Self-regulation capacity allows individuals to manage their thoughts, feelings, and actions to attain personal goals (e.g., well-being and performance), as well as adjust to their changing social and physical environment (Zimmerman, 2000). Self-regulation as a positive adaptive skill and process has not been examined in relation to well-being in the context of medicine. The purpose of the current study was to examine self-regulation with 37 medical students and 25 supervising physicians to determine whether or not it may enhance well-being and performance, and reduce stress and burnout. A mixed-methods design was used to collect and analyze the data, and findings from the quantitative and qualitative phases were presented in two separate articles. Self-regulation capacity appears to be an important skill that may help both physicians and medical students to meet the demands of the medical profession and maintain an adequate level of well-being and performance in their work and daily life.

Physician well-being has become an important area of interest given that reduced well-being can have a negative effect on patient outcomes. However, research has predominantly focused on impairment thus studies addressing physicians' positive functioning are limited. The purpose of this two-phase, mixed methods study was to investigate the well-being and self-regulation capacity of physicians using a positive psychology lens. In Phase 1, 132 physicians (n = 40 physicians; n = 92 resident physicians) completed online questionnaires to assess their levels of psychological and affective well-being and self-regulation capacity. Selected based on Phase 1 data, 12 physicians then took part in an in-depth individual interview in Phase 2 to discuss their experiences of psychological well-being and self-regulation. Results of Phase 1 showed that physicians and resident physicians had moderate and high levels of self-regulation capacity, respectively. While both groups reported high levels of psychological well-being, they had average levels of positive and negative affect. MANOVAs confirmed the hypothesis that high self-regulating physicians and resident physicians would have higher levels of psychological well-being and positive affect compared to those with lower levels. However, those with higher self-regulation capacity did not have lower negative affect, nor did physicians have significantly higher levels of psychological and affective well-being than resident physicians. Regression analyses confirmed the hypothesis that a significant amount of variance in levels of psychological well-being would be explained by self-regulation capacity. There was a particularly strong relationship between self-regulation capacity and the dimensions of purpose in life and environmental mastery, which suggests that physicians who effectively self-manage may be better able to preserve a sense of purpose and an adequate work-life balance in their daily life. A qualitative content analysis of the Phase 2 qualitative data revealed that physicians had both high and low functioning experiences of psychological well-being across the dimensions of self-acceptance, positive relations with others, environmental mastery, and autonomy. They, however, reported high functioning for the dimensions of personal growth and purpose in life. Their experiences also varied based on their professional and personal life contexts, with work-life balance emerging as a prevalent theme. Physicians' self-regulation experiences involved individualized preparation, performance, and evaluation processes that were perceived to influence their well-being. Results of a composite analysis suggest that the development of effective self-regulation skills could be one way to help physicians achieve satisfactory levels of well-being.

Physical activity (PA) offers numerous physical and mental health benefits. Unfortunately, most people struggle to lead an active lifestyle, particularly when they are concurrently striving to balance other pursuits that may interfere with their engagement in PA. The self-regulatory strategies of action planning (AP) and coping planning (CP) have been proposed as a means of helping people initiate and maintain PA, though inconsistent findings have been observed to this effect. The primary objectives of the present dissertation, achieved by way of two original articles, were to (a) review the extant planning for PA literature in order to summarize and synthesize knowledge in the area to date, and (b) examine AP and CP in relation to more than one goal at a time, while testing the relevant moderator of academic goal conflict. The first article comprised a meta-analysis of correlational (k = 19) and experimental (k = 21) studies on planning for PA, which revealed a medium-to-large summary effect for correlational studies, and a small summary effect for experimental studies. Furthermore, AP and CP emerged as partial mediators in the relation between behavioural intention and PA. Numerous moderators were also found. Among other key findings, this article cast light on the fact that, despite multiple goal pursuit being the rule rather than the exception, most studies reviewed examined a single goal in isolation. Further, the summary effects found were more modest than expected and highly heterogeneous, pointing to the value to testing relevant moderators. Thus, the second article contained two studies that examined the moderating role of academic goal conflict on the relations between AP and CP with PA using samples of university students concurrently pursuing an academic and a PA goal. Study 1 (N = 317) used a 6-week prospective design, and Study 2 (N = 97) used a 1-week daily diary design and measures of self-reported PA behaviour and goal progress. Across both studies, it was found that academic goal conflict moderated the influence of planning on PA outcomes. AP and CP were found to play differential roles in predicting PA when students were experiencing goal conflict: AP related to better PA outcomes at lower levels of academic goal conflict, whereas CP related to better PA outcomes at higher levels of academic goal conflict. These two self-regulatory strategies appear to play a different, yet complementary role in the goal pursuit process. Overall, the present dissertation contributes to knowledge synthesis in the area of planning for PA. In addition, novel research findings are presented which specifically target identified gaps in the literature. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications are discussed, and future research avenues are proposed.

