Self-Regulation of Affect–Health Behavior Relations

The present chapter analyzes relations between affect and health behaviors from the perspective of the action control model of affect regulation. It presents evidence that forming if-then plans or implementation intentions can emancipate health actions from unwanted influence by three kinds of affect—experienced affect, anticipated affect, and implicit affect. For each of these kinds of affect, it demonstrates that emancipation can be achieved in two ways—either by directly targeting the affect itself so as to undermine the strength of the affective response, or by targeting the relationship between affect and health behavior so that the translation of affect into action is reduced or blocked. It concludes that the impact of affect on health decisions and actions is not inevitable: affective influence can be modulated effectively using if-then plans.