Chapter 3 - The Problem of Self-Regulation

  • Mary Karr’s memoir

Actors Observing Actors

  • ^^Social rejection^^ acts on the body by ^^compromising the immune function^^
  • How we can regulate ourselves: control our feelings, impulses, and behaviors to maximize the chances of positive outcomes and minimize the chances of negative outcomes (social exclusion)
  • Losing control → can compromise someone’s own well-being and reputation for the future

  → 5 of the 7 deadly ^^Christian sins^^ involve a ^^failure in self-regulation^^:

  

  1. Greed
  2. Lust
  3. Gluttony
  4. Sloth
  5. Wrath
  • Self-regulation depends on: the observation of the actor by an audience, be that audience in the real world or in the actor’s mind
  • Humans act in more socially desirable ways when they know/think that they are observed (either by others or by the self)
    • Ex: experiences with mirrors
  • ^^Cultural factors^^ → self-awareness
    • Mirrors less influenced Japanese individuals in experiments compared to American
    • In Japan, self-awareness is an explicit norm
  • ^^Self-regulation^^: like a muscle that ^^becomes fatigued from overuse^^
  • ^^Ego depletion^^: self-regulation becomes fatigued because an inner resource of self-regulatory energy has been used up
  • Balance between self-regulation and thoughts of gratification

Early Emotion Regulation

  • ^^Emotions^^: give you advice on how things are going inside and outside by alerting you to opportunities for reward and by warning you of danger
    • ^^How to regulate your emotions: by making them more advisory than obligatory^^
  • Cultural differences:
    • American parents stimulate their babies so they reach peaks of delight
    • Gusii + Aka parents in African tribes seek to keep their babies calm and contented
    • ^^Individualist societies^^: caregivers ^^encourage high-arousal positive emotions^^ in their infants (joy + excitement)
    • ^^Collectivist societies^^: caregivers dampen down expressions of exuberance, joy, and anger because strong emotional responses = threaten collective harmony. ^^Encourage low-arousal positive emotions^^ (mild joy, relaxed calm, contentment, serenity)
  • 6 months: regulation of emotions start
  • ^^Securely attached toddlers^^^^: better regulation of their emotions and their behavior^^

Effortful Control and the Development of Conscience

  • Delayed gratification study
    • Most effective strategy: distraction
    • Children who were able to delay gratification later exhibited higher levels of self-control, fewer behavioral problems, and better friendships
  • ^^Effortful control (EC)^^: effort exerted to ^^control one’s impulses^^ by developing a course of action to keep one focused on a long-term goal in the presence of a short-term distraction
    • Is a ^^dimension of temperament^^
    • Individual differences:
    • Early on, girls show better EC than boys
    • Children from economically deprived families show lower EC than children from affluent families
    • Chinese + Korean children show better EC than North American children
  • ^^Conscience^^: consists of rule-compatible conduct and moral emotions
    • Acting in ways that are consistent with what group norms suggest to be moral
    • Key moral emotions for the development of conscience: ^^empathy and guilt^^
    • Anticipation of guilt = serves as a check against immoral behavior
  • ^^Executive attention network^^: network activated in situations in which a person needs to detect errors in the environment, cope with conflicting cognitive appraisals, overcome habitual or automatic response patterns or monitor their own behavior in the face of competing demands
    • Inhibits thoughts/feelings/behavioral impulses that could cloud one’s effort to analyze a problematic situation
    • Brain region involved: Prefrontal cortex (planning complex social behavior) + Anterior cingulate cortex (address difficult cognitive problems through spindle cells)
  • ^^Serotonin^^: implicated in the development of EC and self-regulation
    • Serotonergic function
    • ^^High serotonergic function = efficient, adaptive^^
    • ^^Low serotonergic function = inefficient, maladaptive^^
  • Modes of human responding

  

  1. ^^Primitive mode^^: outside of consciousness, impulsive, reactive, implicit, associative
  2. ^^Secondary mode^^: conscious thought, rational decision making, deliberative, reflective, strategic, logical

→ Self-regulation = when the 2nd mode overrides 1st mode

  • Low serotonergic function = 1st mode, more impulsive + aggressive

Conscientiousness and Agreeableness

  • 2 dispositional traits of adult personality set by EC:
    • ^^Conscientiousness (C)^^: characteristics such as hardworking, self-disciplined, responsible, reliable, dutiful, well organized, persevering
    • ^^Agreeableness (A)^^: characteristics such as love, empathy, friendliness, cooperation, care
    • C + A = secure attachment relationships, better marriages, fewer divorces, more investment in family roles, health + well-being
    • C = more successful at work, higher grades, live longer, apprehension about guilt

When Regulation Fails: Aggression and the Development of Antisocial Behavior

  • Aggression can bind in-groups together (example: war)

  vs.

  • Aggression can pose a great threat to a group’s well-being
  • ^^Antisocial behavior^^: acting in ways that directly ^^threaten the health, well-being, and lives of other social actors in the group^^. Often involves the performance of aggression
  • ^^Externalizing behaviors^^: when children and adolescents engage in ^^aggressive activities^^
  • ^^Sociopath^^: adults that express ^^no empathy^^ for other humans or ^^no remorse^^ for their antisocial behavior
  • Temperamental differences in anger in infants/young children
    • Deficiencies in EC + low A/C = development of aggressive + antisocial behavior
  • ^^Parents both have a genetic and an environmental impact on how their children develop aggression^^
    • Parents from low-income families = use more physical punishment + aggressive solutions
  • ^^Antisocial + criminal behavior peaks at 17 years old^^