Goal pursuit increases more after dietary success than after dietary failure: examining conflicting theories of self-regulation using ecological momentary assessment.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Maintaining a healthy body weight and reaching long-term dietary goals requires ongoing self-monitoring and behavioral adjustments. How individuals respond to successes and failures is described in models of self-regulation: while cybernetic models propose that failures lead to increased self-regulatory efforts and successes permit a reduction of such efforts, motivational models (e.g., social-cognitive theory) make opposite predictions. Here, we tested these conflicting models in an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) context and explored whether effort adjustments are related to inter-individual differences in perceived self-regulatory success in dieting (i.e., weight management).

Methods

Using linear mixed effects models, we tested in 174 diet-interested indi

SUBMITTER: van Alebeek H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10895756 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature