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Table of Contents
Definition
Self-regulation is the ability to develop, implement, and flexibly maintain planned behavior in order to achieve one’s goals. 1Aubrey, L. L., Brown, J. M., & Miller, W. R. (1994). Psychometric properties of a self-regulation questionnaire (SRQ). Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 18, 429 (Abstract). For example, you want to lose the excess fat you have gained due to years of a bad lifestyle. You may have a sedentary lifestyle. You may be eating a lot of fast food and junk. You may have minimum exercise. Now you want to lose your fat. This would need you to
- exercise more regularly.
- stop eating mindlessly,
- sleep in time,
- take less stress, and so on.
When you start bringing the changes in your lifestyle, in the initial phases, you would be super motivated and excited. However, you would require to adapt to the new lifestyle and change your lifestyle forever to live a healthy and happy life. This will require an immense amount of self-regulation. When your mind triggers you toward eating the same old junk, you would need to have that self-regulation to overcome the pressure to go back to the past lifestyle. When you start, you hardly have an idea if you have the self-regulation, also called self-discipline to withstand the challenge of the change.
Probable Use Cases
- De-addiction.
- Lifestyle changes.
- Patient adherence.
- Employee wellness and performance.
- General wellness.
- The resilience of force.
- Rehabilitation.
- Student performance.
- Sports.
And many other areas where it is important to evaluate whether the individual who has to plan, execute, measure, and adapt new changes in order to achieve something would actually be able to achieve it or not.
Factors that Challenges Self-Regulation
1. Receiving relevant information: Can you do structured research? Can you make good sense of the available or given information? can you talk to relevant people in gathering new information? Can you structure what sort of information you would be requiring? 2. Evaluating the information and comparing it to norms:ย Getting information only is part of the journey. One may receive advice, todos, tools, methods, tricks, and tips. Many times they may even be contradictory. Sometimes they may not be ideal. The ability to evaluate the information and then select the best ones for execution comes under evaluation. 3. Triggering change:ย This is your ability to actually trigger a change. Whether it is a new diet, a new route, or a new way of doing things. This is what is the first step of execution. You reject the way things are now and make a step towards a better future. 4. Searching for options:ย During your journey, you may face many roadblocks and may meet dead ends. For example, if you are running a startup and have not been able to raise funds, what are your other options? Can you explore those options and innovate new options? 5. Formulating a plan:ย A bad plan is better than a no plan. Planning is important to succeed even in the smallest areas of life. One who is able to plan things well is capable of going further than the others. 6. Implementing the plan:ย No matter how good your idea is, if you are not able to implement the plan, you will not be able to succeed. It is not enough to gather information and start a change. The journey will throw several challenges. It is your ability of you to sail through tough situations. 7. Assessing the plan’s effectiveness (which recycles steps 1 and 2): Anything that you can not measure, you can not improve. Do you have the ability to identify the right metrics and then the discipline to track the metrics and make the right changes to improve the metrics?
All the seven factors here are the metrics that will determine your success when you pursue a mission or a change. Rather than starting something and then realizing that you do not have it in you to cross the end line, test yourself.
About SRQ Tool
The Self-Regulation Questionnaire SRQ; (Brown, Miller, & Lawendowski, 1999)2Brown, J. M., Baumann, B. D., Smith, C. D., & Etheridge, S. L. (1997, July, 1997). Self-regulation, extroversion, and substance abuse among college students. Paper presented at the Research Society on Alcoholism, San Francisco, CA. Brown, J. M., Miller, W. R., & Lawendowski, L. A. (1999). The Self-Regulation Questionnaire. In L. VandeCreek & T. L. Jackson (Eds.), Innovations in clinical practice: A sourcebook (Vol. 17, pp. 281-289). Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Press. was developed as a first attempt to assess these self-regulatory processes through self-report. This tool was developed to test the resilience of those who were attempting rehabilitation through alcohol addiction. This is a tool that has been used for the last 20 years in various different areas successfully. Many researchers have used Brown and Miller’s self-regulation models to develop use cases and tested this across different population demography, geography, locale, etc. In most studies, the tool has been found to be extraordinarily effective in evaluating one’s self-regulation.
