Knowledge and Flexible Implementation of Construal Level in Self-Regulation

尽管他们的意图是最好的，但人们往往不能以与他们的重要目标和价值观一致的方式行事。人们的意图和行为之间的这些差异与一些最紧迫的社会问题有关，包括肥胖、药物滥用、歧视、攻击性和糟糕的财务决策。自我调节研究试图了解谁，什么时候，为什么有些人成功了-而其他人失败了-在他们的日常行为中实现他们的目标和价值观。这项研究的一个重要见解是，自我调节涉及许多不同的挑战，每一个挑战都必须以独特的方式加以解决。有时，自我调节需要思考超越当下的环境。举个例子，尽管学生们可能会被吸引去参加一个周末的社交聚会，但正是他们思考学习的遥远未来回报的能力推动了他们的学业目标。在其他时候，自我监管需要注意当前环境的细节。例如，校对印刷错误要求学生将注意力集中在手头任务的细节上。目前的工作旨在测试人们是否已经发展出独特的思维方式或心态，以帮助他们应对这两种类型的挑战，即高层次和低层次的挑战。重要的是，研究者测试了一个新的预测，即成功的监管需要灵活地将正确的心态与正确的挑战相匹配。也就是说，知道什么时候进入哪种心理心态可能是一些人能够实现目标而另一些人不能的关键原因。这些研究考察了人们对在不同情况下什么样的思维方式会促进他们的目标的信念。这些信念与研究表明的在这些情况下会改善和破坏自我调节的信念进行比较。特别是，研究人员测试了这样一种预测，即那些直观地知道研究揭示的自我调节的好坏的人将更好地实现目标。实验还检验了可能解释为什么有些人能够，而有些人不能，在正确的时间从事正确的思维方式的因素。例如，有些人可能在认知上更灵活--能够从多个角度思考同一事件--而其他人可能没有那么灵活。研究考察了认知灵活的个体在多大程度上更善于自我调节，因为他们有能力在任何特定时刻采用最有利的思维方式。为了检验这项工作的实际意义，一项实地研究测试了这些假设在多大程度上解释了学生在课堂上的表现。这样的环境是理想的，因为它是一个现实世界的情况下，已知提出了许多自我监管的挑战。了解促进自我调节的因素可能会刺激制定新的干预措施和政策，提高人们按照其价值目标行事并最终实现其价值目标的能力。

Despite the best of their intentions, people often fail to act in a manner that is consistent with their important goals and values. These discrepancies between people's intentions and behavior have been implicated in some of society's most pressing problems, including obesity, substance abuse, discrimination, aggression, and poor financial decision-making. Self-regulation research attempts to understand who, when, and why some succeed--and others fail--in realizing their goals and values in their every day behavior. One important insight from this research is that self-regulation involves a number of distinct challenges that must each be addressed in unique ways. At times, self-regulation requires thinking about circumstances that extend beyond the immediate here-and-now. To illustrate, although students might be tempted to attend a week-night social gathering, it is their ability to think about the distant future rewards of studying that advances their academic goals. At other times, self-regulation requires attention to the details of the present context. Proof-reading for typographical errors, for example, requires students to narrowly focus their attention on the specifics of the task at-hand. The present work aims to test if people have developed unique thinking styles or mindsets that are tuned to help them address each of these two types of challenges--namely, high-level and low-level construal. Critically, the investigator tests the novel prediction that successful regulation requires flexibly matching the right mindset to the right challenge. That is, knowing when to engage in which psychological mindset may be the key reason why some people are able to attain their goals, and others are not.These questions are explored in six studies. The studies examine people's beliefs about what kinds of thinking will promote their goals under different circumstances. Those beliefs are compared to what research indicates will improve versus undermine self-regulation in those situations. In particular, the investigator tests the prediction that those who intuitively know what research reveals to be good versus bad for self-regulation will be better at attaining goals. Experiments also examine the factors that might explain why some are able, and others not, to engage in the right kinds of thinking styles at the right time. For example, some people may be more cognitively flexible--able to think about the same event from multiple perspectives--whereas others may not be so flexible. Studies examine to what extent cognitively flexible individuals may be better at self-regulation because of their ability to adopt the most advantageous thinking style at any given moment. To examine the practical implications of this work, a field study tests to what extent these hypotheses explain students' performance in a classroom context. Such a context is ideal in that it is a real-world situation known to present numerous self-regulation challenges. Understanding the factors that promote self-regulation may spur the development of new interventions and policies that enhance people's ability to behave in line with and eventually attain their valued goals.