Positive Psychology

Report: Self-Regulation
Submitted to: Ma’am Sana Shaheen
Submitted by:
Mahnoor Bangush (01-171202-096)
Roshaney Abbasi (01-171202-061)
Mahum Salman (01-171202-097)
Sehar Asghar
BS Psychology (5A)
Date: 12/12/2022

Table of Contents
Self-Regulation 1
What is Self-Regulation? 2
Difference between behavioral regulation and emotional regulation: 3
The Self-Regulation Theory 4
The Psychology of Self-regulation: 4
The Self-Regulatory Model: 5
Why Self-regulation is Important for Well-being 6
Self-Regulation Test and Assessment: 6
Early Childhood and Child Development 7
Problems with self regulation 8
Self-Regulation in Adolescence 9
The Role of Self-Regulation in Education 10
Self-Regulation in Adults 11
Self-Regulation in the Workplace. 11
Activities and Worksheets for Training Self-Regulation 11
Self-Regulation in the Classroom 11
Emotion Regulation Skills 11
Further Resources, Interventions, and Tools 12
Self-Regulation Chart and Checklist 12
The Zones of Self-Regulation 13
 What is Self-Regulation?
Self-regulation is defined as the ability to control one's behaviour, emotions and thoughts in the
pursuit of long-term goals.
-Gillebaart M. The 'operational' definition of self-control.

Self-regulation is to regulate your emotions, manage disruptive emotions, contain impulses and
simply think before you act.

“Someone who has good emotional self-regulation has the ability to keep their emotions in
check. They can resist impulsive behaviours that might worsen their situation, and they can cheer
themselves up when they’re feeling down. They have a flexible range of emotional and
behavioural responses that are well matched to the demands of their environment.”
-Andrea Bell (2016).

Self-regulation is usually mentioned and taught as a skill in therapy to improve an individual's

ability to self-regulate and gain a sense of control over one's behaviour and life.
Examples of self-regulation include:

● A cashier who stays polite and calm when an angry customer is berating him for
something he has no control over;
● A child who refrains from throwing a tantrum when she is told she cannot have the toy
she desperately wants;
● A student who is tempted to join her friends for a fun night out but instead decides to stay
in to study for tomorrow’s exam;
● A man trying to lose weight meets a friend at a restaurant and sticks with the “healthy
options” menu instead of ordering one of his favorite high-calorie dishes.
 Difference between behavioral regulation and emotional regulation:

Behavioural Regulation Emotional Regulation

“The ability to act in your long-term best Control or influence over your emotions.
interest, consistent with your deepest values”
(Stosny, 2011). Allows us to feel one way and
act another.

If you’ve ever dreaded getting up and going to If you had ever talked yourself out of a bad
work in the morning but convinced yourself to mood or calmed yourself down when you
do it anyway after remembering your goals or were angry, you were displaying effective
your basic needs, you displayed effective emotional self-regulation.
behavioural self-regulation.

The Self-Regulation Theory

The Self-regulation theory, according to Roy Baumeister (2007), outlines what processes and
components are involved when we decide what to think, feel, say or do. It's the process that
occurs when making a healthy choice while having a strong desire to do the opposite. Includes
four components:
1. Standards of desirable behaviour;
2. Motivation to meet standards;
3. Monitoring of situations and thoughts that precede breaking standards;
4. Willpower allows one’s internal strength to control urges.

According to the SRT, these components interact to determine our self-regulatory activity at any
given moment.
 The Psychology of Self-regulation:

Albert Bandura is one of the leading researchers of SRT and an expert on self-efficacy. He
claims self-regulation is an active process in which we:

1. Monitor our own behaviour, the influences on our behaviour, and the consequences of
our behaviour;
2. Judge our behaviour in relation to our own personal standards and broader, more
contextual standards;
3. React to our own behaviour (i.e., what we think and how we feel about our behaviour)
(1991).

According to Bandura, self-efficacy plays a significant role in this process, exerting its influence
on our thoughts, feelings, motivations, and actions.

The Self-Regulatory Model:

The self-regulatory model is presented to better understand the self-regulatory theory. The model
was more specific to health and illness related self regulation.
The model's function is as presented

· Stimuli are presented i.e., something occurs that causes a response, whether it be a
thought, something uttered by someone else, hearing important news, etc.

· The person interprets the stimulus in terms of cognition and emotion

· As a result of sense-making, the person decides on coping mechanisms i.e what the
person does to change how she feels about the stimuli or what she does to deal with the
stimuli

· The results (i.e., the person's general response and her behavior choices) are determined
by the sense-making and coping responses

· Considering these results, the person assesses her coping strategies and decides whether
to stick with the same coping strategies or change her formula.

Why Self-regulation is Important for Well-being

Self-regulation plays an important role in well-being and overall success in life. People who are
able to manage their emotions and have control over them are also able to

· Deal with conflicts

· Manage stress

· Achieve their goals.

