Self-regulation: Brain, cognition, and development

As humans, we self-regulate whenever we adapt our emotions and actions to situational requirements and to internalized social standards and norms. Self-regulation encompasses skills such as paying attention, inhibiting reflexive actions, and delaying gratification. We need self-regulation for navigating every aspect of life. This book presents self-regulation as a crucial link between genetic predisposition, early experience, and later adult functioning in society. Individual chapters examine what self-regulation is, how it functions, how genetic and environmental factors influence its development, how it affects social and academic competence in childhood and adulthood, what pathologies can emerge if it is underdeveloped, and how it might be fostered in children. Part of the Human Brain Development Series edited by Michel I. Posner, this book will appeal to developmental psychologists, developmental neuroscientists, educational psychologists, and educational practitioners interested in the link between brain sciences and education.