ABSTRACT
Self-regulation is the key to any changes that involve the self, whether people want to follow a diet, control their emotional outbursts, or avoid obsessive thoughts (cf. Baumeister & Alquist, Chapter 2, this volume). Thus, self-regulation involves impulse control, emotion control, thought control, and, finally, performance control. The latter will be the topic of the present chapter. The importance of self-regulation for performance is nowhere as obvious as in athletic performance; athletes need to maintain high levels of self-regulation for preparation as well as for execution of their performance. We want to focus on the aspects of self-regulation that are essential during execution. Aspects of self-regulation that are concerned with preparation, for example, delay of gratification as in denying oneself certain pleasures (greasy food), or ego depletion as in keeping constant control over oneself (regular exercise), are also of great interest. However, we will discuss the regulatory states and motivations that determine ongoing task performance.
