This volume pulls together research on several aspects of the self. One set of chapters deals with the importance of building a self based on authenticity and "Who I really am."; a second group deals with the ways in which we defend views of the self as positive and powerful; a third group is concerned with multiple aspects of self regulation. Each of the chapters is a well-written, non-technical description of an important, currently active research program.

The ability to regulate and control our behaviors is a key accomplishment of the human species, yet the psychological mechanisms involved in self-regulation remain incompletely understood. This book presents contributions from leading international researchers who survey the most recent developments in this fascinating area. The chapters shed new light on the subtle and often subconscious ways that the people seek to regulate their thoughts, feelings and behaviors in everyday social life. The contributions seek answers to such intriguing questions as: How can we improve our ability to control our actions? How do people make decisions about which goals to pursue? How do we maintain and manage goal-oriented behavior? What happens when we run out of self-regulation resources? Can we match people and the regulatory demands of to specific tasks so as to optimize performance? What role does self-regulation play in sports performance, in maintaining successful relationships, and in managing work situations? The book offers a highly integrated and representative coverage of this important field, and is suitable as a core textbook in advanced courses dealing with social behavior and the applications of psychology to real-life problems.

​How can people master their own thoughts, feelings, and actions? This question is central to the scientific study of self-regulation. The behavioral side of self-regulation has been extensively investigated over the last decades, but the biological machinery that allows people to self-regulate has mostly remained vague and unspecified. Handbook of Biobehavioral Approaches to Self-Regulation corrects this imbalance. Moving beyond traditional mind-body dualities, the various contributions in the book examine how self-regulation becomes established in cardiovascular, hormonal, and central nervous systems. Particular attention is given to the dynamic interplay between affect and cognition in self-regulation. The book also addresses the psychobiology of effort, the impact of depression on self-regulation, the development of self-regulation, and the question what causes self-regulation to succeed or fail. These novel perspectives provide readers with a new, biologically informed understanding of self-awareness and self-agency. Among the topics being covered are: Self-regulation in an evolutionary perspective. The muscle metaphor in self-regulation in the light of current theorizing on muscle physiology. From distraction to mindfulness: psychological and neural mechanisms of attention strategies in self-regulation. Self-regulation in social decision-making: a neurobiological perspective. Mental effort: brain and autonomic correlates in health and disease. A basic and applied model of the body-mind system. Handbook of Biobehavioral Approaches to Self-Regulation provides a wealth of theoretical insights into self-regulation, with great potential for future applications for improving self-regulation in everyday life settings, including education, work, health, and interpersonal relationships. The book highlights a host of exciting new ideas and directions and is sure to provoke a great deal of thought and discussion among researchers, practitioners, and graduate-level students in psychology, education, neuroscience, medicine, and behavioral economics.

This Handbook explores the cognitive, motivational, interpersonal, clinical, and applied aspects of personal uncertainty. It showcases both the diversity and the unity that defines contemporary perspectives on uncertainty in self within social and personality psychology. The contributions to the volume are all written by distinguished scholars in personality, social psychology, and clinical psychology united by their common focus on the causes and consequences of self-uncertainty. Chapters explore the similarities and differences between personal uncertainty and other psychological experiences in terms of their nature and relationship with human thought, emotion, motivation, and behavior. Specific challenges posed by personal uncertainty and the coping strategies people develop in their daily life are identified. There is an assessment of the potential negative and positive repercussions of coping with the specific experience of self-uncertainty, including academic, health, and relationship outcomes. Throughout, strategies specifically designed to assist others in confronting the unique challenges posed by self-uncertainty in ways that emphasize healthy psychological functioning and growth are promoted. In addition, the contributions to the Handbook touch on the psychological, social, and cultural context of the new millennium, including concepts such as Friedman’s "flat world," confidence, the absence of doubt in world leaders, the threat of terrorism since 9/11, the arts, doubt and religious belief, and views of doubt as the universal condition of humankind. The Handbook is an invaluable resource for researchers, practitioners, and senior undergraduate and graduate students in social and personality psychology, clinical and counseling psychology, educational psychology, and developmental psychology.

Emotion regulation has traditionally been conceived as a deliberative process, but there is growing evidence that many emotion-regulation processes operate at implicit levels. Implicit emotion regulation is initiated automatically, without conscious intention, and aims at modifying the quality of emotional responding. This special issue showcases recent advances in theorizing and empirical research on implicit emotion regulation. Implicit emotion regulation is pervasive in everyday life and contributes considerably to the effectiveness of emotion regulation. The contributions to this special issue highlight the significance of implicit emotion regulation in psychological adaptation, goal-directed behavior, interpersonal behavior, personality functioning, and mental health.

Timely and authoritative, this volume reviews the breadth of current knowledge on the self-conscious emotions and their role in psychological and social functioning. Leading investigators approach the subject from multiple levels of analysis, ranging from basic brain mechanisms to complex social processes. Chapters present compelling advances in research on the most fundamental self-conscious emotions: embarrassment, guilt, humiliation, pride, and shame. Addressed are neural and evolutionary mechanisms, developmental processes, cultural differences and similarities, and influences on a wide array of social behaviors and personality processes. A unique chapter on assessment describes and evaluates the full range of available measures.

Social and emotional aspects of schooling and the learning environment can dramatically affect one's attention, understanding, and memory for learning. This topic has been of increasing interest in both psychology and education, leading to an entire section being devoted to it in the third edition of the International Encyclopedia of Education. Thirty-three articles from the Encyclopedia form this concise reference which focuses on such topics as social and emotional development, anxiety in schools, effects of mood on motivation, peer learning, and friendship and social networks. - Saves researchers time in summarizing in one place what is otherwise an interdisciplinary field in cognitive psychology, personality, sociology, and education - Level of presentation focuses on critical research, leaving out the extraneous and focusing on need-to-know information - Contains contributions from top international researchers in the field - Makes MRW content affordable to individual researchers

This book tackles a subject that has captured the imagination of many researchers in the field: attitudes. Although the field has always recognized that people‘s attitudes could be assessed in different ways, from direct self-reports to disguised observations of behavior, the past decade has shown several new approaches to attitude measurement. Des

This is the first major volume dedicated to the processes by which people exaggerate their virtues, deemphasize their shortcomings, or protect themselves against threatening feedback. Leading investigators present cutting-edge work on the key role of self-enhancing and self-protective motives in social perception, cognition, judgment, and behavior. Compelling topics include the psychological benefits and risks of self-enhancement and self-protection; personality traits and contextual factors that make certain individuals more likely to hold distorted views of the self; innovative approaches to assessment and measurement; and implications for relationships, achievement, and mental health.

Research and theory on self-esteem have flourished in recent years. This resurgence has produced multiple perpectives on fundamental issues surrounding the nature of self-esteem and its role in psychological functioning and interpersonal processes. Self-Esteem Issues and Answers brings together these various perspectives in a unique format. The book is divided into five sections. Section I focuses on core issues pertaining to the conceptualization and assesment of self-esteem, and when self-esteem is optimal. Section II concentrates on the determinants, development, and modifiability of self-esteem. Section III examines the evolutionary significance of self-esteem and its role in psychological processes and therapeutic settings. Section IV explores the social, relational, and cultural significance of self-esteem. Finally, Section V considers future directions for self-esteem researchers, practitioners, parents and teachers. This volume offers a wealth of perspectives from prominent researchers from different areas of psychology. Each expert contributor was asked to focus his or her chapter on a central self-esteem issue. Three or four experts addressed each question. The result is that Self-Esteem Issues and Answers provides a comprehensive sourcebook of current perspectives on a wide range of central self-esteem issues.