On the Self-Regulation of Behavior

by Charles S. Carver , Michael F. Scheier

• ISBN13: 9780521000994
• ISBN10: 0521000998
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-05-07
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book presents a thorough overview of a model of human functioning based on the idea that behavior is goal-directed and regulated by feedback control processes. It describes feedback processes and their application to behavior, considers goals and the idea that goals are organized hierarchically, examines affect as deriving from a different kind of feedback process, and analyzes how success expectancies influence whether people keep trying to attain goals or disengage. Later sections consider a series of emerging themes, including dynamic systems as a model for shifting among goals, catastrophe theory as a model for persistence, and the question of whether behavior is controlled or instead 'emerges'. Three chapters consider the implications of these various ideas for understanding maladaptive behavior, and the closing chapter asks whether goals are a necessity of life. Throughout, theory is presented in the context of diverse issues that link the theory to other literatures.

Table of Contents

Preface	xvii
Acknowledgments	xix
Introduction and Plan	1	(9)
What Makes Behavior Happen?	1	(3)
Some Limitations and Some Grandiosity	2	(1)
Observations and Origins	3	(1)
The Book's Plan	4	(6)
Goal-Directed Action	4	(1)
Emotion	5	(1)
Confidence and Doubt, Persisting and Giving Up	6	(1)
Problems in Behavior	7	(1)
Newer Themes: Dynamic Systems and Catastrophes	7	(1)
Control versus Emergence of Behavior	8	(1)
Goal Engagement and Life	9	(1)
Principles of Feedback Control	10	(19)
Cybernetics, Feedback, and Control	10	(5)
Negative Feedback	10	(3)
An Example: The Ubiquitous Thermostat	13	(2)
Additional Issues in Feedback Control	15	(2)
Sloppy versus Tight Control	15	(1)
Lag Time	15	(2)
Intermittent Feedback	17	(1)
Distinctions and Further Constructs	17	(5)
Positive Feedback Loops	18	(1)
Open Loop Systems	19	(1)
Feedforward	20	(2)
Interrelations among Feedback Processes	22	(6)
Interdependency	23	(1)
Reference Value and Input Function: How Do They Differ?	24	(2)
Hierarchies	26	(2)
Concluding Comment	28	(1)
Discrepancy-Reducing Feedback Processes in Behavior	29	(19)
Feedback Control in Human Behavior	29	(11)
Early Applications of Feedback Principles	30	(1)
Our Starting Points	30	(1)
Self-Directed Attention and Comparison with Standards	31	(3)
Self-Directed Attention and Conformity to Standards	34	(3)
Brain Functioning, Self-Awareness, and Self-Regulation	37	(1)
How Does Attention Shift to the Self in Ordinary Life?	38	(2)
Broadening the Application of Feedback Principles	40	(7)
Sources and Nature of Feedback of the Effects of One's Behavior	40	(2)
Use of Feedback for Self-Verification	42	(2)
Social Comparison and Feedback Control	44	(3)
Summary	47	(1)
Discrepancy-Enlarging Loops, and Three Further Issues	48	(15)
Discrepancy-Enlarging Feedback Loops in Behavior	48	(9)
Downward Social Comparison	49	(1)
Negative Reference Groups	49	(1)
Feared Self and Unwanted Self	50	(1)
Positive Feedback Process Constrained by Negative Feedback Process	51	(3)
The Ought Self	54	(1)
Reactance	55	(2)
Further Issues	57	(6)
Feedback Loops in Mutual Interdependence	57	(2)
The Search for Discrepancies	59	(1)
The Issue of Will	60	(3)
Goals and Behavior	63	(20)
Goals	63	(4)
An Overview of Broad Goal Constructs	63	(2)
Task-Specific Goals	65	(2)
Hierarchical Conceptions of Goals	67	(9)
Basic Premise: Goals Can Be Differentiated by Levels of Abstraction	67	(1)
A Control Hierarchy	68	(5)
Hierarchical Functioning Is Simultaneous	73	(1)
Action Identification	74	(2)
Comparisons Outside Personality --- Social Psychology	76	(2)
Hierarchical Plans	76	(1)
Hierarchical Models of Motor Control	77	(1)
Comparisons from Personality --- Social Psychology	78	(4)
Relations to Goal Models Outlined Earlier	78	(1)
Hierarchicality behind Task Efforts	79	(2)
Hierarchicality in Other Models	81	(1)
Summary	82	(1)
Goals, Hierarchicality, and Behavior: Further Issues	83	(20)
Challenges to Hierarchicality	83	(4)
Hierarchies, Heterarchies, and Coalitions	83	(2)
Are the Qualities of the Proposed Hierarchy the Wrong Sorts?	85	(1)
Responsibility for Details	86	(1)
Further Issues Regarding Hierarchical Functioning	87	(6)
Which Level Is Functionally Superordinate Can Vary	87	(2)
Multiple Paths to High-Level Goals, Multiple Meanings in Concrete Action	89	(1)
Goal Importance	90	(1)
Approach Goals and Avoidance Goals within a Hierarchy	91	(1)
Approach and Avoidance Goals and Well-Being	92	(1)
Multiple Simultaneous Goals	93	(2)
Conflict and Scheduling	93	(1)
Multiple Goals Satisfied in One Activity	94	(1)
Programs Seem Different from Other Goals	95	(2)
Analog versus Digital Functioning	95	(1)
Opportunistic Planning and Stages in Decision Making	96	(1)
Goal Hierarchies and Traits	97	(3)
Traits and Goals	97	(1)
Viewing Others in Terms of Traits versus Actions	98	(1)
Traits and Behaviors in Memory	99	(1)
Goals and the Self	100	(3)
Self-Determination Theory and the Self	101	(2)
Public and Private Aspects of the Self	103	(17)
Aspects of Self	103	(7)
Further Distinctions	105	(2)
Recent Statements	107	(1)
Aspects of Self and Classes of Goal	108	(2)
Behavioral Self-Regulation and Private versus Social Goals	110	(3)
Formation of Intentions	110	(2)
Differential Valuation of Personal and Social Goals	112	(1)
Self-Consciousness and Self-Awareness in Self-Regulation	113	(7)
Anticipating Interaction	113	(2)
Conformity	115	(1)
Attitudes, Subjective Norms, and Behavior	116	(2)
Private Preferences and Subjective Norms Vary in Their Content	118	(2)
Control Processes and Affect	120	(28)
Goals, Rate of Progress, and Affect	121	(4)
Discrepancy Reduction and Rate of Reduction	121	(3)
Progress Toward a Goal versus Completion of Subgoals	124	(1)
Evidence on the Affective Consequences of Progress	125	(5)
Hsee and Abelson	125	(1)
Lawrence, Carver, and Scheier	126	(2)
Brunstein	128	(1)
Affleck and Colleagues	129	(1)
Questions	130	(3)
Is This Really a Feedback System?	130	(1)
Does Positive Affect Lead to Coasting?	131	(2)
A Cruise-Control Model of Affect	133	(1)
Changes in Rate: Acceleration and Deceleration	133	(4)
Subjective Experience of Acceleration and Deceleration	134	(1)
Surprise	135	(1)
Research	136	(1)
Affect from Discrepancy-Enlarging Loops	137	(3)
Doing Well, Doing Poorly	138	(1)
Activation Asymmetry between Dimensions	139	(1)
Affect and Behavior	140	(6)
Affect in the Absence of Action	140	(1)
Affect from Recollection or Imagination	141	(1)
Potential for Affect and Levels of Abstraction	141	(1)
Merging Affect and Action	142	(2)
Two Systems in Concert: Other Applications	144	(2)
Breadth of Application	146	(2)
Affect: Issues and Comparisons	148	(23)
Meta-Level Standards	148	(5)
Meta-Level Standards Vary in Stringency	148	(1)
Influences on Stringency	149	(1)
Changing Meta-Level Standards	150	(3)
Further Issues	153	(6)
Stress as the Disruption of Goal-Directed Activity	153	(1)
Goal Attainment and Negative Affect	154	(1)
Conflict and Mixed Feelings	155	(1)
Time Windows for Input to Meta-Monitoring Can Vary	156	(2)
Are There Other Mechanisms That Produce Affect?	158	(1)
Relationships to Other Theories	159	(12)
Affect and Reprioritization	159	(2)
Self-Discrepancy Theory	161	(3)
Positive and Negative Affect	164	(2)
Biological Models of Bases of Affect	166	(5)
Expectancies and Disengagement	171	(19)
Affect Is Linked to Expectancy	171	(4)
Feelings and Confidence	172	(1)
Mood and Decision Making	173	(1)
Confidence and Brain Function	174	(1)
Interruption and Further Assessment	175	(5)
Interruption	175	(1)
Assessment of Expectancies	176	(2)
Generality and Specificity of Expectancies	178	(2)
Effort versus Disengagement	180	(8)
Theory	180	(2)
Research: Comparisons with Standards	182	(1)
Research: Responses to Fear	183	(1)
Research: Persistence	184	(1)
Mental Disengagement, Impaired Task Performance, and Negative Rumination	185	(1)
Self-Focus, Task Focus, and Rumination	186	(2)
Effort and Disengagement: The Great Divide	188	(2)
Is Disengagement Good or Bad?	189	(1)
Disengagement: Issues and Comparisons	190	(27)
Scaling Back Goals as Limited Disengagement	190	(3)
Problems with Limited Disengagement	191	(1)
Scaling Back Goals as Changing Velocity Reference Value	192	(1)
When Giving Up Is Not a Tenable Option	193	(4)
Hierarchicality and Importance Can Impede Disengagement	193	(2)
Inability to Disengage and Responses to Health Threats	195	(1)
Helplessness	196	(1)
Watersheds, Disjunctions, and Bifurcations among Responses	197	(3)
Other Disjunctive Motivational Models	198	(2)
Does Disengagement Imply an Override Mechanism?	200	(4)
Disengagement, or Competing Motives?	201	(2)
Loss of Commitment	203	(1)
Further Theoretical Comparisons	204	(4)
Efficacy Expectancy and Expectancy of Success	204	(1)
The Sense of Personal Control	205	(3)
Engagement and Disengagement in Other Literatures	208	(7)
Goal Setting	209	(1)
Social Facilitation	209	(1)
Upward and Downward Social Comparison	210	(1)
Self-Verification	211	(1)
Performance Goals and Learning Goals	212	(1)
Curiosity	213	(1)
Stress and Coping	214	(1)
Summary	215	(2)
Applications to Problems in Living	217	(17)
Regulating with the Wrong Feedback	217	(2)
Automatic Distortion of Feedback	218	(1)
Goals Operating out of Awareness	219	(1)
Doubt as a Root of Problems	220	(2)
Automatic Use of Previously Encoded Success Expectancies	221	(1)
Premature Disengagement of Effort	222	(4)
Test Anxiety	222	(2)
Social Anxiety	224	(2)
Failure to Disengage Completely When Doing So Is the Right Response	226	(2)
``Hanging On'' Is Related to Distress	227	(1)
When Is Disengagement the Right Response?	228	(1)
Lives out of Balance	228	(2)
Complexity of the Self	230	(1)
Rumination	230	(4)
Rumination as Problem Solving and Attempted Discrepancy Reduction	231	(1)
Rumination as Dysfunctional	232	(2)
Hierarchicality and Problems in Living	234	(16)
Links between Concrete Goals and the Core Values of the Self	234	(4)
Hierarchicality as an Impediment to Disengagement	234	(2)
Problems as Conflicts among Goals	236	(1)
Problems as Absence of Links from High to Low Levels	237	(1)
Reorganization of the Self	237	(1)
Making Low Levels Functionally Superordinate	238	(9)
Reduction of High-Level Control by Deindividuation and Alcohol	238	(3)
Relinquishing or Abandoning High-Level Control as Escape from the Self	241	(1)
Relinquishing or Abandoning High-Level Control as Problem Solving	242	(1)
Further Comparisons	243	(3)
Failure of High-Level Override: Symmetry in Application	246	(1)
Residing Too Much at High Levels	247	(3)
Chaos and Dynamic Systems	250	(25)
Dynamic Systems	250	(12)
Nonlinearity	251	(3)
Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions	254	(2)
Phase Space, Attractors, and Repellers	256	(2)
Another Way of Picturing Attractors	258	(2)
Variability and Phase Changes	260	(2)
Simple Applications of Dynamic Systems Thinking	262	(13)
Goals as Attractors	263	(2)
Shifts among Attractors and Motivational Dynamics	265	(1)
Variability in the Construing of Social Behavior	266	(2)
Variability and Consciousness	268	(1)
Consciousness, Attractors, and Importance in Day-to-Day Life	268	(3)
Chaotic Variation as Frequency Distributions	271	(2)
Variability of Behavior in Iterative Systems	273	(2)
Catastrophe Theory	275	(21)
The Cusp Catastrophe	275	(7)
Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions	276	(2)
Hysteresis	278	(1)
Catastrophes in Physical Reality	279	(2)
Variability	281	(1)
Applications of Catastrophe Theory	282	(8)
Perception	282	(2)
Dating and Mating	284	(1)
Relationship Formation and Dissolution	285	(1)
Groups	286	(1)
Persuasion and Belief Perseverance	287	(1)
Rumination versus Action	288	(1)
Expectancies	289	(1)
Effort versus Disengagement	290	(6)
Importance or Investment as a Critical Control Parameter	294	(2)
Further Applications to Problems in Living	296	(21)
Catastrophes and Psychological Problems	296	(7)
A Remedy: Care Less	299	(2)
Chaotically Caring	301	(1)
Further Possible Manifestations of the Cusp Catastrophe	302	(1)
Dynamic Systems and the Change Process	303	(8)
Attractors, Minima, Stability, and Optimality	303	(2)
Stability, Adaptation, and Optimality	305	(1)
Minima in Specific Problems	306	(1)
Therapy	307	(2)
Destabilization and the Metaphors of Dynamic Systems	309	(2)
Extensions	311	(6)
Destabilization, Reorganization, and Beneficial Effects of Trauma	311	(1)
Psychological Growth	312	(5)
Is Behavior Controlled or Does It Emerge?	317	(29)
Coordination and Complexity Emergent from Simple Sources	317	(6)
Some Apparent Complexity Need Not Be Created	318	(2)
Properties Emergent from Social Interaction	320	(1)
Does Emergence of Some Imply Emergence of All?	321	(1)
Two Modes of Functioning?	322	(1)
Connectionism	323	(9)
Need Everything Be Distributed?	327	(2)
Planning and Goal-Relevant Decisions	329	(2)
Dual-Process Models	331	(1)
Two-Mode Models in Personality --- Social Psychology	332	(5)
Cognitive --- Experiential Self-Theory	333	(1)
Deliberative and Implemental Mindsets	334	(1)
Comparisons among Theories	335	(1)
Two Automaticities	336	(1)
Autonomous Artificial Agents	337	(7)
Complexity and Coordination	338	(1)
Another View of Goals in Autonomous Agents	339	(4)
Comparison with Two-Mode Models of Thinking	343	(1)
Conclusions	344	(2)
Goal Engagement, Life, and Death	346	(19)
Conceptualization	347	(3)
Goal Engagement and Well-Being	350	(1)
Disengagement and Death	350	(3)
Doubt, Disengagement, and Self-Destructive Behavior	350	(2)
Disengagement and Passive Death	352	(1)
Disengagement, Disease, and Death	353	(5)
Disengagement and Disease Vulnerability	353	(1)
Doubt, Disengagement, and Adverse Responses to Disease	354	(2)
Disengagement, Recurrence, Disease Progression, and Death	356	(1)
Conclusions	357	(1)
Dynamics and Engagement	358	(7)
Aging and the Reduction of Importance	361	(4)
References	365	(58)
Name Index	423	(12)
Subject Index	435