摘要：Self-regulation, or the ability of an organism to manage thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and delay gratification to achieve a longer-term objective, is thought to play a major role in human behavior and performance (Baumeister, 2002; Gailliot & Baumeister, 2007). Researchers have previously proposed various biological, psychological, and environmental factors that may affect an individual's capacity for self-regulation. Among them, Baumeister and colleagues proposed the strength model of self-regulation, in which self-regulation is thought to be a limited resource that is mediated by levels of blood glucose (Baumeister, Vohs, & Tice, 2007; Gailliot & Baumesiter, 2007; Gailliot et al., 2007). Research has supported this notion, as individuals' performance on laboratory tests of self-control decrease with subsequent self-control tasks when compared to control subjects (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Muraven, & Tice, 1998; Gailliot et al., 2007; Muraven, Tice, & Baumeister, 1998). Furthermore, researchers have demonstrated that tasks of executive functioning, such as the ability to plan and monitor behavior, self-reflect, and use logical reasoning, require self-regulation and that depletion of self-regulation can impair performance in these domains (Schmeichel, Vohs, & Baumeister, 2003).
In examining performance in sport, researchers have demonstrated a connection between the need for self-regulation and sport performance. For example, scholars in the field of sport psychology have provided evidence that an athlete's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are associated with high levels of sport performance (e.g., Gould, Dieffenback, & Moffet, 2002; Gould, Eklund, & Jackson, 1992a, 1992b; MacNamara, Button, & Collins, 2010a, 2010b), and exerting control over these responses requires self-regulation (Baumeister et al., 2007). Researchers have also reported that the ability to delay gratification, which is implicitly connected to one's self-regulatory abilities, is essential to elite performance in sport (Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer, 1993; Holt & Dunn, 2004; Wolfenden & Holt, 2005). Furthermore, as it relates to tasks of executive functioning, researchers have shown that attentional control, effective decision-making, planning and monitoring, and ongoing evaluation (Baker, Cote, & Abemethy, 2003; Ericsson et al., 1993; MacNamara et al., 2010a, 2010b; Massey, Meyer, & Naylor, 2013; Orlick & Partington, 1988) are characteristic of high-level performance amongst athletes.
