Self-Regulation and Mindfulness

Self-regulation

Processes by which people control their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

Effortful Control

Ability to inhibit a dominant response to perform a subdominant response to detect errors and engage in planning.

Behavioral Inhibition

Focuses on variation in reactions to unfamiliar or unexpected stimuli

View of self-regulation using the trait perspective

Temperament constructs influence the emergence and development of self-regulation. Self regulation is associated with other personality traits 

6 Self-Regulation Behaviors

• Competence/self-efficacy

• Orderliness

• Achievement striving

• Dutifulness

• Self-disipline

• Constraint (reflects behavioral inhibition_

Ego Control

Expression or containment of impulses and desires

What is the difference between over controlled and under controlled ego-control?

• Overcontrolled - inhibit emotional expression and behavior

• Undercontrolled - do not inhibit emotion expression and behavior

Disinhibition 

Inability to control demands on attention, cognition, and behavior that interfere with desired behavior 

2 Components to the Information-Processing Perspective of Self-Regulation

• Objective Self-Awareness Theory

• Control-process model of self-regulation

Objective Self-Awareness Theory

When attention is direct towards the self, an evaluation ensues in which current self-representation is compared against internalized standards of correctness as reflected in an ideal self-representation.

This can product negative affect which leads to action

• Behaviors designed to change current self-representation (closer to ideal self)

• Direct attention away from self

Control Process Model of Self-Regulation

Greater emphasis on sources of behavioral standards and the process by which the discrepancy between those standards and current self-representation are managed

What assumption is fundamental to the Control-Process Model of Self-Regulation and Objective Self-Awareness Theory?

The assumption that self-regulation is conscious and effortful 

Miller and Brown - 7 Step Model of Self-Regulation

1. Receiving relevant information

2. Evaluating the information and comparing it to norms

3. Triggering change

4. Searching for options

5. Formulating a plan

6. Implementing the plan

7. Assessing the plan’s effectiveness (which recycles to steps 1 and 2)

Distal-Proximal Approach

• Mediation - how does x relate to y via this mediator?

• Examines the trait-behavior association

• Casual and both trait and process casually related to behavior

Conditional Influence Approach 

• Moderation

• Examine self-regulatory processing at different levels of temperament or personality traits 

  • Self-Monitoring

• No relation between trait and behavior assumed

How to the Distal-Proximal approach and Conditional Influence Approach differ in how they assume that traits and behavior are related?

• The Distal-Proximal Approach assumes that trait and processing are both casually related to behavior 

• The Conditional Influence Approach assumes no relation between trait and behavior 

Mindfulness

An umbrella used to characterize a large number of practices, processes, and characteristics, largely defined in relation to the capacities of attention, awareness, memory/retention, and acceptance/discernment

Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ)

• Acting with Awareness

• Non-judging of inner experience

• Non-reactivity of inner experiences

• Describing

• Observing

What is an argument supporting the perspective of mindfulness as a state of being?

Mindfulness is only developed through intensive meditation practice

What is an argument supporting the perspective of mindfulness as a trait or disposition?

Mindfulness is an inherent capacity present at varying levels regardless of one’s meditation experience 

Argument that trait mindfulness is multifaceted

Awareness that comes from paying attention to present moment experience in a purposeful and nonjudgmental manner

Acting with Awareness

Attending to one’s activities of the moment and can be contrasted with behaving mechanically while attention is focused elsewhere (often called automatic pilot)

What aspect of the FFMQ is this statement describing: '“When I do things, my mind wanders off and I’m easily distracted”

Acting with awareness 

What aspect of the FFMQ is this statement describing: '“I criticize myself for having irrational or inappropriate emotions”

Non-judging of inner experiences

Non-judging of inner experience

Taking a non-evaluative stance towards thoughts and feelings

Non-reactivity of inner experiences

Tendency to allow thoughts and feelings to come and go, without getting caught up in or carried away by them

What aspect of the FFMQ is this statement describing: '“I perceive my feelings and emotions without having to react to them.”

Non-reactivity of inner experiences

Describing

Refers to labeling internal experiences with words

What aspect of the FFMQ is this statement describing: '“I’m good at finding the words to describe my feelings.”

Describing

Observing

Noticing or attending to internal and external experiences, such as sensations, cognitions, emotions, sights, sounds, and smells.

What aspect of the FFMQ is this statement describing: '“When I am waking, I deliberately notice the sensations of my body moving.”

Observing 

In the Mindfulness Bravo study, what were the 4 mindfulness profiles found use Latent Profile Analysis in college students?

• Judgmentally observing

• Low mindfulness

• Non-judgmentally aware

• High mindfulness

In the Mindfulness Bravo study, what were the 3 mindfulness profiles found use Latent Profile Analysis in veterans?

• Judgmentally observing

• Non-judgmentally aware

• High mindfulness

Which mindfulness profiles were found to be the most adaptive in the Bravo study?

High mindfulness and non-judgmentally aware

In the trait/state experimental study, non-judging had a (positive/negative) relationship with (trait/state) mindfulness for people with meditation experience.

Positive; state

In the trait/state experimental study, observing trait mindfulness had a (positive/negative) relationship with state mindfulness for people with meditation experience.

Positive