|
As before mentioned, my strategy for gaining control of my weight is based on the idea of self-regulation. In other words, when I chose to lose weight, I did not look at it as a project with a goal of losing weight, but rather as a behavior modification experiment where the subject of the experiment is me. So what is self-regulation? Most people hear about self-regulation via popular notions such as self-control or self-discipline or the exercise of willpower. More formally, (see "Losing Control: How and why people fail at self-regulation" by Baumeister, Heatherton and Tice for a more complete description) self-regulation refers to any effort by a human being to alter its own responses, such as actions, thoughts, feelings, desires and performances. When people fail to self-regulate, they behave in ways that are due to learning, habit, inclination or innate tendencies, in other words, in the manner that Robert Cialdini terms "click and whir" behavior, in his book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion." It's the type of behavior that happens mostly by automatic response. In contrast, when people self-regulate, the result is behavior, choices, actions, that are fully conscious and intentional, which overrides the previously described behavior. Self-regulation, therefore, can be defined as intentional overriding of unintentional behavior.
|
What is self-regulation?
