ABSTRACT
Self-regulation can be de ned as a coordinated sequence of actions that individuals use to satisfy their personally signi cant concerns and motives. It encompasses a whole system of psychological functions such as motivation, perception, volition/emotion, and goal-directed behavior. However, individuals are not born with the ability to coordinate these functions effectively without social support; they are initially dependent on the monitoring and regulating interventions of caregivers and acquire increasing levels of self-regulation in the course of ontogenesis. Hence, the term “selfregulation” describes the developed ability of a person to carry out these regulatory interventions in their own motivation, perception, emotion, and behavior autonomously without depending on the support of others (see Carver, 2004; Vohs & Baumeister, 2004). When such regulatory interventions refer speci cally to one’s own emotions, this is called emotion regulation (Campos, Campos, & Barrett, 1989; Campos, Frankel, & Camras, 2004; Cole, Martin, & Dennis, 2004; Gross & Thompson, 2007; Thompson, 1994). Hence, emotion regulation which a person applies to his or her own emotion can be understood as being just one particular form of self-regulation in the individual (see later).
