Self-regulation of health behavior: Social psychological approaches to goal setting and goal striving.

Abstract

We conclude that enhancing health behavior requires a nuanced understanding and sensitivity to the varied, dynamic psychological processes involved in self-regulation, and that health is a prototypical and central domain in which to examine the relevance of these theoretical models for real behavior. We discuss the implications of this research for theory and practice in health-related domains.

Harnessing adolescent values to motivate healthier eating

“…So the reward value of succumbing to temptation in the immediate term reliably outweighs the reward of abstaining. Traditional self-regulation approaches focus on cognitive strategies to either counter the emotional power of the immediate reward (7) or to bridge the cognitive divide between the present and the distant benefit (e.g., intermediate goal-setting) (22). Neuroscientific research with adolescents has provided a reason for pessimism about such approaches in this age group (4,10).…”

Multiple goal perspective and social identification processes

“…Second, people are more likely to behave in line with how they perceive themselves to be, rather than act in conflict with central self-views [6,7]. Some theorists even state that all behaviour is instigated to reinforce or enhance a 'sense of self' [8,9].…”

“…First, the existing experiments focusing on smoking [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] focus predominantly on the presence of an unfamiliar peer and manipulation of his/her smoking behaviour. Results show that individuals are influenced by this stranger's behaviour, which is specified as modelling, imitation or mimicry.…”

Investigating Intervention Components and Exploring States of Receptivity for a Smartphone App to Promote Physical Activity: Protocol of a Microrandomized Trial (Preprint)

“…Self-monitoring prompts Self-regulatory processes have been identified as a key factor for health behavior change [17,18]. To support participants' self-regulation, we designed short dialogue-based self-monitoring prompts.…”