心理科学 ›› 2025, Vol. 48 ›› Issue (3): 698-706.DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20250318

• 社会、人格与管理 • 上一篇    下一篇

调节定向对自我控制的影响机制*

欧阳益**   

  1. 湖南科技大学教育学院,湘潭,411201
  • 出版日期:2025-05-20 发布日期:2025-05-30
  • 通讯作者: **欧阳益,E-mail: ouyangyipsy@163.com
  • 基金资助:
    *本项目得到湖南省教育规划课题(XJK23BXL001)资助

The Influence Mechanism of Regulatory Focus on Self-Control

Ouyang Yi   

  1. School of education, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, 411201
  • Online:2025-05-20 Published:2025-05-30

摘要: 已有研究发现促进较预防定向下常有更好的自我控制,但尚不确定这是否源于更强的抑制控制。这一研究采用两个认知冲突加工实验来揭示调节定向对自我控制的影响机制。结果发现,与预防定向相比,促进定向下对冲突刺激的反应时更短(实验1)反应正确率更高(实验2),但两种调节定向下的冲突干扰效应并无显著差异。这表明促进定向下更好的自我控制主要源于增强了对目标信息的认知监测,而不是抑制控制;在抑制能力不变的条件下也可以提升自我控制,这对发展有效的控制策略具有重要启示。

关键词: 自我控制, 调节定向, 冲突加工

Abstract: Self-control is self-regulation under conditions of conflict and interference. The regulatory focus theory indicates that promotion and prevention focus are two relatively independent approaches in the process of pursuing goals. Studies have showed that promotion-focused individuals tend to exhibit better self-control than prevention-focused individuals. Some researchers equate self-control with inhibitory control. Based on this, it is assumed that more cognitive effort is needed to perform control tasks in the promotion focus than in the prevention focus. However, other studies have suggested that inhibitory control is one of the important components of self-control, and that better self-control does not necessarily require more cognitive effort.
In this study, two experimental tasks were used to investigate the influence of regulatory focus on conflict processing. Both experiments were designed with within-subjects. In Experiment 1, 77 college students (35 males), aged 18 - 28 years (M = 22.78, SD = 1.98), performed a cognitive processing response task in randomized prevention focus, promotion focus, and neutral conditions. The task requires participants to react to the color of the ring outside the color word (where the meaning and the color of the words are congruent). The color of the ring being congruent with the color of the word is the congruent stimulus, and the incongruent is the conflict stimulus. The results showed that compared to prevention focus, the accuracy rate of conflict stimulation under promotion focus was the same, but the response time was shorter; under prevention and promotion focus, the interference effect did not differ in both accuracy rate and reaction time.
In Experiment 2, 106 college students (42 males), aged 18 - 28 years (M = 22.85, SD = 1.87), performed a color-word Stroop dual task (which required the subjects to name the color or read the meaning of congruent or incongruent color-words according to task cues) under randomly arranged prevention and promotion focus conditions. The results showed that, compared to prevention focus, the reaction time to the conflict stimulus in promotion focus was shorter and the accuracy rate was higher; under the two conditions, the interference effect did not differ in accuracy rate and reaction time.
The above two studies found that, compared to prevention focus, although the responding speed was faster in Study 1 and the responding accuracy rate was higher in Study 2 when processing conflict information, the interfering effects of conflict were no different in either response accuracy rate or responding speed. These results suggest that inhibitory control is not the reason for the better self-control in promotion than in prevention focus. We propose that better cognitive monitoring of target information in promotion than in prevention focus may be an important reason for the improvement of self-control efficacy. The potential reasons are as follows: (1) promotion-focused individuals are more sensitive to target information than prevention-oriented individuals; (2) enhanced monitoring of target information does not need to consume control resources; and (3) enhanced monitoring of target information is conducive to reducing cognitive conflict and negative task execution experience.
This study has important implications for the development of effective control strategies. First, when performing tasks requiring self-control, the promotion strategy of "specifying what to do" will be more effective than the prevention strategy of "limiting what not to do". Second, when facing difficult tasks or suffering serious ego depletion, designing task situations with a promotion focus or utilizing incentives in promotion focus can still improve self-control to some extent.
This study has some limitations. First, we did not control the variable of trait regulatory focus when examining the influence of state regulatory focus on conflict processing. In addition, the proportion of male subjects is small, and there may be gender differences in trait regulatory focus, so the influence of trait regulatory focus on the experimental results cannot be excluded.

Key words: self-control, regulatory focus, conflict processing