The figure above shows how the model works:
Stimuli are presented (i.e., something happens that provokes a reaction, whether that’s a thought, something another person said, getting significant news, etc.)
The individual makes sense of the stimuli, cognitively (understanding it) and emotionally (feeling it)
The sense-making leads to the individual choosing coping responses (i.e., what the person does to influence their feelings about the stimuli or the actions they take to address the stimuli)
The sense-making and coping responses determine the outcomes (i.e., the individual’s overall response and how they choose to behave)
The individual evaluates his coping responses in light of these outcomes and determines whether to continue using the same coping responses or alter their formula
An Example of the Model in Action
If words like “stimuli” and “emotional representations” throw you off, perhaps an example of the model in action will help.
Let’s use Bob as our example.
Bob was just diagnosed with diabetes and is facing his new reality: checking his blood sugar, changing up his diet, and potentially LOTS of needles. The diagnosis is Bob’s stimulus.
Bob attempts to make sense of his diagnosis. He talks to his doctor, recalls a friend’s experience with diabetes, thinks about a character’s struggle with diabetes in his favorite TV show, and tries to remember what he learned about diabetes in his college health classes. All of this information feeds into his cognitive representation of his diagnosis.
It’s not all objective thoughts though; Bob also feels a little shocked about getting this diagnosis since he hadn’t even considered that he had diabetes. He is worried about how long he’ll be around for his kids and anxious about how much his life will change. He’s also scared about what will happen if his life doesn’t change. These feelings make up his emotional representation of his diagnosis.
Once Bob has a semi-firm grasp of his thoughts and feelings about the diagnosis, he makes some decisions about what comes next. Through discussion with his doctor, he decides on a new, healthier diet and also commits to taking more frequent walks. However, he also finds that it’s easy to put his diagnosis out of his mind when he’s not having an episode or being directly affected by it.
These decisions and actions are his coping responses.
Bob implements these responses for a few days, then reflects on how he’s been doing. He realizes that, although he is eating marginally healthier and he’s taken a short walk each day, he has mostly refrained from thinking about his diagnosis at all.
Bob reminds himself that if he keeps ignoring his diabetes, he will eventually get sick and may even suffer significant, long-term consequences. This is his evaluation of his representations and coping methods.
Bob commits to facing his diabetes head-on instead of denying or ignoring it and resolves to work on keeping the potential consequences of not staying healthy in mind. He also resolves to fully embrace the diet he and his doctor planned out and start going to the gym three times a week.
Bob is using his evaluation of his representations, coping responses, and outcomes to assess how well his actions align with his desired future: a happy and healthy Bob who is around to see his kids grow up; this is the feedback loop.
This short example is a good representation of what self-regulation looks like; it is essentially monitoring your own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and comparing the outcomes against your goals, then deciding to maintain your current attitudes and behaviors or deciding to adjust them so you can more effectively meet your goals.
What is Self-Regulation Therapy?
As noted earlier, you could argue that ALL forms of therapy are centered on self-regulation—they all aim to help a client reach a level of equilibrium in which they are able to effectively regulate their own emotions and behavior (and sometimes thought patterns, in the case of therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy).
However, there is also a form of therapy that is designed around self-regulation theory and grounded in its principles.
Self-Regulation Therapy draws from findings in neuroscience and biology to help clients reduce “excess activation in the nervous system” (Canadian Foundation for Trauma Research & Education, n.d.). This excess activation (i.e., an off-balance or inappropriate “fight or flight [or freeze]” response) can be triggered by a traumatic event or any other event in life that is significant or overwhelming, throwing a monkey wrench into the normal self-regulation process.
SRT aims to help the client correct this problem, building new pathways in the brain to allow for more flexibility and more appropriate emotional and behavioral responses. The ultimate goal is to turn that emotional and/or behavioral dysregulation into effective self-regulation.
Self-Regulation vs. Self-Control
If you think that self-regulation and self-control have an awful lot in common, you’re right! They are similar concepts and deal with some of the same processes; however, they are two distinct constructs.
As psychologist Stuart Shanker (2016) puts it:
“Self-control is about inhibiting strong impulses; self-regulation, reducing the frequency and intensity of strong impulses by managing stress-load and recovery. In fact, self-regulation is what makes self-control possible, or, in many cases, unnecessary.”
Viewed in this light, we can think about self-regulation as a more automatic and subconscious process—unless the individual determines to purposefully monitor and alter their self-regulation—while self-control is a set of much more active and purposeful decisions and behaviors.
Understanding Ego Depletion
An important SRT concept to understand is that of self-regulatory depletion, also called ego depletion.
This is a state in which an individual’s willpower and control over their self-regulation processes have been used up, and their energy earmarked for inhibiting impulses is expended. It often results in poor decision-making and performance (Baumeister, 2014).
When a person has been faced with many temptations and especially strong temptations, they must then exert an equally large amount of energy when it comes to controlling their impulses. SRT argues that people have a limited amount of energy for this purpose and once it’s gone, two things happen:
Inhibitions and behavioral restraints are weaker, meaning that the individual has less motivation and willpower to refrain from the temptations
The temptations/desires/urges are felt much more strongly than when willpower is at a normal, non-depleted level (Baumeister, 2014)
This is a key idea in SRT; it explains why we struggle to avoid engaging in “bad behavior” when we are tempted by it over a long period of time. For example, it explains why many dieters can keep to their strict diet all day but give in after dinner when tempted by dessert.
It also explains why a married, or otherwise committed person, can rebuff an advance from someone who is not their partner for days or weeks but eventually give in and engage in an affair.
Recent findings in neuroscience back this idea of self-regulatory depletion; a study from 2013 (Wagner et al.) used functional neuroimaging to show that those who had depleted their self-regulatory energy experienced less connectivity between the regions of the brain involved in self-control and those involved in rewards. In other words, their brains were less accommodating in helping them resist temptation after sustained self-regulatory activity.
5 Examples of Self-Regulatory Behavior
Although self-regulatory depletion is a difficult hurdle, SRT does not imply that it is impossible to remain in control of your urges and behavior when your energy is depleted. It merely states that it becomes harder and harder as your energy level decreases.
However, there are many examples of successful self-regulatory behavior, even when the individual is fatigued from constant self-regulation.
Examples of successful behavior 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 he is told he cannot have the toy he so desperately wants
A couple who are in a heated argument about something that is important to both of them deciding to take some time to cool off before continuing their discussion, instead of devolving into yelling, insults, and name-calling
A student who is tempted to join her friends for a fun night out but decides to stay in to study for tomorrow’s exam instead
A woman trying to lose weight meets a friend at a restaurant and sticks with the “healthy options” menu instead of ordering one of her favorite, high-calorie dishes
As you can see, self-regulation covers a wide range of behaviors from the minute-to-minute decisions we make to the larger, more significant decisions that can have a big impact on whether we meet our goals or not.
Why Self-Regulation is Important for Well-Being
Another outcome of effective self-regulation may not be as immediately obvious, but you’ll see why this concept is so vital to the outcome in a moment. Let’s take a closer look at enhancing and maintaining a healthy sense of well-being.
Overall, there is tons of evidence to suggest that those who successfully display self-regulation in their everyday behavior enjoy greater well-being. Researchers Skowron, Holmes, and Sabatelli (2003) found that greater self-regulation was positively associated with well-being for both men and women.
Findings are the same for young people as well; a study from 2016 showed that adolescents who regularly engage in self-regulatory behavior report greater well-being than their peers, including enhanced life satisfaction, perceived social support, and positive affect (i.e., good feelings).
On the other hand, those who suppressed their feelings instead of addressing them head-on experienced lower well-being, including greater loneliness, more negative affect (i.e., bad feelings), and worse psychological health overall (Verzeletti, Zammuner, Galli, Agnoli, & Duregger, 2016).
Emotional Intelligence and Well-Being
To get more specific, one of the ways in which self-regulation contributes to well-being is through emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence can be described as:
“the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth” (Mayer & Salovey, 1997).
According to emotional intelligence expert Daniel Goleman, there are five components of emotional intelligence:
Self-awareness
Self-regulation
Internal motivation
Empathy
Social skills
Self-regulation, or the extent of an individual’s ability to influence or control their own emotions and impulses, is a vital piece of emotional intelligence, and it’s easy to see why; can you imagine someone with high self-awareness, intrinsic motivation, empathy, and social skills who inexplicably has little to no control over their own impulses and is driven by emotion without inhibition?
