Regulatory Focus Strategies Scale: A measure of individual differences in the endorsement of regulatory strategies

Regulatory focus theory proposes that people can have a promotion or a prevention focus when pursuing goals and choosing strategies. The Regulatory Focus Strategies Scale (RFSS), a scale that assesses the endorsement of promotion and prevention strategies for goal pursuit, is developed and validated in three studies. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in Australia and Japan showed that promotion- and prevention-focused strategic endorsement formed two largely uncorrelated factors. The RFSS exhibits adequate reliability, and discriminant and convergent validity. A cross-cultural comparison showed that Australians were more promotion- but less prevention-focused than Japanese students. The RFSS provides an additional measure that is useful in future research on self-regulatory strategies.     

Who takes the most revenge? Individual differences in negative reciprocity norm endorsement

The authors report that beliefs favoring the reciprocation of unfavorable treatment form a unitary factor that is distinct from beliefs favoring the reciprocation of favorable treatment. Individual differences in endorsement of this negative reciprocity norm were related to (a) beliefs that people are generally malevolent; (b) inclination toward anger in everyday life; (c) anger, disagreement, and ridicule directed toward a new acquaintance who treated participants unfavorably; and (d) reduced anxiety, positive emotional engagement, and encouragement of a new acquaintance who treated participants favorably. These findings suggest that individual differences in endorsement of the negative norm of reciprocity influence the extent of vengeance.     

Regulatory focus moderates the influence of age-related stereotypic expectancies on older adults’ test performance and threat-based concerns

This study examined how the influence of age-related stereotypic expectations on older adults’ test performance and threat-based concerns is moderated by self-regulatory processes. Before working on test items taken from materials used in drivers’ license examinations, 61 older adults were randomly assigned to a positive or negative stereotypic expectancy condition, and to a promotion or prevention focus condition, respectively. Participants exposed to negative stereotypic expectations performed worse and were more concerned than those exposed to positive stereotypic expectations under prevention but not promotion focus conditions. These findings suggest that the activation of prevention-focused self-regulation renders older adults particularly susceptible to detrimental effects of negative stereotypes.     

Investigating Correlates of Self-Regulation in Early Childhood with a Representative Sample of English-Speaking American Families

Children who possess less self-regulatory skill are at a disadvantage when compared to children who demonstrate greater skill at regulating their emotions, cognitions and behavior. Children with these regulatory deficits have difficulty connecting with peers, generating relationships with teachers, negotiating their social world, and succeeding academically. By understanding the correlates of self-regulatory abilities, interventions can be developed to ensure that children at-risk for poor self-regulation receive the support necessary to enhance their regulatory skills. Using data from a nationally representative survey of English-speaking American parents with children between the ages of two and eight (n = 1,141), we evaluated a host of demographic and parenting variables to isolate the correlates of self-regulation. Older children were found to have fewer regulatory problems than younger children while children from low-income homes and male children were found to have greater problems with self-regulation. Minority status, household composition (single vs multi-parent), and parental education were not significant correlates of self-regulation. Findings also illustrate the powerful relationship between parenting style and self-regulation. Parents who rely on nurturing parenting practices that reinforce the child’s sense of autonomy while still maintaining a consistent parenting presence (i.e., authoritative parenting) have children who demonstrate stronger self-regulatory skills. Parents who exert an excess of parental control (i.e., authoritarian parents) have children with weaker self-regulatory skills. And lastly, parents who have notable absence of control (i.e., permissive parents) are more likely to have children with considerable regulatory deficits. Results offer implications for both practitioners and scholars.     

Motivations for promotion and prevention and the role of trust and commitment in interpersonal forgiveness

Granting forgiveness demands self-regulation. Distinct modes of self-regulation might therefore produce distinct routes to forgiveness. Self-regulation focused on advancement (or promotion) could motivate forgiveness through the perceived benefits to be attained by repairing a relationship, i.e., one’s trust that a partner will provide such benefits rather than further betrayal. In contrast, self-regulation focused on security (or prevention) could motivate forgiveness through the perceived costs of further relationship deterioration, i.e., one’s commitment to maintain a relationship upon which one depends and protect against the loss of this relationship. These hypotheses were supported across two studies that: (a) measured and manipulated promotion-focused versus prevention-focused self-regulation, (b) included real and imagined offenses in casual and close relationships, and (c) assessed forgiveness immediately following an offense and after a two-week delay. Trust in a relationship partner more strongly predicted forgiveness among promotion-focused individuals, whereas commitment to this partner more strongly predicted forgiveness among prevention-focused individuals.     

