Self-Regulation Theory: How Optimal Adjustment Maximizes Gain

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The author's self-regulation theory explains how people optimise their adjustments in order to maximise their gains toward getting what they want from their environments. It describes the reciprocal effects of human adjustment and environmental change. The interaction among what regulators expect, how they choose, and what they do affects and is affected by optimal and sub-optimal environmental contingencies. Although self-regulation theory is consistent with current behavioural, cognitive and cognitive-behavioural models of adjustment, it goes beyond them by describing the problem-solving and solution-doing mechanisms that lead to optimal adjustments and maximal gains. This permits the theory to predict relationships between self-regulated gain towards goal attainment and the consequences of goal attainment. Although the conclusions do not contradict generally accepted views, they challenge current perspectives on how to define and analyse the problem of adaptation. By separating the mechanism of self-regulation from the environmental effect it produces, we can examine the unique contribution of the self-regulating system to its own success or failure. Also, by defining environmental optimalities from the perspective of the regulator, we can assess how the same menu of environmental opportunities changes from being sub-optimal to optimal as a function of the regulator's success in adjusting.

Reviews

.,."the theory as presented is readily testable and will surely prompt research in the future. Advanced undergraduate through faculty."-Choice
...the theory as presented is readily testable and will surely prompt research in the future. Advanced undergraduate through faculty.-Choice
..."the theory as presented is readily testable and will surely prompt research in the future. Advanced undergraduate through faculty."-Choice

Author Bio

DENNIS E. MITHAUG is Professor and Chair, Department of Special Education, at Teachers College/Columbia University. He is the author of Self-Determined Kids: Raising Satisfied and Successful Children (1991), Prevocational Training for Retarded Students (1981), and Vocational Training for Mentally Retarded Adults (1980), and other books and journal articles.