Accuracy and Validation of SRQ Tool
SRQ score was significantly and inversely correlated with volume of alcohol consumption per occasion (r = -.23, p = .04) and with negative consequences of drinking (r = -.46, p < .0001). That is, people with lower scores on the SRQ were more likely to be heavy and problem drinkers. The SRQ also significantly discriminated against individuals meeting diagnostic criteria for alcohol dependence (N = 32; lowest scores) from heavy drinkers not seeking treatment (N = 29; intermediate scores) and people without alcohol problems (N = 22; highest SRQ scores).3Brown, J. M., Baumann, B. D., Smith, C. D., & Etheridge, S. L. (1997, July, 1997). Selfregulation, extroversion, and substance abuse among college students. Paper presented at the Research Society on Alcoholism, San Francisco, CA. Brown, J. M., Miller, W. R., & Lawendowski, L. A. (1999). The Self-Regulation Questionnaire. In L. VandeCreek & T. L. Jackson (Eds.), Innovations in clinical practice: A source book (Vol. 17, pp. 281-289). Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Press.
ย Test-retest reliability for the total SRQ score was high (r = .94, p < .0001). Internal consistency of the scale was also quite high (ฮฑ = .91)
Clinical Usage
One of the key areas of concern in clinical practice is patient adherence. As per WHO, patient adherence must be 75-80% for an intervention to work. Unfortunately, due to a lack of self-regulation, the moment a patient starts feeling better, the adherence falls below 50%. That leads to severe long-term effects. One of the key changes you can bring is measuring your patients’ self-regulation and helping them improve patient compliance and adherence. This will improve your practice significantly by improving adherence.
Diagnosis, Screening, and Monitoring Use Cases
This test is not advisable to use in any diagnosis criteria. However, this can be used for following DSM-5 Screening Criteria Alcohol Intoxication F10.129 F10.229 F10.929 Alcohol Use Disorder F10.10 F10.20 And other addiction disorders starting from F1*.XX. However, it is important to note that we have found the validity and consistency of this instrument very low for Nicotine and Tobacco addiction disorders F17.200(DSM-V). Please correlate the clinical conditions and other standard tests for diagnosis. Follow DSM-5 or ICD-10 guidelines.
Non-Clinical Usage
This instrument is more of a self-assessment and self-reporting instrument. However, it may be overwhelming for any individual to interpret and understand the use cases due to various cross-psychological correlates. If coaches and mentors want to use this test for assessment, please make sure to guide the test takers. If you want to use the instrument, please read more about self-regulation.
What if My Self-Regulation Score Comes Low?
You can register for our personalized Self-Regulation improvement workshop/mentoring program. Read Lyfas storybook on 7 Steps of Self-Regulation for Free & Buy for โน9.99
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Disclaimer
This test is provided as-is. Acculi Labs Pvt. Ltd. and Lyfas take no responsibility for the harm arising from taking the test, including Hypochondriasis, mental trauma, and others. The results of this test can not be used as evidence in a court of law. No institutional, legal or disciplinary actions can be initiated based on the test results. Furthermore, we take no responsibility for the validity and accuracy of the test. This is adapted from the original SRQ. This is an anonymous test, and we do not capture your sensitive data that reveals your identity, including your name, GPS, mobile number, etc. However, we log your IP address along with the final test result(not individual answers). No medicine can be prescribed based on the results of this test. By taking the test, you agree to not hold Acculi Labs Pvt. Ltd. Bangalore and Lyfas are not responsible and liable for any damage or harm.
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References
- 1Aubrey, L. L., Brown, J. M., & Miller, W. R. (1994). Psychometric properties of a self-regulation questionnaire (SRQ). Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 18, 429 (Abstract).
- 2Brown, J. M., Baumann, B. D., Smith, C. D., & Etheridge, S. L. (1997, July, 1997). Self-regulation, extroversion, and substance abuse among college students. Paper presented at the Research Society on Alcoholism, San Francisco, CA. Brown, J. M., Miller, W. R., & Lawendowski, L. A. (1999). The Self-Regulation Questionnaire. In L. VandeCreek & T. L. Jackson (Eds.), Innovations in clinical practice: A sourcebook (Vol. 17, pp. 281-289). Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Press.
- 3Brown, J. M., Baumann, B. D., Smith, C. D., & Etheridge, S. L. (1997, July, 1997). Selfregulation, extroversion, and substance abuse among college students. Paper presented at the Research Society on Alcoholism, San Francisco, CA. Brown, J. M., Miller, W. R., & Lawendowski, L. A. (1999). The Self-Regulation Questionnaire. In L. VandeCreek & T. L. Jackson (Eds.), Innovations in clinical practice: A source book (Vol. 17, pp. 281-289). Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Press.