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Current issues and new directions in Psychology and Health: The costs and benefits of self-regulation – a call for experimental research

Theories of emotional self-regulation are increasingly prominent in health psychology. The term self-regulation generally refers to the process of adjusting cognitive, affective and behavioural responses in order to attain personal goals (Maes & Karoly, 2005). In health psychology, research has typically focussed on the role of goals in determining health behaviours (de Ridder & de Wit, 2007). We believe that a broader application of selfregulation theories would advance our knowledge about cognitive, affective and behavioural responses to illness (used here broadly to refer to symptomatic and nonsymptomatic disease, physical disorder, or associated suffering). Central in our view is the idea that ill health interferes with the pursuit of one’s personal goals and of the goals of relationally significant others. This goal interference promotes attempts to remove barriers to goal pursuit and/or to reduce the distress associated with goal failure. Although these ideas have an intuitive appeal, and have attracted some empirical support, the literature is dominated by questionnaire-based studies and cross-sectional designs. In line with previous editorials (Michie, Rothman, & Sheeran, 2007; Yardley & Moss-Morris, 2007), we argue that incorporating experimental research into health psychology is a critical developmental step that will help in adequately testing theoretical models of selfregulation.