Possible Selves as Behavioral Standards in Self-regulation

Abstract

We investigated a potential mechanism by which possible selves affect behavior by considering them in the context of control-process models of self-regulation. After a hoped-for or feared self in the health domain was made salient, participants were provided with opportunities to behave in ways that would address any unwanted discrepancy between the salient possible self and the current self. In order to ensure that behavior was in the service of self-regulation, we compromised the self-regulatory capacity of some participants and, after the opportunity to behaviorally regulate, assessed negative affect. We expected evidence of behavioral self-regulation only for participants with adequate self-regulatory capacity and heightened negative affect in participants who did not behaviorally self-regulate. The results generally supported our hypotheses when a feared self in the health domain was made salient. We attribute the failure to find effects for a salient hoped-for self to the general lack of discrepancy between hoped-for and current selves in the health domain for university students. These findings extend past research on the role of possible selves in self-regulation by conceptualizing possible selves as a component in control-process models of behavioral self-regulation.

Keywords:

• Behavioral regulation
• Possible selves
• Regulatory depletion
• Self-discrepancy
• Self-regulation

Acknowledgments

During the writing of this article, Rick Hoyle was supported by grant P20-DA017589 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The authors thank Monica Harris for suggestions during the course of preparing the paper and Amanda Helbrecht, LeeAnn Kennedy, and Irene Su for assistance in data collection.

Notes

1. A survey of 22 undergraduates was conducted in order to determine the health concerns that were of the greatest importance to college students. Undergraduates were asked three things they could do to improve their health and three things they could do to prevent themselves from becoming unhealthy. The responses showed that undergraduates are primarily concerned with eating habits and exercising. Of the possible responses, 50% mentioned improving eating habits and an additional 33% mentioned improving exercise habits. Other responses included getting more sleep (7.5%), quitting smoking (4%) and addressing alcohol overuse (2%). Additionally, of the 22 undergraduates surveyed, 90.9% indicated they thought college students are concerned with exercise and diet/nutrition.

2. All analyses initially included main effects and interactions for gender. Only one main effect emerged, with females being more willing than males to indicate interest in the behavioral outcomes.

3. Although individuals who wrote about a hoped-for self regulated more when their resources were limited, this effect was not statistically reliable. An anonymous reviewer suggested that ego depletion may have led participants in the hoped-for condition to feel farther from their standards, thereby inducing regulatory processes among participants in this condition.