Self-Regulation Theory : How Optimal Adjustment Maximizes Gain

The author's self-regulation theory explains how people optimise their adjustments in order to maximise their gains toward getting what they want from their environments. It describes the reciprocal effects of human adjustment and environmental change. The interaction among what regulators expect, how they choose, and what they do affects and is affected by optimal and sub-optimal environmental contingencies. Although self-regulation theory is consistent with current behavioural, cognitive and cognitive-behavioural models of adjustment, it goes beyond them by describing the problem-solving and solution-doing mechanisms that lead to optimal adjustments and maximal gains. This permits the theory to predict relationships between self-regulated gain towards goal attainment and the consequences of goal attainment.