There’s something off about that picture because self-regulation is an integral part of emotional intelligence. And, as researchers Di Fabio and Kenny (2016) found, emotional intelligence is strongly related to well-being.
The better able we are to understand and address our own emotions and the emotions of others, the better able we are to make sense of our environment, adjust to it, and pursue our goals.
Self-Regulation and the Motivation to Succeed
On the subject of pursuing our goals, self-regulation is also clearly entwined with motivation. As you might recall from earlier in this piece, motivation is one of the core components of self-regulation; it is one factor that determines how well we are able to regulate our emotions and behaviors.
An individual’s level of motivation to succeed in his endeavors is directly related to his performance. If he has the best of intentions, well-laid plans, and extraordinary willpower, he will still likely fail if he is not motivated to regulate his behavior and avoid the temptation to slack off or set his goals aside for another day.
The more motivated we are to achieve our goals, the greater our ability to strive toward them. This impacts our well-being by filling us with a sense of purpose, competence, and self-esteem, especially when we are able to meet our goals.
Self-Regulation in ADHD and Autism
As you might have guessed, self-regulation is also an important topic for those struggling with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).
One of the hallmarks of ADHD is a limited ability to focus and regulate one’s attention. For example, ADDitude blogger Penny Williams (n.d.) describes her 11-year-old son Ricochet’s struggles with ADHD in terms of the struggle to self-regulate:
“At times, he has struggled with identifying his feelings. He is overwhelmed with emotion sometimes, and he has trouble labeling his feelings. You can’t deal with what you can’t define, so this often creates a troublesome situation for him and me. Now that Ricochet is old enough to start regulating his reactions, one of our current behavior goals is identifying, communicating, and regulating feelings and actions.”
Similarly, difficulty with emotional self-regulation is part and parcel of ASD. Those on the autism spectrum often have trouble identifying their emotions, and if they are able to identify their emotions, they generally have trouble modulating or regulating their emotions.
ASD-difficulty is well-understood as a common symptom, but effective methods for improving self-regulation in ASD is unfortunately not as well-known or implemented as one might wish.
The nonprofit advocacy group Autism Speaks suggests several strategies to help children with autism learn to better self-regulate. Many of these strategies can be applied to those with ADHD as well—including:
Celebrate and build your child’s strengths and successes
Respect and listen to your child
Validate your child’s concerns and emotions
Provide clear expectations of behavior (using visual aids if necessary)
Set your child up for success (e.g., accepting a one-word answer, providing accommodations, using Velcro instead of shoelaces)
Ignore the challenging behavior, like screaming or biting
Alternate tasks; do something fun, then something challenging
Teach and interact at your child’s current level rather than at what level you want him or her to be
Give your child choices within strict parameters (e.g., allowing the child to choose what activity to do first)
Provide access to breaks when needed—this will give him or her an opportunity to avoid bad behavior
Promote the use of a safe calm-down place as a positive place, not a place of punishment
Set up reinforcement systems to reward your child for desired behavior
Allow times and places for your child to do what he or she wants (when not an inconvenience or intrusion on anyone else)
Reward flexibility and self-control, verbally and with tangible rewards
Use positive/proactive language to encourage good behavior rather than pointing out bad behavior (2012)
Helping your child learn to more effectively self-regulate will ultimately benefit you, your child, and everyone he or she interacts with, and improve his or her overall well-being.
The Art of Mindfulness
Self-regulation and mindfulness are two peas in a pod when it comes to contributing to well-being. As we learned earlier, self-regulation requires self-awareness and monitoring of one’s own emotional state and responses to stimuli.
Being conscious of your own thoughts, feelings, and behavior is the foundation of self-regulation; without it, there is no ability to reflect or choose a different path.
Teaching mindfulness is one great way to both improve the ability to self-regulate and enhance overall well-being. Mindfulness can be defined as the conscious effort to maintain a moment-to-moment awareness of what’s going on, both inside your head and around you.
Mindfulness encourages active awareness of one’s own thoughts and feelings and promotes conscious decisions about how to behave over simply going along with whatever your feelings tell you.
There is good evidence that mindfulness is an effective tool for teaching self-regulation; researchers Razza, Bergen-Cico, and Raymond (2015) recently published a study on the effects of a mindfulness-based yoga intervention on preschool children.
The researchers found that those in the mindfulness group exhibited greater attention, better ability to delay gratification and more effective inhibitory control than those in the control group. Findings also suggested that those with the most inherent trouble self-regulating benefited the most from the mindfulness intervention, indicating that those at the lower end of the self-regulation continuum are not a “lost cause!”
Self-Regulation and Executive Function
Mindfulness is an excellent way to build certain attention skills, which are part of a larger set of vital skills that allow us to plan, focus, remember important things, and multitask effectively (or semi-effectively, at least).
These skills are known as executive function skills, and they involve three key types of brain functions:
Working Memory: our cache of short-term memories, or information we recently took in
Mental Flexibility: our ability to shift our focus from one stimulus to another and apply context-appropriate rules for attention and behavior
Self-Control: our ability to set priorities, regulate our emotions, and to resist our impulses (Center on the Developing Child, n.d.)
These skills are not inherent from birth but are rather learned and built upon over time. They are vital skills for navigating the complex world we live in and contribute to making good choices.
When we are able to successfully navigate our world and make good choices, we set ourselves up to meet our goals and enjoy greater well-being.
Self-Regulation Test and Assessment
If you’re interested in measuring your level of self-regulation (or using it in research), you have two good options in terms of a self-monitoring scale and self-regulation questionnaire:
The Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ) for adults (Brown, Miller, & Lawendowski, 1999)
The Preschool Self-Regulation Assessment (PSRA) for children (Smith-Donald, Raver, Hayes, & Richardson, 2007)
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:
Receiving relevant information
Evaluating the information and comparing it to norms
Triggering change
Searching for options
Formulating a plan
Implementing the plan
Assessing the plan’s effectiveness
If you’re interested in learning more about this scale or using it in your own work, click here (note: this link triggers the download of a PDF that includes information about the scale, references, and the scale itself).
If you’re more interested in working with young children on self-regulatory strategies, the PRSA will probably work best for you. 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
To see the script for this interactive assessment, click here. To learn more about this assessment or to inquire about using it for your research, click here.
Early Childhood and Child Development
As we noted earlier, the development of self-regulation begins very early on. As soon as children are able to access working memory, exhibit mental flexibility, and control their behavior, you can get started helping them develop their self-regulation.
How to Teach and Develop Self-Regulation in Toddlers
So, you’re probably convinced that self-regulation in children is a good thing, but you might be wondering, “where to begin?”
If that captures your thought process, fear not! We have some tips and suggestions to get you started.
Here’s a good list of suggestions from Day2Day Parenting for supporting very young children’s (e.g., toddlers and preschoolers) self-regulation:
Provide a structured and predictable daily routine and schedule
Change the environment by eliminating distractions: turn off the tv, dim lights, or provide a soothing object (like a teddy bear or photo of Mom) when you sense a child is becoming upset
Role play with the child how to act or what to say in certain situations
Teach and talk about feelings and review home/classroom rules regularly
Allow children to let off steam by creating a quiet corner with a small tent or pile of pillows
Encourage pretend play scenarios among preschoolers
Stay calm and firm in your voice and actions even when a child is “out of control”
Anticipate transitions and provide ample warning to the child or use picture schedules or a timer to warn of transitions
Re-direct inappropriate words or actions when needed
In the classroom or at playgroups pair children with limited self-regulatory skills with those who have good self-regulatory skills as a peer model
Take a break yourself when needed, as children with limited self-regulatory skills can try an adult’s patience (Thrive Place, 2013)
15 Activities and Games for Kindergarten and Preschool Children
You can also use games and activities to help young children build their self-regulation skills. Check out the resources listed below for some fun and creative ideas for kindergarten and preschool children.
Classic Games
We titled these the “Classic Games” because they are popular, well-known games that you are probably already familiar with. Luckily, they can also be used to help your child develop self-regulation!
