Review Tabla De Abstract Resumen Contenido
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Revista Argentina de Ciencias del Comportamiento ISSN 1852-4206 Conceptual and methodological approaches to the study Diciembre 2020, Vol. 12, N°3, 13-31 of Self-Regulation: An inquiry within Developmental revistas.unc.edu.ar/inde Science x.php/racc Nachon, Juan Ignacio*, a; Segretin, María Soledada y Lipina, Sebastián Javiera Review Tabla de Abstract Resumen Contenido The present work intends to thoroughly identify theoretical Abordajes conceptuales y metodológicos en el Introduction 13 and practical applications of self-regulation (SR) in estudio de la autorregulación: una revisión en Methods 15 contemporary developmental research, by reviewing las ciencias del desarrollo Study design 15 conceptual and operational definitions of SR, in addition to El presente trabajo se propone identificar y Search 15 the methods and instruments used to assess it in empirical ahondar exhaustivamente en la aplicación strategy, data studies. 468 scientific articles with cumulative evidence contemporánea del concepto de la sources and from the last two decades of research were included (142 autorregulación (SR), incluyendo los métodos que extraction reviews and 326 original research articles). Using a mixed- se utilizan para evaluarlo en el campo de la Data analysis 16 methods approach based on grounded theory methodology, psicología y la neurociencia cognitiva del Results 16 the main theoretical and methodological aspects involved in desarrollo. Para ello, se revisaron 468 artículos Discussion 26 the definition and operationalization of SR were reviewed. científicos que acumulan evidencia de las últimas Acknowledgments 28 Results point towards a growing consensus in the décadas de investigación en el área. Los References 28 conceptual definition of SR, which emphasizes the resultados apuntan hacia un creciente consenso interrelation of emotional and cognitive control, goal- en las definiciones conceptuales, en torno a la oriented activity, physiological and interpersonal processes. interrelación multidimensional de procesos de Empirical research often considers to diverse biologic, regulación emocional, regulación cognitiva, behavioral and social features in the operationalization of actividad orientada a fines, esfuerzo conciente, the concept, making use of report scales, performance procesos interpersonales y fisiológicos. Los tasks and, to a lesser extent, physiological and abordajes operacionales presentan la observational measurements. consideración de diversos fenómenos de índole biológica, comportamental y social, haciendo uso de herramientas para evaluar la SR en distintos contextos del desarrollo y a lo largo del ciclo vital. Entre los instrumentos más frecuentemente utilizados se encuentran medidas de reporte, pruebas de desempeño y, en menor medida, medidas fisiológicas y observaciones estructuradas. Keywords: self-regulation, self-control, relational Palabras clave: autorregulación, autocontrol, developmental systems, review. sistemas relacionales del desarrollo, revisión. Recibido el 25 de Octubre de 2019; Aceptado el 28 de marzo de 2020 Editaron este artículo: Raquel Peltzer, Paula Abate, Sebastián Leonangeli y Sofia Sambre Introduction At the beginning of the present millennium, decades later, efforts made towards this goal by Posner & Rothbart (2000; 2007) identified the researchers stepping from multiple disciplinary comprehensive study of self-regulation (SR) as a backgrounds have condensed into a considerable mayor objective for advancing an understanding of body of published works, which grows more development and psychopathology. Nearly two voluminous with each passing year. aCentro de Educación Médica e Investigaciones Clínicas “Norberto Quirno” (CEMIC-CONICET), Unidad de Neurobiología Aplicada, Buenos Aires, Argentina. *Enviar correspondencia a: Nachon, J. I. E-mail: [email protected] Citar este artículo como: Nachon, J. I., Segretin, M. S. y Lipina, S. J. (2020). Conceptual and methodological approaches to the study of Self-Regulation: An inquiry within Developmental Science. Revista Argentina de Ciencias del Comportamiento, 12(3), 13-31 13 Nachon, J. I., Segretin, M. S. y Lipina, S. J. / RACC, 2020, Vol. 12, N°3, 13-31 In a broad sense, SR stands for the ability to theoretical order, and that disagreements in how to direct one’s thoughts, attention, behavior and define self-regulatory constructs generates emotions in order to achieve goals (Vohs & confusion that hinders the coherent integration of Baumeister, 2016). The capacity to exercise this body of knowledge (Cervone, Shadel, Smith, control over motor, emotional and other cognitive & Fiori, 2006). In this sense, it is important to processes develops as a result of complex mention that systematic