Lead us not into temptation: Differential associations of religious identification with self-regulatory traits and abilities

While there has been considerable research on the link between religiosity and self-regulation, the directionality of both constructs remains equivocal. Moreover, little is known regarding the association between religiosity and performance-based measures of self-regulatory abilities, given that past studies have predominantly examined self-regulatory traits via self-reports. Drawing from a 9-year longitudinal dataset (Time 1: n = 4836; Time 2: n = 3467), cross-sectional findings indicated that religious identification was positively and negatively correlated with self-regulatory traits and abilities, respectively. Longitudinal findings revealed that self-regulatory abilities predicted negative changes in religious identification, and this effect strengthened from middle to late adulthood. No longitudinal relations between religious identification and self-regulatory traits were found. Our findings highlight the differential associations of religious identification with self-regulatory traits and abilities, and how these associations are modulated by advancing adulthood.     

Religion and behavioral procrastination: Mediating effects of locus of control and content of prayer

Religion is a significant predictor of self-regulatory processes. Procrastination has been described as the very essence of self-regulatory failure. In this study, we examined the relationship between religiousness and procrastination, with locus of control and styles of prayer playing mediating roles. These relationships were tested using data from 196 students. We applied the Centrality of Religiosity Scale, Levenson’s Locus of Control Scale, the God Control Scale, the Content of Prayer Scale, and the Behavioral Procrastination Scale. The results showed that: God control fully mediates the effects of ideology and intellect on procrastination; internal control fully mediates the effect of public prayer and religious experience on procrastination; and passive style of prayer was a mediator in the relationship between centrality of religion and procrastination. Our findings suggest that religious people may give up internal control, believing that their matters are in God’s hands. Being subject to God’s power provides them with a replacement form of control, which reduces problems of self-regulation.

     

Self-regulatory depletion and attachment avoidance: Increasing the accessibility of negative attachment-related memories

Bowlby (1980) theorized that insecurely attached people use defensive memory suppression to cope with adverse events involving childhood attachment figures. In this study, defensive memory suppression was conceptualized as a form of self-regulation that, like other types of self-regulation, requires limited resources and may be undermined by the prior exercise of self-regulation. The findings of the study showed that, in the absence of self-regulatory depletion, memories of negative experiences with attachment figures were less accessible among persons who reported more dismissing avoidance. Under self-regulatory depletion, however, accessibility increased among persons high in dismissing avoidance. Depletion of self-regulatory capacity did not moderate memory accessibility for secure, preoccupied, or fearful avoidant attachment. The results imply that dismissing avoidant persons devote their limited self-regulatory resources to suppressing negative memories and keeping their attachment systems deactivated.     

Reactions to receiving expected and unexpected help from a person who violates or does not violate a norm

Different factors may affect reciprocity and attraction to an aid-giver. Sixty white South African high school students participated in a “record contest”. Hints provided by the quizmaster enabled them to win a prize. His help was expected or unexpected and, in providing this help, the quizmaster either did or did not violate a specific norm against doing so. It was predicted that recipients of unexpected help would display more reciprocity than recipients of expected help, but that the aid-giver would be derogated only when he behaved in both an unexpected and counternormative way and that, in general, attraction and reciprocity would be unrelated. These hypotheses were supported. They suggest that reciprocity is normally not mediated by attraction and that neither expectancy violation nor counternormative behavior will be itself produce derogation of an aid-giver. They further suggest recipients of unexpected help probably feel more obliged to repay an aid-giver than do recipients of expected help.     

Sex differences in aggression: Are current notions misleading?

Studied experimentally the influence of norms and sex of subjects on aggressive behaviour in same sex dyads. Two hypotheses were tested: (1) subjects will react aggressively to an unpleasant state of affairs, if they interpret it as being the result of violation of a norm on the part of another; (2) female subjects will display more aggression than male subjects under conditions of repeated provocation while male subjects will be more aggressive under conditions of infrequent or no provocation. In a 2 × 2 × 2 complete factorial design (norm violation versus norm enforcement; male versus female; low versus high reward for performance) 20 same sex pairs of students performed alternatively a sensory-motor task (victim) and a shock delivery task (aggressor). As predicted, subjects who consider other's behaviour to be a norm violation aggress more often (p <.0001). A significant interaction between sex of subject and norm violation is found in support for the second hypothesis (p <.05). It is concluded that positions grounded on the S-R paradigm are misleading for the understanding of sex differences in aggression.     

Regulatory Focus Theory: Implications for the Study of Emotions at Work

Previous theory and research have shown that people have two distinct self-regulatory foci. When promotion focused, people are motivated by growth and development needs in which they attempt to bring their actual selves (their behaviors and self-conceptions) in alignment with their ideal selves (self-standards based on wishes and aspirations of how they would like to be). When prevention focused, people are responsive to security needs in which they try to match their actual selves with their ought selves (self-standards based on felt duties and responsibilities). Strategically, eagerness or ensuring gains predominate for promotion-focused persons, whereas vigilance or ensuring nonlosses predominate for prevention-focused persons. People's regulatory focus influences the nature and magnitude of their emotional experience. Promotion-focused people's emotions vary along a cheerful-dejected dimension, whereas prevention-focused people's emotions vary along a quiescent-agitated dimension. We consider the implications of the relationship between regulatory focus and emotions for such topics as person/organization fit, goal-setting theory, expectancy-valence theory, behavioral decision theory, and employee resistance to organizational change. Possible antecedents of employees' regulatory focus also are discussed.     

When prevention promotes creativity: the role of mood, regulatory focus, and regulatory closure

Promotion-focused states generally boost creativity because they associate with enhanced activation and cognitive flexibility. With regard to prevention-focused states, research evidence is less consistent, with some findings suggesting prevention-focused states promote creativity and other findings pointing to no or even negative effects. We proposed and tested the hypothesis that whether prevention-focused states boost creativity depends on regulatory closure (whether a goal is fulfilled or not). We predicted that prevention-focused states that activate the individual (unfulfilled prevention goals, fear) would lead to similar levels of creativity as promotion-focused states but that prevention-focused states that deactivate (closed prevention goals, relief) would lead to lower levels of creativity. Moreover, we predicted that this effect would be mediated by feelings of activation. Predictions were tested in 3 studies on creative insights and 1 on original ideation. Results supported predictions. Implications for self-regulation, motivation, mood, and creativity are discussed.     

Regulatory Fit and Resisting Temptation during Goal Pursuit

Because avoiding obstacles to goal attainment is a favored means of prevention-focused self-regulation, the authors proposed that resisting tempting diversions from task completion would better fit a prevention focus than a promotion focus, thus affecting task enjoyment and performance. Whether deciphering encrypted messages (Study 1) or solving math problems (Study 2), when exposed to attractive distracting video clips, participants in a prevention focus reported greater task enjoyment than did participants in a promotion focus, whereas the reverse was true when the distracting clips were not presented. Indeed, prevention-focused participants enjoyed the tasks more when they had to resist temptation than when they did not. In Study 2, prevention-focused participants outperformed promotion-focused participants under distracting (but not nondistracting) conditions, and regression analyses suggested that task enjoyment mediated this effect. Different regulatory states thus appear to differentially equip people to deal with tempting diversions from goal attainment.     

Resistance to persuasion as self-regulation: Ego-depletion and its effects on attitude change processes

Counterarguing persuasive messages requires active control processes (e.g., generation and application of contradictory information) similar to those involved in other forms of self-regulation. Prior research has indicated that self-regulation ability is a finite resource subject to temporary depletion with use, and so engaging in self-regulatory tasks could impair individuals’ ability to subsequently counterargue. Participants completed an initial task designed to deplete or not deplete their regulatory resources. Following the manipulation, participants read a message supporting a counterattitudinal policy. Results indicated that prior self-regulation reduced subsequent resistance, primarily when the message arguments were specious. Counterargument appears to be a self-regulatory process that can be undermined when self-regulatory resources have previously been diminished.     

Are Early Birds More Disciplined? A Social Jet Lag Perspective

The relationship between personality and morningness-eveningness orientation is attracting a lot of attention. The relationship between morningness-eveningness orientation and personality related to self-regulation, however, remains unclear. The present research adopted a general American adult sample to investigate the relationship among morning and evening types and the individual self-regulatory trait. More important was that we used social jet lag theory to explain this relationship. According to the different scales that were used to measure self-regulatory trait, Study 1 obtained the convergent result that morningness is positively related to high self-regulation. In Study 2, we found that misalignment of rising time between free and work days (reflecting social jet lag) could partly explain the positive relationship between morningness and self-regulation. More specifically, because morning types can work in accordance with their natural clock, they have more resources for self-regulation; therefore, they have higher-self-regulation than intermediate types and evening types do.     

