Self-regulation (Early Exit for Exchange Students) (paid version for the professional)

Course goals

The entire course will be taught in English. This also includes assignments and exams.

The goal of this course is to familiarize students with fundamental issues in the area of self-regulation, motivation, and emotion. Topics include basic self-regulatory processes such as goal setting and goal striving, self-control, and self-knowledge and facilitating and disruptive factors that influence self-regulatory processes, such as motivation, emotion (regulation) and coping, habits and automatic influences. Strategies for improving self-regulation will also be discussed. Importantly, all these topics are focused on health and health behavior. The course consists of lectures (knowledge) and tutorials with assignments (knowledge and skills) that together serve as preparation for the exam.

After this course students should be able to:

• Understand the basic theories, different dimensions, key concepts, current debates, and important facilitative and disruptive factors in the domain of self-regulation, with a specific focus on self-regulation in health behaviors.
• Critically use scientific psychological literature on current scientific and societal debates on self-regulation, motivation, or emotion.
• Know how to assess and measure self-regulation.

 
The first goal will be assessed in a written exam at the end of the course testing students’ knowledge and understanding of the literature and lectures. The last two goals will be assessed with assignments during the course.
 

Content

You absolutely enjoy delicious food but you also absolutely want a slim figure? You have a hang-over and you swear that you will never drink this much again, yet at the next party you drink too much anyhow? You want to quit smoking, you know all the disadvantages of this bad habit, and still, you cannot get yourself to the point of actually stop smoking… All these topics are related to self-regulation and self-control.