Mental health has become increasingly important on post-secondary campuses across Canada, as the majority of university students represent the cohort of the Canadian populace that is most vulnerable to mental illness, substance abuse, and suicide. Evidence suggests that student-athletes, a visible and diverse sub-population of university students, are at equal risk of experiencing a mental illness (Reardon & Factor, 2010), but could be even more vulnerable to mental health challenges than their non-athlete peers (Neal et al., 2013; Watson & Kissinger, 2007), given the additional demands and pressures that they face. Problematic though, is that the culture of athletics and prevailing stigma surrounding mental illness can lead student-athletes to overreport their well-being and deny distress (Steiner, Denny, & Stemmle, 2010), as well as underutilize the mental health services available to them on campus (Lopez & Levy, 2013). Although researchers have investigated the mental health of American college students (e.g., Eklund, Dowdy, Jones, & Furlong, 2011) and attempted to understand the vulnerability of National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) student-athletes to specific mental illnesses (e.g., eating disorders and substance abuse, Reardon & Factor, 2010), no study to date has investigated the mental health of student-athletes competing in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), particularly not using a holistic lense. As such, the overall purpose of the present study was to provide foundational data relating to Canadian student-athletes’ mental health functioning and other relevant indices such as their stress levels, mood, capacity to self-regulate, and perceptions of coaching climate. The first objective was to understand (a) the level and prevalence of mental health functioning (MHF) of student-athletes competing in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) system at two different time points in their academic year (Fall = Time 1, Winter = Time 2) and (b) whether significant differences existed in their levels of MHF (emotional, social, and psychological well-being) between Time 1 and Time 2 and based on gender, alcohol use, living situation, year of study, and type of sport. Results indicated that the student-athletes from 30 different Canadian universities experienced moderate to high levels of MHF at both time points, including those who reported a previous mental illness diagnosis. Furthermore, there was a higher prevalence of flourishing compared to languishing student-athletes at both time points. Repeated measures MANOVA tests indicated that student-athletes’ MHF did not significantly differ across time based on their gender, alcohol use, living situation, year of study, and/or type of sport. However, when a 5-way MANOVA test was conducted with the larger sample Time 1 data to have more statistical power, results revealed a significant main effect of gender, suggesting that women had significantly lower levels of social well-being than men during the first part of the academic/athletic year (see Article 1). The second objective was to examine relationships between variables that could potentially influence the MHF of CIS student-athletes, namely, their stress, mood, self-regulation capacity, and perceptions of the coaching climate. A path analysis revealed that the student-athletes’ MHF was significantly impacted by the frequency of their maladaptive reactions to stressors, mood states, capability to self-regulate, and the climate fostered by coaches. The third aim was to determine if changes in student-athletes’ self-regulation capacity over the academic/athletic year were related to changes in the other variables of interest. A t-test was first run to establish whether there was a change in their self-regulation capacity from Time 1 to Time 2, however, their levels remained steady over these time points. A subsequent path analysis showed that change scores in self-regulation capacity were not significantly related to change scores in MHF, stress, mood, and perceptions of coaching climate (see Article 2). The hope is that the results of this study may inform the strategic directions of mental health promotion and maintenance programming designed for CIS student-athletes in the future.

