Affective experiences are part of our everyday life, but do they influence health-related decisions and behaviors in a systematic way? Temporal self-regulation theory (TST) posits that health behaviors are a joint function of neurobiologically rooted executive control processes, prepotency, and intentions. The relative weights of these in turn depend largely on the ecological context in which the behaviors are being performed. On the surface, then, TST is a model of health behavior that relies predominantly on social-cognitive and neurocognitive constructs to explain health behavior trajectories. For this reason, it appears to not deal directly with the topic of affect in general, and emotion more specifically. However, there are several facets of the TST model that involve these processes, or are heavily influenced by them. This chapter discusses each of the primary points of intersection between affective processes and constructs within TST.
Applying temporal self-regulation theory to identify correlates of soft plastic recycling in Australia