Adults with low self-regulation abilities may struggle to manage stress and frustration, lack self-
esteem, and confidence. This frequently leads to rage or anxiousness. which may potentially
result in a mental health problem diagnosis in more extreme circumstances. Researchers found
that greater self-regulation was positively correlated with well-being for both men and women.
 Self-Regulation Test and Assessment:

There are two tests used to measure self-regulation in adults and in children who are in
preschool.

● The Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ) for adults (Brown, Miller, & Lawendowski,
1999);

The SRQ is a 63-item assessment measured on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5

(strongly agree). The items correspond to one of seven components:

o Receiving relevant information

o Evaluating the information and comparing it to norms

o Triggering change

o Searching for options

o Formulating a plan

o Implementing the plan

o Assessing the plan’s effectiveness.

● The Preschool Self-Regulation Assessment (PSRA) for children (Smith-Donald, Raver,

Hayes, & Richardson, 2007).

It’s described as a portable direct assessment of self-regulation in young children based

on a set of structured tasks, including activities like:

● Balance Beam
● Pencil Tap
● Tower Task
● Tower Cleanup
 Early Childhood and Child Development

The development of self-regulation starts from a very early age. As soon as children are able to
exhibit mental flexibility, control their behaviors and access working memory, the process of
helping the children develop self-regulation can begin. Self regulation helps the children behave
well, learn, get along with others and become independent.

Following are a few ways to develop self-regulation in children to help them achieve their true
potential:

● Provide a structured and predictable daily routine and schedule which means changing
the environment by eliminating distraction i.e. limiting screen time, turning off the
television etc.
● Preparing the child for certain situations through practice on how to act in the form of
roleplay.
● Creating a safe space for the child at home to talk about their feelings and allowing them
to let off steam.
● Encourage them to review home/classroom rules regularly
● Making sure to establish boundaries by staying calm firm in your voice and actions even
when a child is out of control
● In the classroom or at playgroups, group the children with good self-regulatory skills with
those who have limited self-regulation tendencies as a motivation and model.

Problems with self regulation

Different factors can play a role in affecting the child’s ability to self-regulate.

For example, illness, tiredness and different environmental changes to the child’s routine can all
affect their ability to regulate their behavior and reaction. Many children have exceptional self-
regulation at child care, school or sport, but others unfortunately don't find it as easy. These
children struggle in a busy and noisy environment. And as children get older, self-regulation may
become challenging if they are juggling a lot of assessment tasks or relationships that may be
difficult for them to manage.

Although these struggles with self-regulation are fairly normal, it would be in the best interest of
the child to speak with a professional if the child's behavior is getting out of control as he/she is
getting older.

Self-Regulation in Adolescence
As children grow, they begin to find it more difficult to continue and maintain their self-
regulation skills. However, adolescence is the most crucial period for enhancing these self
regulating skills which will further help them in their future long term goals. Some of these goals
include:

● Using a Problem-solving approach to achieve goals like managing work and staying in
school.
● Delaying gratification to achieve goals like saving up to buy a car or investing in a
business.
● Self-monitoring and self- rewarding to keep progress on goals and be motivated to stay
on track
● Making decisions with a broader perspective to ensure compassion for others and oneself.
● Managing frustration and distress effectively when burned out.
● Seeking professional help when stress is unmanageable or the situation is dangerous
(Murray & Rosenbalm, 2017).

Three important steps can be taken to ensure that the adolescents are being supported in the
development of their self regulating skills:

1. The process of modeling: Teaching self-regulation skills through modeling them

yourself is the best way to provide opportunities to practice the self regulating skills,
 monitoring and reinforcing their progress, and coaching them on how and when to use
their skills.
2. Unconditional Positive Regard: Providing a warm, safe, and responsive relationship in
which adolescents are comfortable with making mistakes and they know that they will be
accepted without any form of remark and judgment.
3. Guidance: Structuring the environment to make adolescents’ self-regulation easier and
more manageable. Limit opportunities that create risk and provide positive discipline,
highlight natural consequences of poor decision-making, and reduce the emotional
intensity of conflict situations (Murray & Rosenbalm, 2017).

The Role of Self-Regulation in Education

The best way to describe the role of self regulation in education is through Zimmerman's theory
of self regulation which aids the learning process through this step:

● Give students a choice in tasks, methods, or study partners as often as you can;
● Give students the opportunity to assess their own work and learn from their mistakes;
● Pay attention to the student’s beliefs about his or her own learning abilities and respond
with encouragement and support when necessary (2002).

