Subgoals as substitutes or complements: The role of goal accessibility.

The self-regulation process often involves breaking an ongoing goal (e.g., keeping in shape) into many individual, constituent subgoals that monitor actual actions (e.g., eating healthy meals, going to the gym). The article examines how pursuing each of these subgoals may influence subsequent goal pursuit. The authors show that when people consider success on a single subgoal, additional actions toward achieving a superordinate goal are seen as substitutes and are less likely to be pursued. In contrast, when people consider their commitment to a superordinate goal on the basis of initial success on a subgoal, additional actions toward achieving that goal may seem to be complementary and more likely to be pursued. These predictions were tested in four studies that explored the conditions under which subgoals attainment have a counterproductive versus favorable effect on further pursuit of similar actions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temperament, recalled parenting styles, and self-regulation: testing the developmental postulates of self-discrepancy theory

Self-discrepancy theory (SDT) postulates that self-regulatory systems corresponding to the ideal and ought self-domains emerge from the influences of temperament (e.g., sensitivity to stimuli for positive vs. negative outcomes) and socialization (e.g., parenting behaviors and interpersonal outcome contingencies). This article reports 2 studies testing the developmental postulates of SDT concurrently and retrospectively. Study 1 showed that self-regulation with reference to the ideal vs. the ought domain was differentially associated with recollections of parenting styles of warmth and rejection, respectively. In Study 2, these findings were replicated, and self-regulation with reference to the ideal vs. ought domain was discriminantly associated with questionnaire measures of positive vs. negative temperament. Findings support the developmental postulates of SDT, despite the limitations of retrospective studies.     

Climbing the goal ladder: How upcoming actions increase level of aspiration.

Pursuing a series of progressive (e.g., professional) goals that form a goal ladder often leads to a trade-off between moving up to a more advanced level and repeating the same goal level. This article investigates how monitoring one's current goal in terms of remaining actions versus completed actions influences the desire to move up the goal ladder. The authors propose that a focus on remaining (vs. completed) actions increases the motivation to move up to a more advanced level, whereas the focus on completed (vs. remaining) actions increases the satisfaction derived from the present level. They find support for these predictions across several goal ladders, ranging from academic and professional ladders to simple, experimental tasks. They further find that individuals strategically attend to information about remaining (vs. completed) actions to prepare to move up the goal ladder. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Challenging licensure and certification.

Reviews the various legal theories that have been or might be used to challenge licensure and certification statutes in the courts to clarify the legal context in which the regulation of professional psychology is embedded. It is argued that many of the common regulatory concerns of psychologists (e.g., the validity and the possible discriminatory effects of the Examination for the Professional Practice of Psychology) are probably not legally vulnerable, whereas other requirements (e.g., residency requirements, oral examinations) are potential sources of major legal problems. (141 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond pleasure and pain.

People approach pleasure and avoid pain. To discover the true nature of approach–avoidance motivation, psychologists need to move beyond this hedonic principle to the principles that underlie the different ways that it operates. One such principle is regulatory focus, which distinguishes self-regulation with a promotion focus (accomplishments and aspirations) from self-regulation with a prevention focus (safety and responsibilities). This principle is used to reconsider the fundamental nature of approach–avoidance, expectancy–value relations, and emotional and evaluative sensitivities. Both types of regulatory focus are applied to phenomena that have been treated in terms of either promotion (e.g., well-being) or prevention (e.g., cognitive dissonance). Then, regulatory focus is distinguished from regulatory anticipation and regulatory reference, 2 other principles underlying the different ways that people approach pleasure and avoid pain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prognostic patterns in self-report, relative report, and professional evaluation measures for hospitalized and day-care patients.

Investigated differences between patients who relapse and those who do not in both hospital and day-care settings. Ss were 142 adult psychiatric patients. Hospital and day-care groups were matched on a variety of demographic, social, and clinical variables. Three groups of measures were used: one based on professional evaluation (e.g., Inpatient Multidimensional Psychiatric Scale), one based on self-report (e.g., Katz Adjustment Scales), and one based on relative report (e.g., MMPI). No differences were found between hospital and day-care centers in proportion of patients relapsed. Of the 3 groups of measures, those based on professional evaluation were least able to distinguish relapsed from nonrelapsed patients. On self-report and relative report measures, the scores of patients who relapsed following day-care treatment resembled those of patients who succeeded following hospital treatment and vice-versa. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The dilution model: How additional goals undermine the perceived instrumentality of a shared path.

Six experiments tested a dilution model of self-regulation, whereby increasing the number of goals (e.g., building muscles and losing weight) that a single means (e.g., exercising) can satisfy reduces the perception of its instrumentality with respect to each goal. The authors found that an increase in the number of simultaneous, salient goals that can be satisfied via a single means weakens the associative strength between that means and each individual goal, and as a result, individuals perceive the means as less effective for the attainment of each goal. Consequently, means that are connected to multiple (vs. single) goals are less likely to be chosen and pursued when only one of these goals is activated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Display rules versus display autonomy: Emotion regulation, emotional exhaustion, and task performance in a call center simulation.

