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Lea Pulkkinen, born in Finland in 1939, is Emerita Professor of Psychology at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland). She is best known for creating the ongoing Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development (JLSPSD). The study was specifically intended to test the hypothesis that the human brain allows for more variation in behavior than the simple ‘fight or flight’ response observed in animal studies of aggression. She further hypothesized that humans’ capacity for cognitive control over emotional behavior was the key factor involved in controlling aggressive behavior. These hypotheses led her to devise an impulse control model to depict behavioral alternatives, which she tested with teacher and peer ratings of aggressive and nonaggressive behaviors. Forty years later, the JLSPSD revealed the long-term significance of self-regulation for socio-emotional behavior. Results from the study showed that aggressive behavior during childhood tends to be associated with other types of under-controlled behavior during adulthood. On the other hand, ‘constructive’ behavior in childhood tends to lead to positive social relations, mental health, and successful integration in the work force.
To present an overview of how artificial intelligence (AI) could be used to regulate eating and dietary behaviours, exercise behaviours and weight loss.
Design:
A scoping review of global literature published from inception to 15 December 2020 was conducted according to Arksey and O’Malley’s five-step framework. Eight databases (CINAHL, Cochrane–Central, Embase, IEEE Xplore, PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science) were searched. Included studies were independently screened for eligibility by two reviewers with good interrater reliability (k= 0.96).
Results:
66 out of 5573 potential studies were included, representing more than 2,031 participants. Three tenets of self-regulation were identified - self-monitoring (n=66, 100%), optimization of goal-setting (n=10, 15.2%) and self-control (n= 10, 15.2%). Articles were also categorised into three AI applications namely machine perception (n=50), predictive analytics only (n=6), and real-time analytics with personalised micro-interventions (n=10). Machine perception focused on recognizing food items, eating behaviours, physical activities and estimating energy balance. Predictive analytics focused on predicting weight loss, intervention adherence, dietary lapses and emotional eating. Studies on the last theme focused on evaluating AI-assisted weight management interventions that instantaneously collected behavioural data, optimised prediction models for behavioural lapse events and enhance behavioural self-control through adaptive and personalized nudges/prompts. Only six studies reported average weight losses (2.4% to 4.7%) of which two were statistically significant.
Conclusion:
The use of AI for weight loss is still undeveloped. Based on this study findings, we proposed a framework on the applicability of AI for weight loss but cautioned its contingency upon engagement and contextualisation.
Epstein concludes the policy section by explaining that although the dangers ofdisinformation campaigns are real and growing quickly, effective interventions haveremained elusive. Why is it so difficult to regulate online disinformation? This explorationbuilds on the chapter by Heidi Tworek and analyzes three major challenges to effectiveregulation: defining the problem clearly so that regulators can address it, deciding whoshould be in charge of creating and enforcing regulations, and understanding what effectiveregulation might actually look like. After analyzing these challenges, Epstein suggests fourstandards for effective disinformation. First, disinformation regulation should target thenegative effects of disinformation while consciously minimizing any additional harm causedby the regulation itself. Second, regulation should be proportional to the harm caused.Third, effective regulation must be able to adapt to changes in technology anddisinformation strategies. And fourth, regulators should be as independent as possible frompolitical and corporate leadership.
Child self-regulation (SR), a key indicator for later optimal developmental outcomes, may be compromised in the presence of parental mental disorders, especially those characterized by affective dysregulation. However, positive parental behaviors have been shown to buffer against such negative effects, especially during infancy when SR shows great plasticity to environmental inputs. The current study investigated the effect of maternal and paternal lifetime and current internalizing disorders on the developmental trajectory of infant SR from 3 to 24 months, and the potential moderating role of positive parental behaviors. A latent growth model revealed that SR increased overall from 3 to 24 months. Mothers’ positive parental behaviors demonstrated significant moderation effects, such that maternal lifetime internalizing disorder was associated with higher SR intercept only among those with low levels of positive parental behavior. Mothers’ lifetime internalizing disorder was also associated with a lower linear slope in SR development with a moderate effect size. Fathers’ current internalizing disorder was significantly associated with a higher intercept and lower linear slope of the SR trajectory. The current study expands the infant SR literature by describing its early developmental trajectory as well as early risk and protective factors within the parent–infant environment, taking into consideration developmental inputs from both parents.
