This book presents current research on self-regulation and autonomy, which have emerged as key predictors of health and well-being in several areas of psychology.

Self-regulation and autonomy have emerged as key predictors of health and well-being in several areas of psychology. This timely volume brings together eminent scholars at the forefront of this research, which is taking place in disciplines including developmental psychology, developmental neuroscience, social psychology and educational psychology. The contributors present ideas and research findings on the development of self-regulation and autonomy, including their biological bases, antecedents and consequences. Editors Bryan W. Sokol, Frederick M. E. Grouzet and Ulrich Müller have shaped the volume's multidisciplinary perspective on self-regulation and autonomy to reflect the legacy of Jean Piaget, the trailblazing developmental psychologist whose work drew on a diverse body of research.

Alfred Mele examines the concept of self-control on its terms, followed by an examination of its bearing on one's actions, beliefs, and emotions. He considers how, by understanding self-control, man can shed light on autonomous behaviour.

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Challenging current notions in self-esteem literature, this volume offers new insights into efficacy, agency, and self-esteem as well as the influence of these constructs on psychological well-being. The contributions by prominent researchers contain substantial new theoretical and empirical research that focuses on a wide range of personality and motivational phenomena.

This volume presents the reader with a stimulating tapestry of essays exploring the nature of personal autonomy, self-determination, and agency, and their role in human optimal functioning at multiple levels of analysis from personal to societal and cross-cultural. The starting point for these explorations is self-determination theory, an integrated theory of human motivation and healthy development which has been under development for more than three decades (Deci & Ryan, 2000). As the contributions will make clear, psychological autonomy is a concept that forms the bridge between the dependence of human behavior on biological and socio-cultural determinants on the one side, and people’s ability to be free, reflective, and transforming agents who can challenge these dependencies, on the other. The authors within this volume share a vision that human autonomy is a fundamental pre-condition for both individuals and groups to thrive, and that without understanding the nature and mechanisms of autonomous agency vital social and human problems cannot be satisfactory addressed. This multidisciplinary team of researchers will collectively explore the nature of personal autonomy, considering its developmental origins, its expression within relationships, its importance within groups and organizational functioning, and its role in promoting to the democratic and economic development of societies. The book is aimed toward developmental, social, personality, and cross-cultural psychologists, towards researchers and practitioners’ in the areas of education, health and medicine, social work and, economics, and also towards all interested in creating a more sustainable and just world society through promoting individual freedom and agency. This volume will provide a theoretical and conceptual account of the nature and psychological mechanisms of personal motivational autonomy and human agency; rich multidisciplinary empirical evidence supporting the claims and propositions about the nature of human autonomy and capacities for self-regulation; explanations of how and why different psychological and socio-cultural conditions may play a role in promoting or undermining people’s autonomous motivation and well-being, discussions of how the promotion of human autonomy can positively influence environmental protection, democracy promotion and economic prosperity.

Many children and young people with poor school performance have a negative attitude towards study, as well as demotivation and unsuitable habits. But it is required of students an increasingly autonomy in learning, although what is intended, in the background, is to develop in these capacities necessary so that they can continue their lifelong learning. In this sense, it is important to know the various structuring and dynamic components in the educational situation, and how they influence each other. The conscious reflection on these dynamics is what allows parents, teachers and educators, in general, to help children, teenagers, and even adults in the learning process, and in learning with autonomy and self-critical capacity, thus obtaining satisfactory results along that route and also throughout their adult life.

The Handbook of Personality and Self-Regulation integrates scholarly research on self-regulation in the personality, developmental, and social psychology traditions for a broad audience of social and behavioral scientists interested in the processes by which people control, or fail to control, their own behavior. Examines self-regulation as it influences and is influenced by basic personality processes in normal adults Offers 21 original contributions from an internationally respected group of scholars in the fields of personality and self-regulation Explores the causes and consequences of inadequate self-regulation and the means by which self-regulation might be improved Integrates empirical findings on basic personality traits with findings inspired by emerging models of self-regulation Provides a comprehensive, up-to-date, and stimulating view of the field for students and researchers in a wide range of disciplines

Using an innovative framework, this book provides the rationale, strategies, and tools to create optimal blended language learning courses.

As I begin to write this Preface, I feel a rush of excitement. I have now finished the book; my gestalt is coming into completion. Throughout the months that I have been writing this, I have, indeed, been intrinsically motivated. Now that it is finished I feel quite competent and self-determining (see Chapter 2). Whether or not those who read the book will perceive me that way is also a concern of mine (an extrinsic one), but it is a wholly separate issue from the intrinsic rewards I have been experiencing. This book presents a theoretical perspective. It reviews an enormous amount of research which establishes unequivocally that intrinsic motivation exists. Also considered herein are various approaches to the conceptualizing of intrinsic motivation. The book concentrates on the approach which has developed out of the work of Robert White (1959), namely, that intrinsically motivated behaviors are ones which a person engages in so that he may feel competent and self-determining in relation to his environment. The book then considers the development of intrinsic motiva tion, how behaviors are motivated intrinsically, how they relate to and how intrinsic motivation is extrinsically motivated behaviors, affected by extrinsic rewards and controls. It also considers how changes in intrinsic motivation relate to changes in attitudes, how people attribute motivation to each other, how the attribution process is motivated, and how the process of perceiving motivation (and other internal states) in oneself relates to perceiving them in others.