Introduction: Grounding self-regulation in the brain and body

Abstract

Self-regulation is a vital psychological process that allows people to guide their behavior in pursuit of their goals. This chapter introduces the present edited volume as the first state-of-the-art overview of biobehavioral approaches to self-regulation. We start by briefly discussing the origins and history of self-regulation research, which was rooted in social and cognitive psychology. Humans’ biological machinery and physiological processes have traditionally been neglected in self-regulation research, but fortunately this has changed over the past 10 years. The upsurge of interest in the biobehavioral foundations of self-regulation is reflected in the remaining 25 chapters of this book. These chapters highlight the involvement of the central nervous system, the autonomic and peripheral nervous system, and the interaction of both systems in self-regulation. The chapters are written by a selection of highly distinguished researchers in the field, and consider many different physiological systems and propose multiple theoretical perspectives. As such, this volume represents a starting point for readers to get a broad and diverse sampling of the field. We hope that the volume will stimulate scholars and practitioners to develop new ideas and applications on the biological processes that underlie the self-regulation of behavior.