This chapter provides an overview of research factors and interventions that facilitate delaying gratification in academic settings. In learning settings, academic delay of gratification refers to students’ postponement of immediately available opportunities to satisfy impulses in favor of pursuing important academic rewards or goals that are temporally remote but ostensibly more valuable. The first section of this chapter provides a brief overview and the theoretical underpinnings of Bandura’s (1997) social cognitive theory and Zimmerman’s (2013) self-regulated learning model, with an emphasis on delay of gratification. The second section focuses on how school psychologists can help educators to put in place schoolwide processes that help make it easier for students to delay gratification. The third section describes interventions that can be implemented by school psychologists, teachers, and administrators to assist students who struggle with delaying gratification. The final section provides recommendations for facilitating delaying gratification in school environments and suggests future research.
The purpose of this chapter is to discuss research in motivation, self-regulation, and emotion that includes gender as a variable. Specifically, we propose using an intersectionality perspective and a culturally situated understanding of women’s motivational and emotional experiences, and describe data from our labs in Germany and Singapore in order to illustrate this position. Our findings indicate that women’s motivational experience in achievement domains is tied to avoidant motivation and their lower ability to self-regulate negative emotion in the face of goal difficulties or goal failure. Compared to men, women’s more fearful enactment of the implicit achievement motives is related to their adoption of a lower self-attributed achievement motive, which, in turn, lowers women’s well-being. We discuss how cultural norms and gender socialization lead to a complex interplay of parenting, social-normative, and personality systems and processes that contribute to a different motivational and emotional experience for men versus women.
Earlier neurobiological models of substance addictions proposed that addiction is the product of an imbalance between two separate, but interacting, neural systems: (1) an impulsive and amygdala-striatum dependent system that promotes automatic and habitual behaviors, and (2) a “reflective” prefrontal cortex dependent system for decision-making, forecasting the future consequences of a behavior, and inhibitory control. These impulsive and reflective systems are analogous to Daniel Kahneman’s model of System I and System II thinking, or the Behavioral Activation System (BAS) and the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS). Here, the reflective system controls the impulsive system through several distinct mechanisms that regulate impulses. However, this control is not absolute – hyperactivity within the impulsive system can override the reflective system. Most prior research has focused either on the impulsive system (especially the ventral striatum and its mesolimbic dopamine projections) as a mechanism promoting the motivation and drive to seek drugs, or on the reflective system (prefrontal cortex) as a mechanism for decision-making and impulse control. More recent evidence suggests that a largely overlooked structure, the insula, also plays a key role in maintaining addiction (craving). Hence, a triadic model of addiction incorporates these three systems that are associated with archetypal behaviors in addiction: craving, motivation to procure the drug, poor decision-making, lack of impulse control, and deficits in self-regulation.
Self-regulation is considered a major predictor of crime and deviant behavior. However, longitudinal research investigating these associations, frequently looked only at the effect of self-regulation on deviant behavior, but not the other way around. The current study argued that deviance may contribute to later problems in self-regulation, and examined bidirectional associations, comparing a unidirectional and bidirectional model of associations between these variables. A Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model and eight data waves from 772 participants, aged 10–12 years to 30 years were used. Results showed that a bidirectional model fit the data better than a unidirectional model. The final model revealed an influence of deviance on self-regulation mainly in adolescence, whereas self-regulation influenced deviance only over two time points in adulthood. The results suggest that, in adolescence, problems in self-regulation may follow, rather than precede deviant behavior. Thus, decreasing deviant behavior or intervening in the aftermaths of deviant behavior in adolescence might have a positive effect on self-regulation in young adulthood, lowering the chance of adult deviant behavior. The current study shows that the long-presumed directionality of self-regulation to deviance can lead to bias, and more rigorous longitudinal research is needed in order to further inform theory and practice.
Early adolescence is thought to represent a window of vulnerability when exposure to substances is particularly harmful, partly because the neurotoxic effects of adolescent substance use may derail self-regulation development. However, previous studies fail to account for externalizing symptoms, such as aggression and delinquency, that accompany adolescent substance use and may also derail the development of self-regulation. The current study aims to clarify whether the neurotoxic effects of adolescent substance use are associated with deficits in effortful control (EC) after accounting for externalizing symptoms and to examine reciprocal relationships between EC, externalizing symptoms, and substance use. A longitudinal sample of adolescents (N = 387) was used to estimate bifactor models of externalizing symptoms across five assessments (Mage = 11.6 to 19.9). The broad general externalizing factors were prospectively associated with declines in EC across adolescence and emerging adulthood. However, the narrow substance use specific factors were not prospectively associated with EC. Findings suggest that the broader externalizing context, but not the specific neurotoxic effects of substance use, may hamper self-regulation development. It is critical to account for the hierarchical structure of psychopathology, namely externalizing symptoms, when considering development of EC.
Resilience is complex and multifaceted, attracting research across a number of disciplines. The focus of this chapter is the importance of teachers’ everyday practice in early years settings (preschools and schools) for supporting resilience.The chapter begins with a brief outline of how resilience is defined, and highlights how the building of resilience is an important element in children’s learning as noted in curriculum frameworks that guide teachers practice. It then moves on to describe ways in which teachers working across the early years promote resilience. The final section of the chapter lists questions that can be useful to help early years teachers reflect on their own practice in relation to resilience.
Resilience is complex and multifaceted, attracting research across a number of disciplines. The focus of this chapter is the importance of teachers’ everyday practice in early years settings (preschools and schools) for supporting resilience.The chapter begins with a brief outline of how resilience is defined, and highlights how the building of resilience is an important element in children’s learning as noted in curriculum frameworks that guide teachers practice. It then moves on to describe ways in which teachers working across the early years promote resilience. The final section of the chapter lists questions that can be useful to help early years teachers reflect on their own practice in relation to resilience.
Although preserving social relationships plays a critical role in successful aging, a large body of work has shown that the size of older adults’ social networks declines with age. This decline could reflect older adults’ increased desire to preserve their emotional well-being (having greater positive than negative affect). However, because emotional well-being is associated with longer lifespans whereas having smaller social networks is not, other factors may contribute to older adults’ declining network. This chapter reviews one such possibility: age-related declines in social cognition. Core social cognitive functions that play an integral role in developing and maintaining social relationships – understanding the mental states of others, emotion recognition, inhibiting socially inappropriate responses, and prejudice reduction – are impaired in aging populations. This chapter reviews each of these, and considers how they might influence older adults’ ability to develop and maintain high-quality social networks.
To explore what thoughts, feelings, and learning processes were involved in obese participants’ lifestyle change during an acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) lifestyle intervention delivered in primary health care.
Background:
Previous studies have revealed that lifestyle interventions are effective at promoting initial weight loss, but reduced weight is often difficult to sustain because of the failure to maintain healthy lifestyle changes. Achieving and maintaining lifestyle changes requires to learn self-regulation skills. ACT-based lifestyle interventions combine many self-regulatory skill factors, and the results from previous studies are promising. Research on the individual learning processes of lifestyle change is still needed.
Methods:
This study investigated a subset of data from a larger web-based lifestyle intervention. This subset consisted of online logbooks written by 17 obese participants (n = 17, body mass index mean 41.26 kg/m2) during the six-week online module. The logbooks were analyzed via data-driven content analysis.
Findings:
Four groups were identified based on the participants being at different phases in their lifestyle changes: stuck with barriers, slowly forward, reflective and hardworking, and convincingly forward with the help of concrete goals. Differences between the groups were manifested in personal barriers, goal setting, training of mindfulness and acceptance, and achieving healthy actions. The ACT-based lifestyle intervention offered participants an opportunity to reflect on how their thoughts and feelings may hinder healthy lifestyle changes and provided tools for learning psychological flexibility.
Although aging workforces result in numerous practical challenges for organizations and societies, little research has focused on successful aging at work. The limited existent research has generated rather diverse conceptualizations of successful aging at work, which are often broad and difficult to operationalize in practice. Therefore, to advance research and practice, we offer a specific and practical conceptualization of successful aging at work by developing a process model, which identifies relevant antecedents and mechanisms. In particular, we define successful aging at work as the proactive maintenance of, or adaptive recovery (after decline) to, high levels of ability and motivation to continue working among older workers. We also argue that proactive efforts to maintain, or adaptive efforts to recover and restore, high ability and motivation to continue working result from a self-regulation process that involves goal engagement and disengagement strategies to maintain, adjust, and restore person–environment fit. Further, we propose that at various levels (i.e., person, job, work group, organization, and society) more distal factors function as antecedents of this self-regulation process, with age-related bias and discrimination potentially operating at each level. Finally, we offer a roadmap for future research and practical applications.
In this chapter, we argue that to understand intelligence one must understand motivation. In the past, intelligence was often cast as an entity unto itself, relatively unaffected by motivation. In our chapter, we spell out how motivational factors determine (1) whether individuals initiate goals relating to the acquisition and display of intellectual skills, (2) how persistently they pursue those goals, and (3) how effectively they pursue those goals, that is, how effectively they learn and perform in the intellectual arena. As will be seen, motivational factors can have systematic and meaningful effects on intellectual ability, performance, and accomplishment over time. Our discussion emphasizes that heritability is not incompatible with the malleability of intelligence and that motivation is the vehicle through which intellectual skills are successfully acquired, expressed, and built upon.
A considerable body of research has linked parenting to the development of children's self-regulation. However, few studies have considered different domains of self-regulation, the effects of early caregiving behaviors, and whether or not parenting influences children equally. Towards this, the present investigation tested how early maternal insensitivity was associated with difficulties in children's effortful control in early childhood and their regulation of negative emotions during the early school years. Further, we tested whether children's resting vagal tone may operate as a susceptibility factor, consistent with differential susceptibility models. The sample included 220 pairs of mothers and their children who were assessed at 18 months, 3.5 years and 5 years of age. Laboratory visits consisted of observational paradigms and survey assessments. Early maternal insensitivity at 18 months of age forecasted difficulties with effortful control at age 3.5. Moreover, effortful control at age 3.5 was associated with greater anger, but not sadness, regulation at age 5. Consistent with differential susceptibility, children's resting vagal tone at 18 months of age moderated the role of early caregiving on children's effortful control. The findings suggest that low resting vagal tone may operate as a differential susceptibility factor in process models testing associations between early caregiving environments and children's self-regulation.
Regulatory focus theory (RFT) postulates two cognitive-motivational systems for personal goal pursuit: the promotion system, which is associated with ideal goals (an individual’s hopes, dreams, and aspirations), and the prevention system, which is associated with ought goals (an individual’s duties, responsibilities, and obligations). The two systems have been studied extensively in behavioral research with reference to differences between promotion and prevention goal pursuit as well as the consequences of perceived attainment versus nonattainment within each system. However, no study has examined the neural correlates of each combination of goal domain and goal attainment status. We used a rapid masked idiographic goal priming paradigm and functional magnetic resonance imaging to present individually selected promotion and prevention goals, which participants had reported previously that they were close to attaining (“match”) or far from attaining (“mismatch”). Across the four priming conditions, significant activations were observed in bilateral insula (Brodmann area (BA) 13) and visual association cortex (BA 18/19). Promotion priming discriminantly engaged left prefrontal cortex (BA 9), whereas prevention priming discriminantly engaged right prefrontal cortex (BA 8/9). Activation in response to promotion goal priming was also correlated with an individual difference measure of perceived success in promotion goal attainment. Our findings extend the construct validity of RFT by showing that the two systems postulated by RFT, under conditions of both attainment and nonattainment, have shared and distinct neural correlates that interface logically with established network models of self-regulatory cognition.
Paternalist policymakers face a severe knowledge problem that is analogous to the knowledge problem faced by central planners. They do not and often cannot possess the kind of local and tacit knowledge needed to craft policy interventions that reliably improve human welfare. We provide a taxonomy of types of knowledge that paternalist planners need but typically do not have: true preferences, extent of bias, self-debiasing and small-group debiasing, dynamic impacts on self-regulation, counteracting behaviors, bias interactions, and population heterogeneity. We also critique two leading efforts to surmount knowledge problems of behavioral paternalism: the augmented revelatory frame approach and unified behavioral revealed preference.
The policies recommended by behavioral paternalists rest on certain posited empirical facts or regularities about human behavior. Some of these supposed facts have not been established with much confidence. Specifically, psychological findings are highly context-specific, and thus lack the generality required for policymaking; generalizing quantitative results from the laboratory to the real world is unreliable; most existing research does not account adequately for incentives and learning; most existing research does not consider small-group debiasing; and most existing research does not adequately assess self-regulation and self-debiasing. Establishing reliable answers to these questions is a prerequisite for crafting and calibrating paternalistic policies with a reasonable expectation of improving welfare.
In Chapter 1, we present an overview of Vygotsky’s cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), including an explanation of how regulatory processes arise from the routine practices of social life. As part of this overview, we provide an explicit definition of cultural practices. To elaborate how a practice perspective is beneficial for understanding behavioral regulation, we describe how basic elements of an activity theoretic framework capture defining elements of a social practice. This framework offers a useful model for conceptualizing and observing how social practices come into existence and bring/create contextual resources that influence behavioral regulation. These resources are contextually embedded and include such elements as cultural tools, sign systems and symbols, goal-directed activities, and tasks. To better understand how regulatory processes emerge from participation in a community’s valued activities, we offer definitions of self-, other-, and co-regulation from a practice perspective.