Self-regulation & defending self

Self & information processing

  • Established self – Acts as a regulatory system influencing your thoughts, emotions, and behavior.

  • It forms an organizing framework in how we understand and interpret the social world (social cognition).

  • It affects perception and memory, such as how we form impressions of others.

Self & Emotions

  • Emotions highlight significant events – „as if they just happened”

  • Emotions as complex experiences

    • Thoughts

    • Feelings

    • Biological reactions (e.g., heart rate, hormones)

    • Behavioral intentions (e.g., urge to flee, confront)

  • These elements are interconnected and can prime each other. For example:

    • Facial expressions can influence feelings (Strack et al., 1988).

    • Reading emotion-related sentences can affect facial muscle activity (Havas et al., 2010).

  • Origins of emotions

    • Biological bases – James (1884); Schachter & Singer (1962)

      • James (1884): Emotions arise from physiological reactions (we feel afraid because we tremble).

      • Schachter & Singer (1962): Emotions result from both physiological arousal and cognitive interpretation.

    • Cognitive bases – appraisal (an interpretation of an event)

      • Appraisal theory: Emotions depend on your interpretation of an event’s valence (good/bad), cause, and controllability.

      • We can be misled in our appraisals — the cause we focus on might not be the real one (Olson, 1990).

Culture & Emotions

  • Cultural differences affect:

    • How often emotions are experienced.

    • What emotions are appropriate and when.

  • Collectivist (C) cultures emphasize:

    • Connectedness, familiarity, indebtedness.

    • Avoidance, politeness in social interactions.

  • Individualist (I) cultures emphasize:

    • Confrontation, assertiveness.

Self-regulation: Behavior

Desired Selves

  • Regulatory Focus Theory (Higgins, 1987)

  • Self-guides– personal standards for different kinds of desired selves

    • Ideal self (hopes and aspirations): Promotion focus → Striving for positive outcomes (e.g., happiness).

    • Ought self (duties and obligations): Prevention focus → Avoiding negative outcomes (e.g., anxiety).

When self-regulation fails: Temptations

  • It’s often due to temptations (short-term gains vs. long-term goals).

  • Coping strategies include:

    • Self-administered rewards/penalties.

    • Linking goals to core values.

    • Reframing temptations in abstract terms.

    • Ego-depletion: Mental fatigue can weaken self-control.

    • Self-affirmation: Reminding yourself of your values helps restore self-regulation after ego-depletion.

Defending the self

  • Threats to the self

    • Failures

    • Inconsistencies

    • Loss of control

      • learned helplessness, Seligman, 1975

      • Attribution to internal, stable, and uncontrollable causes → Leads to depression.

      • Thought: “It’s my fault, and I can’t change it.”

  • Negative outcomes:

    • Emotional: Shame, anxiety, stress.

    • Physical: High stress responses, possible heart disease (e.g., Type A behavior).

Buffers (Protective Mechanisms):

  • High self-esteem (except in narcissists) – promotes self-enhancing biases

  • Positive emotions help restore balance.

Emotion-focused coping

  • Avoidance, escape, downplaying threats.

  • Terror Management Theory (Solomon et al., 2000): Coping with the fear of death via symbolic self-worth (e.g., cultural worldviews).

  • Self-awareness can either increase stress or help regulate it.

  • Self-affirmation, self-expression, and tend & befriend (more common in women) are useful strategies.

Problem-focused coping

  • Taking active steps to change the situation.

  • Use of excuses or justifications (external attributions).

  • Self-handicapping: Making excuses in advance or sabotaging one’s own performance to protect self-esteem.

  • Control

    • even the mere belief in personal control motivates to try

    • we tend to overestimate it (e.g. gambling)

    • self-efficacy- confidence in our ability to produce the outcomes we desire

    • counterfactual thinking- how an outcome might have turned out differently