608 
Self- regulation is the primary means by 
which people direct their behavior in service 
of their goals. Goals, by their nature, are 
states of being that people desire but have 
not attained. These may include achieve -
ments such as graduating from college, 
changes to personal characteristics such 
as weight loss, or meeting standards of be -
havior such as routinely following rules of 
etiquette. Goal pursuit typically takes the 
form of activity aimed at reducing the gap 
between the current state and a desired state 
with respect to some achievement, person -
al characteristic, or behavioral standard, 
though it occasionally involves increasing 
the gap between the current state and some 
undesired state (e.g., financial dependence 
on parents) or maintaining the current state 
(e.g., optimal body weight). Goal pursuit 
can take as many forms as there are goals, 
people pursuing those goals, and conditions 
under which pursuit is enacted. For that 
reason, self-  regulation encompasses a broad 
array of cognitive, emotional, motivational, 
and behavioral processes and strategies.
The array of psychological structures 
and processes encompassed by models of 
personality is similarly broad. Although 
traditional structural models of personal -
ity such as the Big Five (John, Chapter 2, 
this volume) offer nearly complete cover -age of the broad array of personality traits, 
they do not readily connect to models of 
self- regulation. Process-  oriented extensions 
of those models (e.g., De  Young, 2015; Mc -
Crae & Costa, 1996) and models such as 
the cognitive–  affective personality system 
(Mischel & Shoda, 1995) reveal the ways 
in which accounting for self-  regulatory 
processes can enrich models of personality. 
Likewise, acknowledging the role of person -
ality in cognition, emotion, motivation, and 
behavior can inform and extend models of 
self- regulation.
In this chapter, we explore the intercon -
nection of self-  regulation and personality. 
We begin with a sketch of the self-  regulation 
domain space, which encompasses the array 
of psychological structures and processes im -
plicated in self-  regulation. Rather than com -
mit to a single model of self-  regulation, we 
offer a broad and integrative sketch, thereby 
ensuring that we do not miss a point of con -
tact between self-  regulation and personal -
ity. Next, we review connections between 
personality and self-  regulation. We begin 
by considering links between prominent 
personality perspectives and self-  regulation. 
We then review a set of traits that capture 
individual differences in preferences and 
styles related to self-  regulation. We conclude 
with a discussion of the conceptual benefits CHAPTER 28
Self‑Regulation and  Personality
Rick H. Hoyle  
Erin K. Davisson