Commentary: What's in a word (or words) – on the relations among self-regulation, self-control, executive functioning, effortful control, cognitive control, impulsivity, risk-taking, and inhibition for developmental psychopathology – reflections on Nigg (2017)

In Nigg's excellent article, he deals with a variety of complex conceptual issues related to the constructs of self-regulation and executive functioning (EF). Overall, I agree that the terminology proposed by Nigg should be adopted; moreover, the conceptual distinctions he provides should help the field to move forward with regard to the understanding of varied constructs related to self-regulation. In the spirit of further clarification, I questioned Nigg's suggestions that (a) working memory should be considered as part of the construct of top-down regulation and (b) planning is a higher level component of EF but not part of effortful control. In addition, I discussed my perspective on the role of automaticity in defining top-down versus bottom-up self-regulatory processes and the role of flexibility in top-down self-regulatory processes and their relation to personality resiliency.