"Service with a smile" is satisfying for the customer, but such display rules may be costly to the employee and the organization. Most previous research on such costs has used self-reported and cross-sectional designs. The authors use an experimental approach to test tenets of resource depletion theories; specifically, whether the self-regulation of emotions required by display rules depletes energy and attentional resources during a service encounter. Using a call center simulation with three "customer" interactions, the authors found that participants given positive display rules (e.g., be enthusiastic and hide frustration) reported more postsimulation exhaustion and made more errors on the order form compared to those with display autonomy. Customer hostility during one of the calls also increased exhaustion overall and the number of errors during that specific call, though proposed interactions with display rules were not supported. Surface-level emotion regulation, but not deep-level, was the mechanism for the energy depletion effect of display rules, while display rules had a direct effect on performance decrements. Theoretical and practical implications for display rules as part of job requirements are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexual Risk Taking in Adolescence: The Role of Self-Regulation and Attraction to Risk.

Precursors of adolescent sexual risk taking were examined in a multiethnic sample consisting of 443 children (51% girls) of National Longitudinal Survey of Youth participants. Respondents were 12-13 years old in 1994 and 16-17 in 1998. Controlling for demographic and contextual factors, self-regulation--but not risk proneness--was significantly (modestly) associated with overall sexual risk taking 4 years later. Analyses of individual sexual behaviors indicated that self-regulation may affect choices made after becoming sexually active (e.g., number of partners) rather than the initiation of sexual activity. Measures of parent and peer influence had independent effects on sexual risk taking but did not moderate the effects of self-regulation and risk proneness. Findings add to the growing literature on implications of self-regulation for individual development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-regulation as a protective factor against risky drinking and sexual behavior.

Prior research suggests that high dispositional self-regulation leads to decreased levels of risky drinking and sexual behavior in adolescence and the early years of college. Self-regulation may be especially important when individuals have easy access to alcohol and freedom to pursue sexual opportunities. In the current 1-year longitudinal study, we followed a sample of N = 1,136 college students who had recently reached the legal age to purchase alcohol and enter bars and clubs to test whether self-regulation protected against heavy episodic drinking, alcohol-related problems, and unprotected sex. We tested main effects of self-regulation and interactions among self-regulation and established risk factors (e.g., sensation seeking) on risky drinking and sexual behavior. High self-regulation inversely predicted heavy episodic drinking, alcohol-related problems, and unprotected sex, even when taking into account gender and risk factors. Moreover, in predicting unprotected sex, we found three-way interactions among self-regulation, sensation seeking, and heavy episodic drinking. Self-regulation buffered against risk associated with heavy drinking but only among those low in sensation seeking. The protective effects of self-regulation for risky drinking and sexual behavior make it a promising target for intervention, with the caveat that self-regulation may be less protective among those who are more drawn to socially and emotionally rewarding stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Together or apart: When goals and temptations complement versus compete.

This research examined how the presentation of items related to goals and temptations influences the dynamic of self-regulation, as reflected in evaluation and choice. The authors found that when items, such as healthy and unhealthy foods or academic and leisure activities, are presented together in a unified choice set (e.g., in 1 image) and seem to complement each other, people express a positive evaluation of and a preference for tempting items. Conversely, when the items are presented apart from each other in 2 choice sets (e.g., 2 images) and seem to compete with each other, people express a positive evaluation of and preference for goal items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping with client death: Using a case study to discuss the effects of accidental, undetermined, and suicidal deaths on therapists.

Over one-quarter of psychologists and psychiatrists will lose a client to suicide, and the impact of suicide on therapists is profound. Therapists report both personal (e.g., emotional) and professional (e.g., fears of litigation, doubts about competency) reactions to client suicide, and these reactions are thought to be pronounced for therapists-in-training. However, little is known about the effect of nonsuicidal client deaths on therapists, especially how the experience of a client suicide might compare with other forms of unanticipated client death, such as accidental injuries (e.g., car accidents) or deaths of undetermined intent. The current article reviews family members' bereavement responses based on differential death classification, as well as therapist reactions to suicidal deaths. A case study of undetermined death will be described in light of the extant literature on therapists' coping responses to suicide, including reflections on emotional and professional implications to a nonsuicidal death. A recent social psychological model of adaptation to emotional experiences (Wilson & Gilbert, 2008) will be used as a theoretical framework to discuss how death by suicide may be construed in comparison to undifferentiated and/or accidental deaths, with a focus on informing sorely needed future research in this area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Characteristics of Persistent Sexual Offenders: A Meta-Analysis of Recidivism Studies.

A meta-analysis of 82 recidivism studies (1,620 findings from 29,450 sexual offenders) identified deviant sexual preferences and antisocial orientation as the major predictors of sexual recidivism for both adult and adolescent sexual offenders. Antisocial orientation was the major predictor of violent recidivism and general (any) recidivism. The review also identified some dynamic risk factors that have the potential of being useful treatment targets (e.g., sexual preoccupations, general self-regulation problems). Many of the variables commonly addressed in sex offender treatment programs (e.g., psychological distress, denial of sex crime, victim empathy, stated motivation for treatment) had little or no relationship with sexual or violent recidivism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A tale of two tasks: Reversing the self-regulatory resource depletion effect.

This research examined the self-regulatory depletion model (e.g., M. Muraven & R. F. Baumeister, 2000). Although numerous studies support this model’s prediction of decrements in self-regulation across tasks, the majority of this research has relied on a single paradigm in which two tasks are performed in succession. Other work related to learned industriousness (R. Eisenberger, 1992) and adaptation-level theory (H. Helson, 1964) indicates that self-regulatory behavior may remain stable or even improve as a result of prior self-regulatory activities in situations involving additional tasks. Three studies examined these differing perspectives with 2- and 3-task designs. Results indicated that, relative to low initial self-regulatory exertion, high exertion can lead to poorer or better subsequent self-regulation. These findings are consistent with an adaptation view of self-regulation, suggesting that the depletion effect may be only part of the picture of self-regulatory behavior over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ageism revised and the provision of psychological services.

Advances in research on attitudes toward older adults can productively be applied to the problem of "professional ageism." Thus, it is suggested that professional psychologists may not hold global negative attitudes toward the aged. Instead they may have specific treatment biases: Some of these biases are based on negative misconceptions (e.g., psychotherapy for depression is inefficient for the elderly), and others are based on positive misconceptions (e.g., memory lapses in the aged do not have to signify anything pathological and, therefore, do not need to be referred to a mental health professional for evaluation). A recent pervasive bias is overestimation of Alzheimer's disease, an emphasis that threatens to overwhelm other stereotypes. Education about normal lifespan development and attention to how the public climate affects service delivery are recommended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young children can extend motion verbs to point-light displays.

In the first study using point-light displays (lights corresponding to the joints of the human body) to examine children's understanding of verbs, 3-year-olds were tested to see if they could perceive familiar actions that corresponded to motion verbs (e.g., walking). Experiment 1 showed that children could extend familiar motion verbs (e.g., walking and dancing) to videotaped point-light actions shown in the intermodal preferential looking paradigm. Children watched the action that matched the requested verb significantly more than they watched the action that did not match the verb. In Experiment 2, the findings of Experiment 1 were validated by having children spontaneously produce verbs for these actions. The use of point-light displays may illuminate the factors that contribute to verb learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Standards for providers of psychological services.

Presents an American Psychological Association Task Force report on some basic principles and the content of standards for psychological services. Implications of standards for the development of service contracts between provider and consumer, for legislative and regulatory actions, training for professional and support personnel, organizational structures, and accreditation procedures are examined. Definitions of the major terms used in the standards (e.g., "provider" and "psychological services") are presented, and standards related to programs, environment, and accountability are set forth, along with interpretations of each section. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Professional issues in Canadian counselling psychology: Identity, education, and professional practice.

The past decade has seen significant growth in counselling psychology's professional identity, increased visibility of the specialization within applied psychology, and advances in doctoral training and accreditation by the Canadian Psychological Association. The current article details professional issues associated with the recent evolution of the field, including the establishment of a strong professional identity for the profession, developments and challenges associated with graduate training (e.g., the limited availability of predoctoral internships), and the implications of the dynamic, changing workplace environment for graduates affiliated with counselling psychology. Recommendations are offered for continued development of the specialization in its Canadian context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nature and autonomy: an organizational view of social and neurobiological aspects of self-regulation in behavior and development

The concepts of self-regulation and autonomy are examined within an organizational framework. We begin by retracing the historical origins of the organizational viewpoint in early debates within the field of biology between vitalists and reductionists, from which the construct of self-regulation emerged. We then consider human autonomy as an evolved behavioral, developmental, and experiential phenomenon that operates at both neurobiological and psychological levels and requires very specific supports within higher order social organizations. We contrast autonomy or true self-regulation with controlling regulation (a nonautonomous form of intentional behavior) in phenomenological and functional terms, and we relate the forms of regulation to the developmental processes of intrinsic motivation and internalization. Subsequently, we describe how self-regulation versus control may be characterized by distinct neurobiological underpinnings, and we speculate about some of the adaptive advantages that may underlie the evolution of autonomy. Throughout, we argue that disturbances of autonomy, which have both biological and psychological etiologies, are central to many forms of psychopathology and social alienation.     

Job Resources Buffer the Impact of Job Demands on Burnout.

This study tested and refined the job demands-resources model, demonstrating that several job resources play a role in buffering the impact of several job demands on burnout. A total of 1,012 employees of a large institute for higher education participated in the study. Four demanding aspects of the job (e.g., work overload, emotional demands) and 4 job resources (e.g., autonomy, performance feedback) were used to test the central hypothesis that the interaction between (high) demands and (low) resources produces the highest levels of burnout (exhaustion, cynicism, reduced professional efficacy). The hypothesis was rejected for (reduced) professional efficacy but confirmed for exhaustion and cynicism regarding 18 out of 32 possible 2-way interactions (i.e., combinations of specific job demands and resources). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)