review-based efforts have interactions between an individual’s genetic already been put into action by developmental endowment and its life experiences (Bell & Deater- psychopathologists in order to assess conceptual Deckard, 2007; Blair & Raver, 2012). relations between different theoretical constructs Developmental science focuses in describing, (Nigg, 2017). In addition, an interesting meta- explaining and optimizing intraindividual changes analysis on the convergent validity of in adaptive developmental regulations, as well as heterogenous self-control measures was the interindividual differences in such relations, published almost ten years ago (Duckworth & across life (Lerner, 2012). Since developmental Kern, 2011). science is especially compelled to understand What exactly is SR it and how do we measure phenomena characterized by adaptive co- it? The need to tackle these issues constitute the regulations among individuals and their rationale of the present work. Discerning the latest environments, it follows that interest in process- conceptual and methodological advancements in relational constructs such as SR should be this matter would enable the reassessment of how significant. The use of the term process (i.e., the developmental scientists study SR, and thus ordered succession of acts), in the context of achieve a better understanding of how societies developmental science reflects the adoption of an eventually could benefit from their insights. epistemological stance, in which the fundamental Contemporary research paradigms in categories employed for the analysis of developmental science have been shaped developmental phenomena are change and extensively by philosophical debates on the process, as opposed to stasis and substance concept of agency, systems theory and by which derive from classic Cartesian reductionism technical breakthroughs in the field of (Overton, 2015). In this process-relational view, neurobiology (Lerner, 2018). The identification of the historical and physiological events that several mechanisms involved in neural plasticity, constitute developmental change for either a stress physiology and the development of single organism or a whole community are attentional networks has sparked support for the conceived as a a set of complex transformational integration of cognitive and temperamental processes through which fundamental features of psychobiological models (Rueda, Posner, & the dynamic systems relate, differentiate and Rothbart, 2005; Williams et al., 2008). While move towards dialectic integration (Sameroff, perspectives on temperament and personality tend 2010). Therefore, from this perspective, SR (in all to emphasize the relative rank-order stability of of its conceptual variants) will be referred to as a self-regulatory traits over time and across process or as series of interdependent processes. contexts, cognitive frameworks usually underscore SR has been pointed out as an important the idea that SR encompasses adaptive processes aspect of people´s behavioral adaptation to the and that the executive function components can demands of their social and physical be trained and influenced by contextual factors environments, by means of different emotional (Bornstein et al., 2015). During infancy and early skills, the ability to delay gratification and to childhood, children gradually acquire the SR skills comply with social norms, goal-directed cognitive and strategies necessary to cope with a variety of control, linguistic and mathematical reasoning, developmental challenges, thus gaining autonomy, among other competences that appear to be control and separate identities from their relevant for academic performance and caregivers (Calkins & Fox, 2002; Posner & optimization in multiple areas of functioning, Rothbart, 2007). across cultures (Eisenberg & Sulik, 2012; Lerner, Further on, researchers usually employ 2018). Still, there remains much debate on how to external behavioral measures as proxies to study define and measure SR. Some authors consider internal regulatory processes. Coding systems for that scientific literature in this area lacks direct observation, controlled performance tasks, 14 Nachon, J. I., Segretin, M. S. y Lipina, S. J. / RACC, 2020, Vol. 12, N°3, 13-31 self-reports, as well as caregiver and teacher the design of interventions and development questionnaires are the most common tools found policy. in basic and applied research. However, each type Methods of instrument has often been designed for specific purposes and may carry inherent strengths and Study design limitations (Duckworth & Yeager, 2015; McCoy, Scientific articles on the typical development of 2019). For instance, scales designed for clinical or SR in human populations, published either in experimental settings are often considered