REGULATORY MODE THEORY developed in collaboration with E. Tory Higgins refers to two fundamental self-regulatory functions referred to respectively as assessment and locomotion. Assessment constitutes the comparative aspect of self regulation concerned with critically evaluating entities or states, such as goals or means, in relation to alternatives in order to judge relative quality. Locomotion, in contrast, constitutes the aspect of self-regulation concerned with movement from state to state and with committing the psychological resources that will initiate and maintain goal-related movement in a straightforward and direct manner, without undue distractions or delays.

Assessment and locomotion together form part and parcel of any self regulatory activity, and have generally been treated by prior control theories as inseparable parts of the whole of self- regulation and hence as functionally interdependent. Presumably from that perspective the intensity of both should co-vary with the degree to which a given self-regulatory activity mattered to the individual. In contrast our theoretical and empirical focus has been on the degree to which each of these functions receives an independent emphasis. Thus some individuals may overemphasize locomotion relative to assessment, whilst others may exhibit the opposite emphasis. Similarly, some situations may enhance the tendency to locomote whereas others may enhance the tendency to assess.

In our initial work within the context of the regulatory mode theory we have developed two individual difference measures one for locomotion and one for assessment and have confirmed their psychometric adequacy as well as their convergent, discriminant and predictive validity. In fact, by now the scales have been translated to several languages (Italian, Spanish, French, German, and Turkish) and are being used at various laboratories to test various aspects of the regulatory mode theory. At this point, the work within this research program is at an early stage and much exciting research on this topic remains to be done.