McGill Self-Regulation Lesson Plan: These plans were introduced in the McGill University in
Canada which included several helpful lesson plans for building self-regulatory skills in students.
These were as follow:

● Cognitive emotion regulation (CER): Cognitive emotion regulation is described as the

conscious, mental strategies individuals use to cope with the comprehension of
emotionally arousing information.
● Acceptance: Self-acceptance is the individual's acceptance of all of their attributes, be it
positive or negative.
● Self-blame: Self-blame is the defined as the attribution which are the consequences one
experiences are a direct result of one's actions.
 ● Positive refocusing: Positive refocusing involves thinking about a negative or
challenging situation in a more positive way. This aims at making a negative situation
into a positive one by thinking about how it benefits the individual.
● Rumination: Rumination is a form of perseverative cognition that focuses on negative
content, generally past and present, and results in emotional distress.
● Catastrophizing: Catastrophizing is when someone assumes that the worst will happen.
Often, it involves believing that you're in a worse situation than reality by exaggerating
the difficulties that have been faced.
● Positive reappraisal: Positive is a strategy involving finding personally relevant positive
meaning from an experience in the face of its negative reality.
● Putting things into perspective: To compare something with a similar thing to give a
clearer, more accurate idea. You can put your worries into perspective when you realize
how many people in the world are so much worse off than you.

Self-Regulation in Adults
There are different areas of functional life where self regulation can be regulated. Some of these
areas are as follow:

Self-Regulation in the Workplace.

Self-regulation is extremely important in the workplace. This helps you to keep your behavior in
check from showing impulsive responses like yelling at your boss when he’s getting on your
nerves, slapping a coworker who threw you under the bus etc.

People with high self-regulation skills are better able to navigate the workplace, which means
they are better equipped to obtain and keep jobs and generally outperform their less-regulated
peers.

Activities and Worksheets for Training Self-Regulation

Some of these activities and worksheets are used for training self regulation:
Self-Regulation in the Classroom
The aim of these worksheets is to help students assess their levels of self-regulation and find
areas for improvement. It lists twenty three traits and tendencies that the students can say they
do. The questions include different aspects which involve being on task, following the classroom
rules and routines, asking for help at appropriate times, waiting for your turn and refraining from
speaking out of turn.

Emotion Regulation Skills

These handouts are useful for both adults and teens. It elaborates on the main strategies you can
impose to keep emotions in check.

This covers four main strategies:

1. Opposite action: doing the opposite of what you want to do.

2. Check the facts: looking back over your experiences to learn from your failures, any
assumptions made, and whether the response matched the intensity of the situation.
3. P.L.E.A.S.E.: This abbreviation stands for “physical illness (PL), eat healthy (E), avoid
drugs (A), sleep well (S), and exercise (E).” All of these behaviors will help you regulate
your emotions.
4. Paying attention to positive events: keeping your focus on the positive experiences
instead of the negative ones will make you more optimistic and have you manifest
positive energy for the future.

Further Resources, Interventions, and Tools

Self-Regulation Chart and Checklist

The self-regulation chart and self-regulation checklist are two other useful resources for use with
children.The child is the main subject of this self-regulation chart, which is for parents and/or
teachers to fill. It provides a list of 30 emotional regulation abilities and advises the adult to score
the child's performance in each area on a scale of "Almost Always" to "Almost Never" on a four-
point scale.

All of these skills are important to keep in mind, but the skills specific to self-regulation include:

● Allows others to comfort him/her if upset or agitated

● Self-regulates when tense or upset
● Self-regulates when the energy level is high
● Deals with being teased in acceptable ways
● Deals with being left out of a group
● Accepts not being first at a game or activity
● Accepts losing at a game without becoming upset/angry
● Says “no” in an acceptable way to things he/she does not want to do
● Accepts being told “no” without becoming upset/angry
● Able to say “I don’t know”
● Able to end conversations appropriately.
● Another type of chart that can help students with their self-regulation development is the
behavioral self-regulation chart.This chart is designed for students to fill it out
themselves. It includes four columns with the following questions:
● What happened?
● How did others react?
● What was your reason?
● What else could you have done?
● Completing this chart will encourage the child or student to monitor their feelings and
behaviors, identify the consequences, evaluate their responses, and come up with
modifications or brand-new strategies to try out next time.
The Zones of Self-Regulation

According to developer Leah Kuypers, The Zones of Regulation is a “systematic, cognitive-

behavioral approach used to teach self-regulation by categorizing all the different ways we feel
and states of alertness we experience into four concrete colored zones”

1. Red Zone: extremely heightened states of alertness and intense emotions (e.g., rage,
anger, devastation, terror);
2. Yellow Zone: heightened states of alertness and elevated emotions (e.g., silliness, stress,
frustration, “the wiggles”), but with more control than the Red Zone;
3. Green Zone: calm states of alertness and regulated emotions (e.g., happy, focused,
content, ready to learn);
4. Blue Zone: states of low alertness and down feelings (e.g., sad, sick, tired, bored).

The end.