Psychological research on self-control—the forgoing of immediate rewards in favor of global goals—focuses largely on how people monitor and control their thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Comparatively less work has examined the regulation of motivational states. This is surprising given the motivational roots of self-control dilemmas: people desire an immediate reward on the one hand, but also recognize that this reward precludes the ability to attain higher-priority concerns on the other. We describe an emerging perspective that highlights the monitoring and control of one's motivational states; i.e., metamotivation. We distinguish this approach from similar approaches (e.g., cognitive control, emotion regulation) and review initial supporting empirical results. Studying metamotivation is essential if we are to gain a comprehensive understanding into the questions of who, when, and why people succeed or fail at self-control.

中文翻译：

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元动机：自我控制中动机的调节


关于自我控制的心理学研究——放弃即时奖励，转而支持全球目标——主要关注人们如何监控和控制自己的思想、感受和行为。研究动机状态调节的工作相对较少。考虑到自我控制困境的动机根源，这是令人惊讶的：人们一方面渴望立即获得奖励，但另一方面也认识到这种奖励妨碍了实现更高优先级关注的能力。我们描述了一种新兴的观点，强调对一个人的动机状态的监控和控制；即元动机。我们将这种方法与类似的方法（例如认知控制、情绪调节）区分开来，并回顾了最初的支持性实证结果。如果我们想全面了解谁、何时以及为何人们在自我控制方面成功或失败，那么研究元动机至关重要。