Module 05 · Self-Regulation
Examining Your Self-Regulation自我调节反思
Overview 概述
You now know that self-regulation is the process by which people control their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in order to achieve their goals. In the Reflecting on Self-Regulation activity, you will be asked to identify and describe times in your life when you successfully or unsuccessfully self-regulated.
你现在知道自我调节是人们控制自己的思想、情感和行为以实现目标的过程。在“反思自我调节”活动中，你将被要求识别并描述你成功或失败地进行自我调节的时刻。
Reflecting on Self-Regulation 反思自我调节
This activity will ask you to reflect on times that you’ve self-regulated in your own life. If you've subscribed to the specialization, open your workbook and listen to the audio file for instructions for how to complete the activity. If you haven't subscribed to the specialization, listen to the audio file to have an alternate version of the activity described to you. When you're finished, continue with the course.
这项活动将要求你反思自己在生活中自我调节的时刻。如果你已订阅该专业，请打开你的工作簿并收听音频文件，以获取完成活动的说明。如果你尚未订阅该专业，请收听音频文件，以获得活动的另一种描述版本。完成之后，继续课程。
In many situations, we must control our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors around other people, including our friends, family, colleagues, and acquaintances. We might be tired of listening to our friend’s long-winded explanation about their dating exploits, but still make an effort to pay attention to their stories and react in socially appropriate ways. We might be ecstatic when we are offered our dream job, but choose to appear calm and collected until we are out of our new boss’s sight.
在许多情况下，我们必须控制自己围绕他人（包括朋友、家人、同事和熟人）的思想、情感和行为。我们可能已经厌倦了听朋友冗长的关于他们恋爱冒险的解释，但仍然努力关注他们的故事并以适当的社会方式做出反应。当我们得到梦寐以求的工作时，我们可能会非常兴奋，但选择在走出新老板的视线之前都显得冷静和沉着。
When we fail to self-regulate, there are often negative external consequences. For example, our friend might get angry at us for ignoring them, or our new boss might think we are immature for doing a happy dance in front of them. There may also be negative emotional consequences for ourselves. We might feel ashamed that we didn’t listen to our friend, or embarrassed that we appeared unprofessional in front of our new boss.
当我们无法自我调节时，常常会有负面的外部后果。例如，我们的朋友可能会因为被忽视而对我们生气，或者我们的新老板可能会认为我们在他们面前跳舞是不成熟的。也可能会有对我们自己负面的情绪后果。我们可能会因为没听朋友的话而感到羞愧，或者因为在我们新老板面前显得不专业而感到尴尬。
In general, the emotional consequences of failing to self-regulate differ depending on if we have failed to reach the standards of our ideal self or our ought self. Remember these terms? In Module 2, we described the ideal self as the person we want to be, and our ought self as the standard for ourselves that we don’t want to fall beneath (Higgins, 1987). Recall that, when people are focused on their ideal self, failing to reach a goal results in low-arousal negative emotions, like disappointment. When people are focused on their ought self, failure results in high-arousal negative emotions, like agitation or anxiety. Understanding the standards of our ideal self versus our ought self not only helps us understand our self-concept, but also helps us understand our motives when we engage in self-regulation.
一般来说，未能自我调节的情感后果取决于我们是否未能达到理想自我或应当自我的标准。还记得这些术语吗？在模块2 中，我们描述理想自我为我们想要成为的人，而应当自我为我们不希望低于的自我标准（Higgins，1987）。回想一下，当人们专注于理想自我时，未能达到目标会导致低唤醒负面情绪，如失望。当人们专注于应当自我时，失败会导致高唤醒负面情绪，如焦虑或不安。理解我们的理想自我与应当自我的标准不仅有助于我们理解自我概念，还有助于我们理解在自我调节中我们的动机。
Regulatory Focus Theory 监管焦点理论
Whether we focus on our ideal self or our ought self depends both on who we are and the unique situations in which we find ourselves. According to regulatory focus theory, people tend to emphasize either seeking good outcomes (a promotion focus) or avoiding bad outcomes (a prevention focus) (Higgins, 1998). Promotion-focused individuals tend to concentrate on the ideal self and respond to failure with disappointment, whereas prevention-focused people tend to center on the ought self and respond to failure with anxiety. This doesn’t necessarily mean that these promotion- and prevention-focused people are focused on different goals. For example, imagine that you are given the opportunity to complete an extra-credit assignment for a class. If you decide to complete the extra-credit assignment in order to learn more about an interesting topic, you have a promotion focus, and you are focusing on your ideal self—a future version of yourself who is more knowledgeable. In contrast, if you decide to complete the extra-credit assignment in order to avoid getting a bad grade in the class, you have a prevention focus, and you are focusing on your ought self—a version of yourself who is trying to avoid getting a poor grade. All in all, regulatory focus theory helps explain the different factors that can motivate us to self-regulate, as well as what emotional consequences might follow if we fail to do so.
我们关注理想自我还是义务自我，既取决于我们是谁，也取决于我们所处的独特情境。根据监管焦点理论，人们倾向于强调寻求良好结果（提升焦点）或避免不良结果（预防焦点）（Higgins，1998）。提升焦点的人倾向于关注理想自我，对失败的反应是失望，而预防焦点的人倾向于关注义务自我，对失败的反应是焦虑。这并不一定意味着这些提升和预防焦点的人有不同的目标。例如，假设你有机会为课程完成额外的加分作业。如果你决定完成额外的加分作业是为了了解更多关于一个有趣的话题，你就有提升焦点，你正在关注你的理想自我——一个更知识渊博的未来版本的你。 相比之下，如果你决定完成额外的加分作业以避免在课堂上得到坏成绩，你有一个预防焦点，你正在关注你的“应当”自我——一个试图避免得到差成绩的自我版本。总的来说，监管焦点理论有助于解释可以激励我们自我调节的不同因素，以及如果我们未能这样做，可能会出现的情绪后果。
Next, let’s check your understanding of self-regulation so far. After that, we will explore the different ways that you can improve your ability to self-regulate.
接下来，让我们检查一下到目前为止你对自我调节的理解。之后，我们将探讨你可以采取的不同方法来提高自我调节的能力。