On Monitoring and Motivation in the Self-Regulation of Behaviour: The Roles of Self-Awareness, Self-Consciousness and Self-Determination in the Context of Dieting and Weight Management

Why are some goal pursuits more successful than others? What personal variables help achieve successful self-regulation? The goal of the present program of research is to investigate the relationships between two important components of effective self-regulation: motivation and monitoring. This dissertation suggests that an organismic approach to self-regulation such as self-determination theory (SDT) can supplement the view brought forward by control theory's (CT mechanistic self-monitoring system, by proposing that people may have different regulation styles based on their motivational orientation. More specifically, it is argued that SDT and CT may be in congruence with regard to general dispositional styles of monitoring and motivation, such that that public self-consciousness may be associated with a nonself-determined motivational orientation, while private self-consciousness may be associated with a self-determined motivational orientation. However, it is also argued that SDT and CT make different predictions with regard to the effects of situational manipulations of public and private self-awareness, and that these effects may influence people differentially based on their motivational orientation. It is hypothesized that: (a) conditions conducive to private self-awareness affect individuals with self-determined and nonself-determined motivational orientations differently as they become more aware of their respective personal style of behavioural regulation and their different personal goals (i.e., intrinsic versus extrinsic goals respectively), and (b) conditions conducive to public self-awareness create a controlling environment and lead individuals with both self-determined and nonself-determined motivational orientations to focus on self-presentation, their public image and the ways others perceive them. To test these ideas, a series of four studies is proposed to answer a progression of research questions using survey and laboratory methodologies. Results from a meta-analysis (Study I) and structural equation modeling (Study 2) reveal that private self-consciousness is associated with higher levels of global self-determination and that public self-consciousness is associated with lower levels of global self-determination, across various samples. Public self-consciousness and low global self-determination also appear jointly related to detrimental self-regulatory functioning such as setting goals that are incoherent with the self, while private self-consciousness and high global self-determination appear related to positive self-regulatory functioning such as setting goals that are coherent with the self (Study 2). Furthermore, findings suggest that a situational increase of private self-awareness has a strong impact on the self-regulatory functioning of individuals with low levels of global self-determination as they become more aware of their extrinsic goals and behave in coherence with these goals, but little impact on individuals with high levels of global self-determination as this condition matches their style of regulation and their behaviour is already in coherence with their intrinsic goals (Study 3). Conversely, a situational increase in public self-awareness appears to have a strong impact on the self-regulatory functioning of individuals with high levels of global self-determination, as this condition pressures them to adopt a different way to regulate their behaviour, but a weaker impact on individuals with low levels of global self-determination, as this condition corresponds to their style of regulation (Study 4). Overall, this program of research constitutes a notable contribution to the extant literature on self-monitoring, self-determination, and behavioural self-regulation. Findings suggest that people with different motivational orientations may have different regulation styles, and that these styles could dictate how self-monitoring affects their self-regulation