ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to discuss general approaches to understanding the role of personality in health-related self-regulation. Personality, selfregulation, and health are each associated with a large, diverse body of research. Therefore, to help focus our task, we have put the spotlight on personality. We begin with a very brief outline of the key elements of selfregulation. We then describe dispositional and social-cognitive perspectives on personality and discuss each in relation to health-related self-regulation. Although both approaches offer contributions to understanding selfregulation and health, our suggestion is that social-cognitive theory is more promising in this regard. In addition to discussing these general frameworks and associated personality constructs, we also examine the major methodological approaches involved, and discuss some of their limitations and potentials. We conclude by describing ways of extending existing models to further understand personality and health-related self-regulation.