If you haven’t already, give these a try:
Duck Duck Goose
Hide and Seek
Freeze Tag
Musical Chairs
Mirror Mirror
Some further suggestions come from Your Therapy Source website, with descriptions of the games and activities as well (2017):
Red Light, Green Light – kids move on the green light and stop on the red light. Don’t get caught moving on the red light
Mother May I – one child is the leader. The rest of the children ask: “Mother May I take….” a certain number of steps, hops, jumps, or leaps to get to the leader. The leader approves or disapproves of the action
Freeze Dance – turn on music. When the music stops, the children have to freeze
Follow My Clap – The leader creates a clapping pattern. Children have to listen and repeat the pattern
Loud or Quiet – Children have to perform an action that is either loud or quiet. First, pick an action, i.e., stomping feet. The leader says LOUD and the children stomp their feet loudly
Simon Says – Children have to perform an action only when the leader says, “Simon Says do…”. For example, if the leader says, “Simon Says touch your toes” then and all the children should touch their toes. If the leader just says, “Touch your toes,” no one should touch their toes because Simon didn’t say so
Body Part Mix Up – The leader will call out body parts for the children to touch. For example, the leader calls out “knees” and the children touch their knees. Create one rule to start. Each time the leader says “head” touch your toes instead of your head. This requires the children to stop and think about their actions and to not just react. The leader calls out “knees, head, elbow.” The children should touch their knees, TOES, and elbow. Continue practicing and adding other rules to change body parts
Follow the Leader – The leader performs different actions and the children have to follow those actions exactly
Ready, Set, Wiggle – The leader calls out Ready…Set…Wiggle and everyone wiggles their bodies. The leader calls out Ready…Set…Watermelon. No one should move. Leader calls out Ready…Set…Wigs. No one moves. Leader calls out Ready…Set…Wiggle. Everyone wiggles again. You can change this to whatever wording you want. The purpose is to have the children waiting to move until a certain word is said out loud
Color Moves – Explain to the children that they will walk around the room. They are to move based on the color of the paper you are holding up. Green paper means walk fast, yellow paper means regular pace, and blue paper means slow-motion walking. Whenever you hold up a red paper, they stop. Try different locomotor skills like running in place, marching, jumping, etc.
This list from The Inspired Treehouse also includes some good suggestions for other games you can play to calm an emotional or overwhelmed child while you’re out and about. You can find the list here.
Self-Regulation in Adolescence
As your child grows, you will probably find it harder (and less fun) to encourage continuing self-regulation skills. However, adolescence is a vital time for further development of these skills, particularly:
Persisting on complex, long-term projects (e.g., applying to college)
Problem-solving to achieve goals (e.g., managing work and staying in school)
Delaying gratification to achieve goals (e.g., saving money to buy a car)
Self-monitoring and self- rewarding progress on goals
Guiding behavior based on future goals and concern for others
Making decisions with broad perspective and compassion for self and others
Managing frustration and distress effectively
Seeking help when stress is unmanageable or the situation is dangerous (Murray & Rosenbalm, 2017)
To ensure that you are supporting your adolescent in developing these vital skills, there are three important steps you can take:
Teaching self-regulation skills through modeling them, providing opportunities to practice these skills, monitoring and reinforcing their progress, and coaching them on how, why, and when to use their skills
Providing a warm, safe, and responsive relationship in which your adolescent is comfortable with making mistakes
Structure the environment to make our adolescent’s self-regulation easier and more manageable. Limit opportunities for risk-taking behavior, provide positive discipline and 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
This leads to an important point: children reach another important stage in their self-regulation development when they begin attending school—and especially as school gets more challenging.
This is where Zimmerman’s Self-Regulated Learning Theory comes into play again. Recall that there are three times when self-regulation can aid the learning process:
Before the learning task is begun, when the student can consider the task, set goals, and develop a plan to tackle the task
During the task, when the student must monitor his own performance and see how well his strategies work
After the task, when the student can reflect back on their performance and determine what worked well, what didn’t, and what needs to change
Zimmerman encourages teachers to do the following three things at a minimum to help students continue to develop their self-regulation ability:
Give students a choice in task, method, study partner, etc. 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)
Strategies, Exercises, and Lesson Plans for Students in the Classroom
If you’re a teacher who is interested in implementing more techniques and strategies for encouraging self-regulation in your classroom, consider the resources and methods outlined below.
McGill Self-Regulation Lesson Plans
This resource from Canada’s McGill University includes several helpful lesson plans for building self-regulatory skills in students, including lessons on:
College & Career Competency Framework and Lessons
The self-regulation lesson plans from the College & Career Competency Framework detail nine separate lessons you can use to help your students continue to develop their skills. The lessons range from about 20 to 40 minutes each and can be modified or adapted as needed.
