Protective Inhibition of Self-Regulation and Motivation: Extending a Classic Pavlovian Principle to Social and Personality Functioning

Abstract

Ivan Pavlov and his associates found during the 1950s that with increasing stimulus intensity, physiological arousal first increases up to a maximal point, and then decreases. Pavlov explained this pattern in terms of protective inhibition, a mechanism that protects the nervous system against excessive stimulation. In the present chapter, we extend this classic Pavlovian principle to the analysis of self-regulatory and motivational functioning in social life. To this end, we propose the protective inhibition of self-regulation and motivation (PRISM) model, which holds that sustained physiological activation invokes a protective mechanism that increases subjective effort and decreases perceived level of physiological and social coping resources. The PRISM model predicts nonlinear dynamics of energy mobilization over time, such that high activation and mobilization of resources will be followed by low mobilization of resources and increased fatigue. We review how the PRISM model may help to understand a wide range of social and personality phenomena that involve the expenditure of motivational and self-regulatory resources, such as ego depletion, effort mobilization, coping with stress, and regulation of cortisol and effort in depression. Finally, we discuss how PRISM implicates neural mechanisms to monitor the expenditure of resources and subjective effort. We suggest that the PRISM model may further advance our understanding of the biobehavioral foundations of self-regulation.