ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that self-regulation is an important factor to consider when explaining the problems the Sam Munros are facing. It describes what self-regulation is and how it is relevant for Sam, Judy, their relationship, and their family. Self-regulation helps people to actively monitor their efforts and engage in behavior that helps them to attain their goals. There are individual differences in the extent to which people possess self-regulation capacities. People with higher levels of self-regulation are generally better able to move away from undesired endstates and inhibit undesirable behavior and to move towards desired endstates by enacting desirable behaviour. Self-regulation can thus be seen as a trait; some people are dispositionally better at regulating their behavior than others, and this may partly be passed on over generations via nature and nurture. Self-regulation is thus vital for relationship functioning, but relationship functioning in turn is also an important predictor of self-regulatory ability.