The lessons include:
Define Self-Regulation
Understand Your Ability to Self-Regulate by Taking the Questionnaire
Make a Plan
Practice Making a Plan
Monitor Your Plan
Make Changes
Reflect
Find Missing Components
Practice Self-Regulation
Click here to download this handy PDF for your own use.
This resource includes all the information you need to build effective strategies into your curriculum.
Finally, for a treasure trove of lesson plans, activities, and readings you can implement in your classroom, click here.
Access to this resource comes from Scott Carchedi at the School Social Work Network, and includes a student manual and four lesson plans:
Lesson on Emotional Regulation: “How Hot or Cold Does Your Emotional ‘Engine’ Run?”
Lesson on Self-Calming Methods: “Downshift to a Lower Gear, with Help From Your Body”
Lesson on Reframing Feelings Before Acting on Them: “Slow Down and Look Around You”
Lesson on Conflict Resolution: “Find the Best Route to Your Destination” (2013)
For each lesson, you can access the lesson plan and student activity (or activities) via Word and the student reading via PDF. Use these lessons to help your students boost their self-regulation skill development and adapt or modify them as needed.
Self-Regulation in Adults
Although much attention is paid to self-regulation in children and adolescents, as this is when those skills are developing, it’s also important to keep self-regulation in mind for adults as well.
Self-Regulation and Navigating the Workplace
For example, as you can imagine, self-regulation is extremely important in the workplace as well as in the classroom.
Self-regulation is what keeps you from yelling at your boss when he’s getting on your nerves, slapping a coworker who threw you under the bus, or more benign but still socially unacceptable behaviors like falling asleep at your desk or stealing someone’s lunch out of the fridge.
Those 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.
To help you effectively manage your emotions at work (and build them up outside of work as well), try these tips:
Do breathing exercises (like mindful breathing)
Eat healthy, drink lots of water, and limit alcohol consumption
Use self-hypnosis to reduce your stress level and remain calm
Exercise regularly
Sleep for 7 to 8 hours a night
Make time for fun outside of work
Laugh more often
Spend time alone
Manage your work-life balance (Connelly, 2012)
I know—those are very general tips! But it’s true that living a generally healthy life is key to reducing your stress, allowing you to keep your energy reserves maintained for self-regulation.
For more specific tips on building your self-regulation skills, read on!
33 Skills and Techniques to Improve Self-Regulation
There are many tips and tricks you can use as self-regulated learners to enhance your self-regulation skills. If you want to give it a shot, read through these techniques and pick one that resonates with you—then put it to good use!
Mindfulness
Cultivating the skill of mindfulness will improve your ability to maintain your moment-to-moment awareness, which in turn helps you delay gratification and manage your emotions.
Mindfulness has proven to be very effective in boosting conscious control over your attention, helping you regulate your negative emotions, and improving your executive functioning (Cundic, 2018).
Cognitive Reappraisal
This strategy can be described as a conscious effort to change your thought patterns. This is one of the main goals of the cognitive-based therapies (e.g., CBT, MBCT).
To build your cognitive reappraisal skills, you will need to work on changing and reframing your thoughts when you encounter a difficult situation. Adopting a more adaptive perspective to your situation will help you find the silver lining and help you manage emotion regulation and keep negative emotions at bay (Cundic, 2018).
Cognitive self-regulation has been found to be positively correlated with social functioning as well. It involves the cognitive abilities we use to integrate different learning processes that will also help us support all our personal goals.
8 Ways to Improve Self-Regulation
This list comes from the Mind Tools website but can be found in this PDF from Satya Kline at CultivatingConnection.org. It outlines 8 methods and self-regulation strategies you can use to build your skills, including:
Leading and Living with Integrity: being a good role model, practicing what you preach, creating trusting environments, and living in alignment with your values
Being Open to Change: challenge yourself to deal with change in a straightforward and positive manner and work on improving your ability to adapt to different situations and stay positive through it all
Identifying Your Triggers: cultivating a sense of self-awareness will help you learn what your strengths and weaknesses are, and what can trigger you into a difficult state of mind
Practicing Self-Discipline: commit to taking initiative and staying persistent in working towards your goals, even when it’s the last thing you feel like doing
Reframing Negative Thoughts: work on your ability to take a step back from your own thoughts and feelings, analyze them, and come up with positive alternative thoughts
Keeping Calm Under Pressure: practice keeping your cool by removing yourself from the situation for the short-term—whether mentally or physically—and using relaxation techniques like deep breathing
Considering the Consequences: when you are faced with a strong temptation towards “bad” behavior, stop and think about the consequences (e.g., what happened in the past, what is likely to happen now, what this behavior could trigger in terms of longer-term consequences)
Believing in Yourself: boost your self-efficacy by working on your self-confidence; focus on the experiences in your life where you succeeded and keep your mistakes in perspective. Choose to believe in your own abilities and surround yourself with positive, supportive people (Kline, n.d.)
