Abstract
Self-regulation is a vital psychological process that allows people to guide their behavior in pursuit of their goals. This chapter introduces the present edited volume as the first state-of-the-art overview of biobehavioral approaches to self-regulation. We start by briefly discussing the origins and history of self-regulation research, which was rooted in social and cognitive psychology. Humans’ biological machinery and physiological processes have traditionally been neglected in self-regulation research, but fortunately this has changed over the past 10 years. The upsurge of interest in the biobehavioral foundations of self-regulation is reflected in the remaining 25 chapters of this book. These chapters highlight the involvement of the central nervous system, the autonomic and peripheral nervous system, and the interaction of both systems in self-regulation. The chapters are written by a selection of highly distinguished researchers in the field, and consider many different physiological systems and propose multiple theoretical perspectives. As such, this volume represents a starting point for readers to get a broad and diverse sampling of the field. We hope that the volume will stimulate scholars and practitioners to develop new ideas and applications on the biological processes that underlie the self-regulation of behavior.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Ach, N. (1935). Analyse des Willens (Analysis of the will). Berlin: Urban & Schwarzenberg.
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84, 191–215. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191.
Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 1–26. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.1.
Baumeister, R. F., & Heatherton, T. F. (1996). Self-regulation failure: An overview. Psychological Inquiry, 7, 1–15. doi:10.1207/s15327965pli0701_1.
Baumeister, R. F., Heatherton, T. F., & Tice, D. M. (1994). Losing control: How and why people fail at self-regulation. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Cacioppo, J. T., Tassinary, L. G., & Berntson, G. G. (2007). Handbook of psychophysiology. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. (1981). Attention and self-regulation: A control-theory approach to human behavior. New York: Springer.
Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. (1998). On the self-regulation of behavior. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Cofer, C. N., & Appley, M. H. (1964). Motivation: Theory and research. New York: Wiley.
Duval, S., & Wicklund, R. A. (1972). A theory of objective self-awareness. New York: Academic Press.
Gazzaniga, M. S. (2004). The cognitive neurosciences III. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Geen, R. G. (1995). Human motivation. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole.
Hagger, M. S., Wood, C., Stiff, C., Chatzisarantis, N. L. D. (2010). Ego depletion and the strength model of self-control: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 495–525. doi:10.1037/a0019486.
Heckhausen, H., & Gollwitzer, P. M. (1987). Thought contents and cognitive functioning in motivational versus volitional states of mind. Motivation and Emotion, 11, 101–120. doi:10.1007/BF00992338.
Kuhl, J. (1986). Motivation and information processing. A new look at decision making, dynamic change, and action control. In E. T. Higgins & R. M. Sorrentino (Eds.), Handbook of cognition and emotion: Foundations of social behavior (Vol. 2, pp. 527–561). New York: Guilford.
Kuhl, J., & Koole, S. L. (2004). Workings of the will. In J. Greenberg, S. L. Koole, & T. Pyszczynski (Eds.), Handbook of experimental existential psychology (pp. 411–430). New York: Guilford.
Miller, G. A., Galanter, E., & Pribram, K. H. (1960). Plans and the structure of behavior. New York: Rinehart & Winston.
Mischel, W., & Ebbesen, E. B. (1970). Attention in delay of gratification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16, 329–337. doi:10.1037/h0029815.
Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective neuroscience: The foundations of human and animal emotions. New York: Oxford University Press.
Powers, W. T. (1973). Feedback: Beyond behaviorism. Science, 179, 351–356. doi:10.1126/science.179.4071.351.
Ryan, R. M., Kuhl, J., & Deci, E. L. (1997). Nature and autonomy: Organizational view of social and neurobiological aspects of self-regulation in behavior and development. Development and Psychopathology, 9(4), 701–728.
Schaller, M., Simpson, J. A., & Kenrick, D. T. (Eds.). (2013). Evolution and social psychology. New York: Psychology.
Vohs, K. D., & Baumeister, R. F. (Eds.) (2011). Handbook of self-regulation (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gendolla, G., Tops, M., Koole, S. (2015). Introduction: Grounding Self-Regulation in the Brain and Body. In: Gendolla, G., Tops, M., Koole, S. (eds) Handbook of Biobehavioral Approaches to Self-Regulation. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1236-0_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1236-0_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-1235-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-1236-0
eBook Packages: Behavioral ScienceBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)