The Role of Hedonic Goal Pursuit in Self-Control and Self-Regulation: Is Pleasure the Problem or Part of the Solution?

Motivational dynamics of self-control

How people respond to desires varies substantially across time and situations. Building on recent theoretical developments, we propose that motivation plays a central role in the dynamics of self-control as it unfolds across time. We illustrate the role of motivation in self-control by highlighting evidence that pursuing goals for intrinsic (vs. extrinsic) reasons plays a key role in shaping when and how people engage in self-control in service to their goals. We then expand this framework by outlining several promising directions for future research, specifically emphasizing the dynamic interplay between motivation and self-control at various stages in the regulation process. Ultimately, we posit that motivation is a key factor in helping people flexibly regulate desires in accordance with situational demands.

An Integrative Framework for Capturing Emotion and Emotion Regulation in Daily Life

When studying emotion and emotion regulation, typical approaches focus on intrapersonal processes. Although this emphasis clarifies what transpires within a person, it does not capture that much of emotional experience and regulation occurs between people. In this commentary, we highlight how the Cognitive-Affective Processing System (CAPS) approach-originally developed by Mischel and Shoda and extended to dyadic interactions by Zayas, Shoda, and Ayduk-can provide a unifying framework for understanding the complexity of everyday affective experiences. We discuss how this framework can be fruitfully applied to the study of emotion and emotion regulation broadly, and particularly to interpersonal emotion regulation, by considering both the mediating psychological processes within individuals, as well as the behavioral processes that transpire between individuals. To illustrate these points, we discuss some of the thought-provoking work in the special double issue on the Future of Affective Science edited by Shiota et al. (2023), and we offer forward-thinking suggestions and propose future research directions informed by the CAPS approach. By employing the CAPS framework, we can better capture the complexity of everyday affective experiences and synthesize the growing body of research in affective science.

Expanding the Scope of Diverse Contexts in Affective Science

The Future of Affective Science special issue covered a broad range of topics, ranging from the valuation and experience of emotions to their expression and regulation. Despite the breadth of these topics, consideration of diverse contexts was limited in that most studies relied on Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) samples and/or failed to explore the rich diversity present in those countries with vast population heterogeneity. We argue that a more systematic approach is essential to advance theory and research on how diverse contexts impact and interact with different components of emotion processes. Specifically, future research should compare a wider range of cultures; examine the interplay between culture, individual, and situation; and transcend the traditional Eastern/Western or WEIRD/non-WEIRD dichotomy and other group comparisons by embracing a dimensional approach to diverse contexts. We provide concrete examples of how leveraging these three approaches to expand the scope of diverse contexts can benefit the future development of affective science, a field heavily impacted by sociocultural context.

Emphasizing the Social in Social Emotion Regulation: A Call for Integration and Expansion

The Future of Affective Science Special Issues illuminate where the field of Affective Science is headed in coming years, highlighting exciting new directions for research. Many of the articles in the issues emphasized the importance of studying emotion regulation, and specifically, social emotion regulation. This commentary draws on these articles to argue that future research needs to more concretely focus on the social aspects of social emotion regulation, which have been underexplored in affective science. Specifically, we discuss the importance of focusing on social goals, strategies and tactics, and outcomes relevant to social emotion regulation interactions, more closely considering these processes for all individuals involved. To do so, we draw on research from neighboring subdisciplines of psychology that have focused on the social aspects of interactions. Moreover, we underscore the need to better integrate components of the process model of social emotion regulation and approach empirical inquiry more holistically, in turn illuminating how piecemeal investigations of these processes might lead to an incomplete or incorrect understanding of social emotion regulation. We hope this commentary supplements the research in the special issues, further highlighting ways to advance the field.

Happy Hour: The association between trait hedonic capacity and motivation to drink alcohol

The (over)consumption of alcohol and other addictive substances is often conceptualized as a problem of low self-control (i.e., people's inability to inhibit unwanted impulses). According to that view, people drink because they cannot resist. In the present studies, we approached this from a different perspective and tested whether alcohol consumption might also be a problem of low hedonic capacity (i.e., people's inability to experience pleasure and relaxation, often due to intrusive thoughts). According to that view, people drink because it helps them enjoy or cope with negative thoughts or emotions. In two studies among individuals at low risk of harmful alcohol use (e.g., AUDIT < 7) we consistently found that trait hedonic capacity was unrelated to alcohol consumption but negatively related to coping motivation (drinking alcohol to cope with negative thoughts and feelings; Study 1: N = 348; Study 2: N = 302, preregistered). Exploratory analyses in study 2 (conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic) also showed that people with low, but not high, trait hedonic capacity drank more alcohol in response to stress. Our findings are in line with the notion that people's drinking motivation and behavior might not only be a problem of poor self-control but also of low trait hedonic capacity. They align with a new direction in addiction prevention and treatment research, which explores ways to help people to seek out and savor hedonic experiences from non-drug related reinforcers (e.g., engaging in leisure activities).

The Future of Affective Science: Introduction to the Special Issue

Modern affective science-the empirical study of emotional responding and affective experience-has been active for a half-century. The Future of Affective Science special issue considers the history of this field and proposes new directions for the decades ahead. Contributors represent diverse theoretical perspectives, methodological expertise, and domains of study, and the special issue includes both literature reviews and new empirical studies as illustrations. This introductory article synthesizes the contributions, articulating the broader context of the current status of our field and highlighting common themes across articles as well as gaps notable even in this special issue. Sections of the article address theoretical and conceptual issues, research methodology, the questions we ask, and translation of basic affective science to applied domains. We conclude that much has been learned from the first 50 years of affective science, and it is now time for new theories, new research questions, and innovative methods for the decades ahead.

Synergistic Opportunities for Affective Science and Behavior Change

Behavior change can be challenging to facilitate and achieve. Behavior change frameworks largely focus on social cognitive determinants, omitting affective determinants or including them in a superficial way. However, evidence points to the role of affect in decision-making and behavior, particularly when the behavior at focus for change is affectively pleasant or when the behavior to be facilitated is affectively unpleasant. This paper identifies challenges and opportunities to further affective science by using behavior change as a context and, relatedly, to further the science of behavior change by leveraging theoretical and methodological innovations in affective science.