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1 - Conceptual Issues in Studying the Development of Self-Regulation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2009

By
Arnold J. Sameroff
Edited by
Sheryl L. Olson  and
Arnold J. Sameroff
Sheryl L. Olson
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Arnold J. Sameroff
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
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Summary

The romantic myth of literary genius which has long promoted an effortless and unfathomable Shakespeare, cannot easily accommodate a model of a Shakespeare whose greatness was a product of labor as much as talent. The humbler portrait of Shakespeare…is of a writer who knew himself, knew his audience, and knew what worked.

(Shapiro, 2005, p. 303)

The capacity for self-regulation is a hallmark of successful development. People engage in a variety of interactions with the physical, cognitive, and social world that require responsiveness to the actions of others while at the same time making a variety of choices. The agentic aspect of this engagement is understood as self-regulation. Although the construct of self-regulation originated in general systems theories whose concern was the complexity of bidirectional part-whole relationships in biology and physics, the adoption of the construct by developmental psychologists has tended to isolate the part from the whole, so that regulation is seen as a trait of the individual, rather than the result of the individual's experience with the context of development. Understanding self-regulation as intertwined with experiences in the social context will produce more accurate scientific predictions as well as more efficient intervention programs to improve children's behavioral problems.

Human self-regulation ultimately means knowing one's self, knowing one's context, and knowing how to interact with that context to achieve individual goals.

Type
Chapter
Information
Biopsychosocial Regulatory Processes in the Development of Childhood Behavioral Problems , pp. 1 - 18
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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