Meet the Researcher Series - Prof. Deirdre O'Shea

Self-regulation

Self-regulation refers to how we manage ourselves, including our actions, thoughts, emotions and motivation. Self-regulation has been identified as a key psychological construct that contributes to human success across the full range of human striving. Deficits in self-regulation can result in procrastination, poor performance, maladaptive coping strategies, and poor stress management in work contexts.

Self-regulation is amenable to interventions to increase it, and so, it represents one of the best ways for psychology to make a broad, positive contribution to human welfare. I first investigated self-regulation in entrepreneurs during my PhD. Entrepreneurs have a lot of autonomy and have to manage all the stresses and worries associated with starting up a business, and so, being able to self-regulate or self-manage their work is very important for their success.

One of the key contributions I made from this research was to develop a theoretical framework that integrates how we self-regulation our work goals and actions, with how we regulate our emotions and our motivation for work. Since then, I have applied this theory of self-regulation to work-related well-being, various work behaviours such as proactive behaviour, taking initiative, speaking up, and to wrong-doing in organisations. I have also investigated the role of self-regulation in interpersonal processes such as how we manage the emotions of others and the impact that has on trust, or maladaptive behaviours such as incivility and workplace aggression.

What research projects have you been involved in?

I have conducted a lot of research with foundations in self-regulation and specifically have looked at what workers can do on a daily basis to decrease their stress, improve their well-being, their motivation and their ability to do their work better. In particular, I have focused on designing and evaluating interventions that promote self-regulation skills in various ways, including interventions that help to change the way we think about work (e.g., through focusing on the positive meaning of work, practicing mindfulness), changing the way we feel about our work (e.g., developing emotion regulation skills such as reappraisal and through practicing gratitude). 

I have worked with organisations in both the public and private sector to help employees develop such skills. Most recently, my team and I conducted research with colleagues from the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Germany on a self-regulation intervention for hybrid workers. The increase in hybrid working presents challenges for developing policies to ensure the wellbeing of hybrid working employees and the EU has identified self-regulation (e.g., initiative, persistence, adaptability) as essential skills for future workplaces (European-Commission, 2016). In this intervention we wanted to support professionals who work in a flexible manner to make their work health-promoting and effective.

Why is this research important/research impact?

41.7 million employees teleworked across the EU in 2021, double the numbers in 2019. This huge increase in hybrid/teleworking presents challenges for developing policies and practices both at national and EU levels to ensure the mental health and wellbeing of hybrid working employees is addressed. Going forward, regulatory frameworks will need to clarify occupational psychosocial safety and health liabilities and responsibilities in relation to new ways of working, such as hybrid working (ILO, 2019).Thus, it is extremely important that we have evidence-based, implementable interventions that draw on robust theory and research. This can help to inform policy and organisational practice, both nationally and internationally. 

What’s next?

Self-regulation is not just important in workplace contexts. There is a lot of evidence that it is beneficial in medical and health contexts also. I’m very excited that we are just starting a new project funded by the EU, called SHIELD – Strategic Health Initiatives for Effective Disease Prevention. This project will focus on empowering patients with early-diagnosis conditions to manage their health effectively. Utilising the power of AI, SHIELD will create a model for health risk identification and categorisation, a feedback and self-monitoring tool for both individuals and clinicians, and an evidence-based behavioural change intervention delivered through an app. It is this part that my team in UL will focus on. Behaviour change is difficult to maintain, and how we motivate and encourage people to adapt their lifestyle and behaviours in order to reduce their risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease is not well understood. We’re going to use cutting-edge insights from the psychology of motivation to develop interventions that will motivate behaviour change and help people to sustain these behavioural changes.