Heart rate variability reflects self-regulatory strength, effort, and fatigue

Experimental research reliably demonstrates that self-regulatory deficits are a consequence of prior self-regulatory effort. However, in naturalistic settings, although people know that they are sometimes vulnerable to saying, eating, or doing the wrong thing, they cannot accurately gauge their capacity to self-regulate at any given time. Because self-regulation and autonomic regulation colocalize in the brain, an autonomic measure, heart rate variability (HRV), could provide an index of self-regulatory strength and activity. During an experimental manipulation of self-regulation (eating carrots or cookies), HRV was elevated during high self-regulatory effort (eat carrots, resist cookies) compared with low self-regulatory effort (eat cookies, resist carrots). The experimental manipulation and higher HRV at baseline independently predicted persistence at a subsequent anagram task. HRV appears to index self-regulatory strength and effort, making it possible to study these phenomena in the field as well as the lab.     

Effects of work‐related norm violations and general beliefs about the world on feelings of shame and guilt: A comparison between Turkey and the Netherlands

This paper aimed at investigating the effects of work‐related norm violations (i.e., violations of interpersonal and work regulation norms) and individuals' general beliefs about the world (i.e., social axioms: reward for application, social cynicism) on feelings of shame and guilt in Turkey and in the Netherlands. An experimental study involving 103 Turkish and 111 Dutch participants showed that work norm violations elicited feelings of guilt and shame differently in Turkey and the Netherlands. Specifically, interpersonal norm violation in Turkey elicited feelings of shame and guilt more strongly than did violation of a work regulation norm, whereas no differential effects were found in the Netherlands. As expected, violation of a work regulation norm elicited feelings of shame and guilt more strongly in the Netherlands than in Turkey, whereas violation of an interpersonal norm elicited feelings of shame and guilt more strongly in Turkey than in the Netherlands. The findings provide further evidence for the moderating effects of social axioms: in both countries, participants high in social cynicism felt less ashamed when they violated a work regulation norm than did those low in social cynicism. Our findings are relevant for understanding the underlying mechanisms of norm violations at work, thereby offering a new avenue for investigating cultural differences in the workplace. The latter may be of particular relevance in times of globalization and diversity in the workplace.     

Older drivers’ self-assessed driving skills,driving-related stress and self-regulation in traffic

Previous research on older drivers has indicated connections between self-rated driving ability, confidence in their own driving, driving-related stress, and self-regulatory behaviour. However, more systematic associations between older drivers’ perceptions on their own driving and self-regulation or driver stress and self-regulation behaviour, and possible gender differences in these, have not been obtained in previous studies. The aim of the present study was to gain a better understanding of older drivers’ self-regulatory driving and the motivators behind this behaviour, by placing this behaviour in the modern traffic psychological framework of the driving task. 888 drivers aged 75 or older completed a structured phone interview about their perceived changes in driving skills, driving-related discomfort, and avoidance of driving situations. The results showed that when reporting change, the participants were more likely to report improvement of higher level skills and decline of the lowest level skills. Women were less likely to report improvement and more likely to report decline of skills. Driving situations related to inner states or adverse conditions were more often associated with discomfort and avoidance than situations related to infrastructure, and women were more likely to report discomfort and avoidance of driving situations. The results suggest that older drivers generally show good self-judgement of changes in their driving skills and acknowledge the different types of skills comprised in the driving task. The results also provide a better understanding of older drivers’ self-regulation of driving and gender differences in this, thus providing a better understanding in particular of women drivers’ self-regulation and increased risk of premature driving cessation. These findings may be valuable when encouraging older drivers, especially women, to prolong their driving.     

The Role of Self-Regulation Training in Developing the Motivation Management Capabilities of Salespeople

Time management, goal setting, goal attainment strategies, prioritization techniques! These are some of the self-regulation skills that today’s sales organizations are attempting to develop in a sales force through self-regulation training. This study empirically investigates self-regulation training and how it can facilitate salesperson performance. Findings suggest that self-regulatory training can enhance salesperson self-regulation capabilities, decrease role ambiguity, and thereby aid sales performance. Furthermore, our findings suggest that the value of self-regulation training may not be uniform across all sales trainees. Specifically, self-regulation training may be more beneficial to salespeople after they have developed a level of mastery over fundamental core selling capabilities.