title: Commentary: What's in a word (or words) - on the relations among self-regulation, self-control, executive functioning, effortful control, cognitive control, impulsivity, risk-taking, and inhibition for developmental psychopathology - reflections on Nigg (2017).
abstract: In Nigg's excellent article, he deals with a variety of complex conceptual issues related to the constructs of self-regulation and executive functioning (EF). Overall, I agree that the terminology proposed by Nigg should be adopted; moreover, the conceptual distinctions he provides should help the field to move forward with regard to the understanding of varied constructs related to self-regulation. In the spirit of further clarification, I questioned Nigg's suggestions that (a) working memory should be considered as part of the construct of top-down regulation and (b) planning is a higher level component of EF but not part of effortful control. In addition, I discussed my perspective on the role of automaticity in defining top-down versus bottom-up self-regulatory processes and the role of flexibility in top-down self-regulatory processes and their relation to personality resiliency.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Eisenberg
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior; D008297:Male; D011599:Psychopathology; D012309:Risk-Taking; D000068356:Self-Control
keywords: Self-control; emotion regulation; executive function; temperament; working memory