Self-Regulation Strategies: Methods for Managing Myself
This handy table from Jan Johnson at Learning in Action Technologies lists 23 positive strategies we use to self-regulate, both alone and in relationships.
They are categorized into two groups: “Positive or Neutral” and “Negative or Neutral.” Check out some examples in each column and think about where your most frequently-used self-regulating learning strategies fall on the chart.
For example, in the upper-left quadrant (“Alone Focus, Positive or Neutral”), strategies include:
Consciously attend to breathing, relaxing
Exercise
Movement
Awareness of body sensations
Attending to care for my body, nutrition
Meditation and prayer
Self-expression: art, music, dance, writing, etc.
Caring, nurturing self-talk
Laughing, telling jokes
Positive self-talk (“I can,” “I’m sufficient” messages)
Go inside with intentional nurturing of self
Under the “Relationship – Focus on Other, Positive or Neutral” category, strategies include:
Seeking dialogue and learning
Playing with others
Sharing humor
Moving towards the relationship to learn (mutual inquiry)
Desire and/or movement toward collaboration
Intentionally honoring or celebrating the other/calling attention to the other
Finally, the strategies under the “Relationship – Focus on Self, Positive or Neutral” category include:
Acknowledge what I said or did and any truth in it
Humor
Move towards the relationship to learn
Desire for collaboration
Inquire about impact
Intentionally honor or celebrate me (throw myself a party)
To see the rest of these strategies, click here (clicking the link will trigger a download of the PDF).
Activities and Worksheets for Training Self-Regulation (PDF)
If you’re a teacher, parent, or adult who works with children, this section offers some great resources for helping you and/or the children in your care develop greater self-regulation.
Self-Regulation in the Classroom
This worksheet is a handy tool for teachers to implement in the classroom. It can be used to help students assess their level of self-regulation and find areas for improvement.
It lists 23 traits and tendencies for the students to rate as “Always”, “Sometimes”, or “Not So Much”:
Ready and prepared for each activity (pencils, books?)
Participate in small and large group activities
Complete work on time
Remain on task
Follow the classroom rules and routines
Ask for help at appropriate times
Remain in the seat as requested
Wait for your turn
Refrain from speaking out of turn
Complete tasks to the best of your ability
Work consistently without warnings
Put your hand up for questions and or answers
Cooperate with others
Accept feedback appropriately
Review your work for completion and errors regularly
Answer requests politely
Use appropriate language
Follow directions and comply with requests
Ignore distractions
Organize belongings
Attempt to solve problems independently first
Keep hands and feet to yourself
Use appropriate voice tone
You can see this worksheet here.
Emotion Regulation Skills
This handout can be useful for both adults and older children and teens. It describes some of the main strategies and skills you can implement to keep your emotions under control.
The handout covers four main strategies:
Opposite Action: doing the opposite of what you feel like doing
Check the Facts: looking back over your experiences to learn the facts of what happened, like the event that triggered a reaction, any interpretations or assumptions made, and whether the response matched the intensity of the situation
P.L.E.A.S.E.: this acronym stands for treat physical illness (PL), eat healthy (E), avoid mood-altering drugs (A), sleep well (S), and exercise (E). All of these behaviors will help you maintain control of your emotions
Paying Attention to Positive Events: keeping your focus on the positive aspects of an experience instead of the negative; try engaging in a positive activity and keeping yourself open to the good things
You can download this handout here.
Handouts: Emotional Regulation, Social Sills, & Problem Solving
This entry on the list is really a bonus—it includes several worksheets and handouts you can use as a teacher, parent, or therapist with the children in your care.
It includes worksheets and handouts like:
Wally’s Problem-Solving Steps, which helps children learn how to problem-solve
Tiny’s Anger Management Steps, to help kids figure out how to deal with their anger
It also includes helpful worksheets for teachers to complete in order to enhance their ability to help students develop better self-regulation skills.
