Self-Regulatory Phases [and Procrastination]

Self-regulatory processes have been classified into the following three phases:

1. Forethought phase – comprises the “processes and beliefs that occur before efforts to learn.” ^​1​ This includes:
   1. Task analysis – goal setting and strategic planning.
   2. Self-motivation – includes: ^​2​
      1. Self-efficacy
      2. Outcome expectations
      3. Intrinsic interest
      4. Goal orientation
2. Performance phase – encompasses the “processes that occur during behavioral implementation.”^​1​ This includes:
   1. Self-control – the ability to successfully follow through with the plans and strategies decided on during the forethought phase^​1​
   2. Self-observation – the observing, recording, and investigating of ones choices and actions during goal pursuit ^​1​
      1. Includes self-monitoring – the “cognitive tracking of personal functioning”^​1​
3. Self-reflection phase – the “processes that occur after each [goal-oriented] effort.”^​1​ This includes:
   1. Self-judgement, which includes:
      1. Self-evaluation – evaluating ones self against “some standard, such as one’s prior performance, another person’s performance, or an absolute standard of performance”^​1​
      2. Causal attribution – “beliefs about the cause of one’s errors or successes”^​1​ i.e., due to levels of fixed ability vs. due to controllable processes and strategies
      3. Self-reaction, which includes:
         1. Self-satisfaction – level of positive feelings towards oneself in relation to the goal^​1​
         2. Defensive/adaptive responses –
            1. Defensive reactions – “efforts to protect one’s self-image by withdrawing or avoiding opportunities to learn and perform, such as dropping a course or being absent for a test”^​1​
            2. Adaptive responses – changing one’s behavior in response to newly acquired experience, “such as discarding or modifying an ineffective learning strategy.”^​1​

Failures of task initiation has been associated with difficulties in each of these stages.^​1​

For example, procrastination has been associated with “deficient time management and goal setting skills […] and low levels of self-efficacy” (forethought phase), low perseverance and “high susceptibility to social temptations” (performance phase), and a tendency “to make external and global attributions [of causality] regardless of whether their performance was a success or not” (self-reflection phase).^​1​

Sources: