves in scenarios related to education or parenthood. After participants viewed the scenarios, I assessed their self-esteem and affect. In both studies, I anticipated that ethnic group differences in standards for education and parenting would help explain differences in behavioral outcomes for the groups, along with differences in ethnic group affect and self-esteem. These studies provided some evidence that Anglos espouse more favorable attitudes toward education and less favorable attitudes toward adolescent pregnancy than Latinos. As anticipated, adolescents experienced increases in self-esteem and positive affect when they acted in ways that confirmed valued standards.

Despite the considerable influence of situational factors and the resulting variability in behavior, individuals maintain stable average ways of acting. The purpose of the studies presented in this paper was to investigate one possible explanation of this trait stability. It is hypothesized that contra-trait behaviors, those that are different from typical trait levels, demand more effort, or self-control, than do trait-typical behaviors. In Study 1, participants reported on the trait content of their behavior along with several other variables. In Study 2, participants completed several tasks in the lab and were instructed to act at contra-trait or trait-typical levels of conscientiousness. Support for the contra-trait effort hypothesis was found in Study 1: Participants reported that contra-trait behavior was more effortful than trait-typical behavior. In addition, habitual contra-trait behaviors, which do not require self-control, were exempt from this effect. In Study 2, no support was found for contra-trait hypotheses: Participants generally did not rate contra-trait behaviors as more effortful, and subsequent behaviors were not affected by contra-trait behaviors. The implications of the findings and the possible explanations of the non-findings are discussed.

Theories of self-regulation address the continuous process in which individuals compare their behavior to salient goals or standards. Two well-known theories of self-regulation, self-discrepancy theory (SDT) and regulatory focus theory (RFT), each make distinctions regarding the types of standards and goals in reference to which individuals self-regulate. Authenticity--the idea of being one's true self--has the potential to influence the kinds of goals or standards that individuals come to possess and may have implications for understanding the outcomes of self-regulatory processes. This research links the construct of authenticity with SDT and RFT, emphasizing how individual differences in authenticity could influence the motivational and affective consequences of self-regulation predicted within each theory. Individual differences in authenticity were expected to influence the nature of the goals and standards that individuals hold, as well as the acute and chronic affective consequences of discrepancies between the actual self and the ideal and ought self-guides respectively. Specifically, individual differences in authenticity were expected to predict magnitude of actual:ideal and actual:ought self-discrepancy as well as the intensity of distress that individuals report (acutely as well as chronically) in association with self-discrepancies. More importantly, self-discrepancies were expected to be less prevalent among individuals high in authenticity, but more distressing among high-authenticity individuals than among individuals with lower levels of authenticity. The results of this research suggest that individual differences in authentic behavior do have a direct influence on both acute and chronic affect. Authenticity was found to interact with self-discrepancies in predicting chronic affect. Authenticity has a unique role in the process of self-regulation, distinct from the contributions of SDT and RFT.

I present a framework that describes how perceived discrepancies from an ideal, or hoped-for, self influence how people view and behave with products associated with identity attainment (i.e., "symbolic props"). In the first half of this framework, I demonstrate that individuals who perceive that they are more discrepant from their aspired identity (i.e., more aspirationally discrepant individuals) view symbolic props as more "instrumental," or useful, in helping them achieve identity goals. I demonstrate that this effect is egocentric, mediated by motivation, and only occurs when the perceived rate of progress toward one's aspirational goals is high enough to merit engagement toward the goal. In the second half of the framework, I show that for more aspirationally discrepant individuals, the use of symbolic props may actually limit effort on goal-relevant tasks. These studies suggest an ironic effect whereby aspirational discrepancy may lead to acquisition of goal-relevant props to the detriment of performance-relevant effort.

An abstract of a dissertation that examines the motivational foundations of social networks. Five studies using diverse methods examine goal pursuit as an antecedent to social network structure, finding that self-oriented and affiliation-oriented goal pursuit evoke unique patterns of interpersonal perception and motivation which lead to the development of sparser and denser social networks, respectively. Study 1 serves as an empirical summary of our theorizing: individuals primed with dense networks feel more efficacious pursuing affiliation-oriented goals versus self-oriented goals, and individuals primed with sparse networks feel more efficacious pursuing self-oriented goals than individuals primed with dense networks. Study 2finds a correlation between personal goals and network structure. Studies 3 and 4 experimentally demonstrate that reminders of self versus affiliation-oriented goals lead to different cognitively-activated network structures. Study 5 finds that individuals entering a new social network with strong career goals (self-oriented goals) develop significantly sparser local networks and attain more central network positions; the opposite pattern emerges for individuals pursuing strong social goals (affiliation-oriented goals). Individuals strongly motivated to pursue both goals lose the network structure benefits of having a strong career goal. Findings support the hypothesis linking personal goal pursuit to network structure, a novel approach to integrating psychology and networks research.