It is understood that in order for athletes to perform to their potential consistently they must learn to optimally self-regulate their psychological and physiological states. Yet, the process by which this is accomplished is not well understood. The purpose of this doctoral dissertation was to explore the concept of self-regulation in the Olympic athlete population through the use of biofeedback and neurofeedback. To address this purpose, two studies were conducted. Study One (Article 1) used a quantitative methodology to explore the relationship between Olympic athletes’ overall self-regulation ability and world ranking. Fifteen Olympic level athletes underwent a 9-stage psychophysiological stress assessment to determine each athlete’s ability to return to baseline after a stress load was applied. Findings revealed that there was a significant correlation between the athletes’ overall self-regulation ability and their ranking at the world level, meaning the better the overall self-regulation ability of the athlete the better the world ranking. Study Two (Articles 2 and 3) employed a qualitative methodology and explored what and how five Olympic level athletes learned from participating in a 20 session biofeedback and neurofeedback training intervention. Data was collected from post-intervention interviews with the athletes. In Study Two, Olympic athletes perceived that the biofeedback and neurofeedback training intervention assisted them in learning to improve self-awareness and self-regulation of their physical and mental states enabling them to feel more in control during sport performances. Engaging in active learning exercises, receiving real-time formative feedback, and utilization of the intervention exercises in training and competition environments were how athletes perceived they learned to self-regulate. Together, the findings from the two studies highlight the relevance and intricacies of self-regulation in high performance sport. Overall, the present dissertation makes a contribution to the sport psychology literature particularly with regard to our understanding of the use of biofeedback and neurofeedback for enhancing self-regulation with Olympic athletes. Thus, learning to improve self-regulation skills using biofeedback and neurofeedback training should be an integral part of a comprehensive and holistic approach used by sport psychology practitioners in assisting athletes to perform to their potential.

Advertisement plays an important role in the life of companies and it is understandable that there can be advertisements created, which will try to gain benefits for the company in various ways, causing damage to other competitors or to consumers included. A logical reaction is the creation of legal and ethical regulation in order to prevent this. Advertisement regulation exists on national level and in the course of the european integration development also a regulation on the community level has been created, especially in form of directives that have to be incorporated into member states' national legislation. Some of the directives allow the states to preserve stricter provisions, unless they are in conflict with the Treaty establishing the European Community, whereas in others the principle of maximal harmonisation is applied, forbidding stricter regulation. This diploma thesis describes legal regulation in the Czech Republic and the European Union as well as ethical regulation on the domestic and european level. It introduces the most important statutes and directives. One part is completely focused on self-regulation in the area of advertising. The last chapter then outlines possibilities of protection against advertisements that violate the mentioned legal and ethical standards by means of judicial or other authorities and self-regulation.

The diploma thesis deals with the current internet advertising legislation and self-regulation and provides a summary of the internet advertising forms. For analysis the thesis uses the standards of national and international self-regulatory organisations and complements them with Czech legislation. The thesis compiles and compares particular standards and legislation and on this basis it reviews the current state of advertising regulation, discusses the necessity of legal regulation and efficiency of self-regulation.

The master thesis named "Self-regulation in commercial communications oriented to alcoholic beverages in Europe" compares the approach of particular European countries to ethical self-regulation and its influence to consumers. The thesis is divided into two parts. The theoretical part focuses on explaining basic terms concerning to self-regulation and commercial communications. Significant part is given to the study of current situation in Europe and Czech Republic. The practical part contains the analysis of recent self-regulation activities in the company Plzeňský Prazdroj. This part provides the results of the marketing research, which determinates the current state of self-regulation and activities of the company Plzeňský Prazdroj in consumer's eyes.

Thesis focuses on actual trends in regulation of financial markets and institutions, reflecting the financial crisis of 2007 -- 2009. Taking into consideration the range of these issues the thesis specifically deals with the insurance industry and impact of increasing regulation on the insurance companies. Further, thesis concentrates on intensification of financial markets regulation, consolidation of regulatory competence and its transfer on supranational authorities, including on the issue of changes in the approach to the systemic risks regulation. These matters are being analyzed mainly from the perspective of their impact on the insurance industry. Thesis tries to evaluate the adequacy of these trends in respect to insurance market. Also the thesis deals with optimization of the current system of insurance regulation in the Czech Republic by implementation of self-regulation components into it. Finally it deals with evaluation of the regulatory system in total from the clients' perspective.

In the Czech Republic, advertisement is regulated by legislation and by the Czech Advertising Standards Council, which supplements the legislative requirements for advertising with an ethical dimension and establishes respective ethical rules through the Code of Advertising Practice. It cannot legally enforce compliance with the Code and therefore promotes self-regulation in this matter. The aim of this work is to analyze problematic advertising campaigns in the Czech Republic and to explain how the regulation of advertising is applied in practice. We present an analysis of campaigns which largely exceeded the limits set by the Code. The work should contribute to the understanding of why these infringements occur and how they could be prevented.