A NOVEL PERSPECTIVE: EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF-CONTROL AND GOAL-DIRECTED BEHAVIOR. A sequential mediation model.
Summary
This research is done as an extension of Gillebaart & Kroese’s research about selfcontrol, behavioral resistance and goal-directed behavior (2020). Their research concluded
that people with high self-control feel less resistance to performing goal-directed behavior.
This means that they are not necessarily better at inhibiting impulses or effortfully initiating
unpleasant activities, but they appraise them in a different way. The current research
introduces the regulatory focus theory as a potential mediator in this relationship. The
expectation is that experienced behavioral resistance in high/low trait self-control individuals
when performing goal-directed behaviors, such as healthy eating and exercise behavior, can
be explained by having a promotion focused orientation. A cross-sectional study was
conducted in which participants reported their level of self-control, regulatory focus,
behavioral and actual healthy eating and exercise behavior. A double mediation analysis was
performed in PROCESS (Hayes, 2012). Surprisingly, findings show that both for healthy
eating and exercise behavior, the relationship between self-control and goal-directed behavior
is not mediated by promotion focused orientation. Furthermore, a negative relationship
between self-control and promotion focused orientation and behavioral resistance and both
goal-directed behaviors exists. The lack of significant results may be attributed to limitations
such as inadequate reliability of the RFQ and the assessment methodology employed. The
predominance of students within the sample might have also influenced the outcomes
warranting caution in generalizing the findings. Future research should replicate these
findings to gain more knowledge about the relationship between self-control and behavioral
resistance with promotion focused orientation as a potential mediator.