According to the textbook, what does it mean to be “self-regulated?”

What will be an ideal response?

Answer: For the authors of the textbook, being self-regulated means having the ability and maturity to be able to adjust our own behaviors and attitudes to the situation. They suggest a continuum from complete lack of motivation, or amotivation, that requires no regulation, to intrinsic motivation in which one’s regulation is wholly internal. An individual chooses activities and interests for the inherent satisfaction that they feel in doing them. Between amotivation and intrinsic motivation are four levels of extrinsic motivation. The highest, or closest to intrinsic motivation, is a level of extrinsic motivation that involves integrated regulation. In this state, the individual has internalized the goals and values of the externally imposed situation. Down from that level is identified regulation in which an activity is made into something personally meaningful through a process of rationalization: “I will enjoy this boring exercise because at some later date I will feel good about it.” In introjected regulation an individual has taken into themselves the means of control that used be to external and uses the guilt, anxiety, etc., that external agents used to use to motivate them. The lowest level is external regulation in which the individual is not motivated to do a task unless someone else forces them.