The present research investigates how motivation to affiliate with others shapes the way people search for feedback from others for their goal pursuits and its general implications on self-regulation. I hypothesize that affiliation motivation will influence how much people seek feedback from others and to whom they turn for feedback. People with high affiliation motivation will view feedback-seeking as a potential tool for strengthening their existing social ties and forming additional ones, whereas people with low affiliation motivation will perceive great costs in feedback seeking. As such, people with high affiliation motivation will seek feedback from a broad range of sources. People with low affiliation motivation, on the other hand, will seek feedback from those most willing and able to provide it, which may often be those with whom they are already close. Four studies support these predictions by showing how affiliation motivation is associated with feedback seeking from a broad range of sources (Study 1), how affiliation motivation moderates the effect of feedback source on goal performance (Studies 2 – 3), and how affiliation motivation influences goal progress indirectly through affecting the preference for feedback source in everyday goal pursuits (Study 4).

One-hundred and seventy-seven high-school students and two-hundred responded to a survey assessing their motivation (goal orientations, expectancies, and values), self-regulation (cognitive, behavior, and emotion), learning processes, academic behaviors, and grades in the favorite and least favorite classes. First, multiple pathways to academic success were examined by comparing how motivation leads to academic outcomes (learning processes, academic behaviors, and grades) via self-regulation in high school and college by using structural equation modeling. As expected, the findings support the stance that there are different ways to achieve academic success. Surprisingly, emotion regulation mediated the relations between motivation and learning processes in favorite classes. Additionally, combinations of self-regulation were examined separately for type of class (favorite/least favorite) and age group (high school/college) using latent class analyses. As expected, these regulatory profiles mediated the relations between motivation and academic outcomes, found with structural equation modeling. Interestingly, students in the attention regulation profile, who were high on attention but low on other regulatory capacities, performed lower than those who tend to be high regulators. However, those who were members in the emotion regulator profile did not differ from high regulators. Behavior regulation was a mediator for college students but not high school students. The findings underscore the importance of considering cognitive, behavior, and emotion regulation in considering the relations between motivation to academic outcomes.

Guided by an integrative conceptual framework, a meta-analysis was conducted to explore the relation between the capacity aspect of self-regulation and academic achievement across childhood and adolescence. This meta-analysis of over 150 studies draws upon diverse research traditions and approaches to test moderators of theoretical, methodological, and practical importance. In the theoretical moderator analyses, results were broken down by the specific self-regulation construct (e.g., emotion regulation, executive functions), students' grade level, and academic subject. Doing so permitted an exploration of developmental and domain differences in the relation between each self-regulation construct and achievement. In the methodological moderator analyses, results were broken down by the type of self-regulation measure (e.g., teacher-report, direct assessment) and the type of achievement measure (e.g., standardized test, course grade). Doing so permitted a formal test of how these measures relate to each other, which has garnered considerable debate among self-regulation researchers.

Findings from the five moderator analyses largely supported hypotheses. The average correlation with achievement was strongest for effortful control and composite measures of executive functions, with updating significantly exceeding both shifting and inhibiting. A strong correlation also emerged for self-control, though it differed significantly based on whether the construct was categorized by author labels or definitions. Composite measures of self-regulation revealed a stronger correlation with achievement than any of its domains, as expected. Across all self-regulatory capacities, correlations became significantly stronger after the transition to kindergarten but assumed different trajectories based on the specific construct during the rest of elementary and secondary school. Domain differences also emerged, favoring math and science for executive functions but not producing significant differences with language arts for effortful control. As expected, self-regulatory capacities with an indirect effect on achievement (e.g., effortful control, emotion regulation) had the strongest correlation with course grades while self-regulatory capacities with a direct effect on achievement (e.g., executive functions) had the strongest correlation with standardized tests. Finally, direct assessments and teacher reports produced significantly stronger correlations with academic performance than when students reported their own self-regulation. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of these findings are discussed alongside results.

A new meta-analytic method was also developed to identify and resolve inconsistencies in the way psychological constructs are labeled, defined, and measured. This new method provided needed conceptual clarity in the diverse and interdisciplinary literature on self-regulation. Implications for other literatures characterized by variation in the way constructs are labeled, defined, and measured are discussed.