Click here to download this useful PDF.
Further Resources, Interventions, and Tools
If you’re still hungry for more information on self-regulation, there are tons of resources available on the subject. Check out the sources listed below.
Self-Regulation Chart and Checklist (PDF)
Aside from the worksheets and handouts noted earlier, there are two other handy tools to use with kids: the self-regulation chart and the self-regulation checklist.
This self-regulation chart is for the parents and/or teacher to complete, but it is focused on the child. It states 30 skills related to emotional regulation and instructs the adult to rate the child’s performance in each area on a 4-point scale from “Almost Always” to “Almost Never.”
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
You can find the self-regulation chart and checklist at this link.
Another type of chart that can help students with their self-regulation development is the behavioral self-regulation chart.
This chart is intended for students to fill 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?
Now that we’re familiar with self-regulation, it’s easy to see the processes at work here. Completing this chart will encourage your child or student to monitor their feelings and behavior, identify the consequences, evaluate their response, and come up with modifications or brand-new strategies to try out next time.
Click here to find a sample of this chart.
A good self-regulation checklist will help your child or student assess their self-monitoring and keep their goal of self-regulation in mind.
This checklist from PediaStaff is a good example. It poses the following two Yes/No questions to students and leaves space for them to summarize their weekly performance and check it against their goal:
Was I paying attention to my assigned work?
Was I following the classroom rules?
For each school day, the students should evaluate their performance. At the end of the week, have them add up the “Yes” responses and compare it to their goal. This will get them in the habit of monitoring and assessing their own performance and reflect on their performance.
Book: The Zones of Self-Regulation
If you spend any time poking around the self-regulation literature or talking to others about it, you’re bound to run into mentions of The Zones of 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” (Kuypers, n.d.).
This book describes the Zones of Regulation curriculum, including lessons and activities you can use in the classroom, in your therapy office, or at home.
In this book, you will learn about the four zones:
Red Zone – extremely heightened states of alertness and intense emotions (e.g., rage, anger, devastation, terror)
Yellow Zone – a heightened state of alertness and elevated emotions (e.g., silliness, stress, frustration, “the wiggles”), but with more control than the Red Zone
Green Zone – calm state of alertness and regulated emotion (e.g., happy, focused, content, ready to learn)
Blue Zone – state of low alertness and down feelings (e.g., sad, sick, tired, bored)
In addition, you will learn how to apply the Zones model to help your children, students, or clients build their emotional regulation skills.
You can learn more about this book here.
Handbook of Self-Regulation: Research, Theory, and Applications
For a more academic-minded look at self-regulation, you might want to give this handbook a try.
This edited volume from researchers Kathleen D. Vohs and Roy F. Baumeister offers a comprehensive look at the theory of self-regulation, the research behind it, and how it can be applied to improve quality of life for all. It also covers how self-regulation is developed and shaped by experiences, and how it both influences and is influenced by social relationships.
Chapters on self-dysregulation (e.g., addiction, overeating, compulsive spending, ADHD) explore what happens when self-regulation skills are not developed to an adequate level.
If you’re a student, researcher, academic, a helping professional, or an aspiring helping professional, you won’t regret investing your time and energy into reading this book and familiarizing yourself with this important topic.
Click here to see the book on Amazon.
A Take Home Message
I hope you’ve enjoyed our journey through the theories, findings, and significance of self-regulation! It’s truly an important topic for everyone to consider, although parents and educators may find it to be even more vital than others.
The skills involved in self-regulation are necessary for achieving success in life and reaching our most important goals, as well as having a big impact on our overall well-being.
What do you think of self-regulation theory? Does it make sense to you? What are your strategies for boosting your own self-regulation? What about your strategies for building it in children?
Let us know in the comments section below or continue reading this piece on positive mindset.
Thanks for reading!
WE LOVE THIS ARTICLE and the self-regulation philosophy and method. We stand by our commitment to inspire and support you to have personal responsibility for your health, wellness and happiness. We offer a unique, integrative, therapeutic approach that takes in to account the WHOLE PERSON, and we listen to your needs, connecting you to resources and groups from around Edmonton and the health care community to help you develop a self-regulation plan that you love and appreciate.
This article originally appeared on positivepsychologyprogram.com and was written by Courtney Ackerman
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