Self-regulation and subjectness: the intersection of the systems

The article attempts to correlate the phenomena of subjectness and self-regulation at the empirical level. As theoretical and empirical studies show, these phenomena are closely related. However, there is no unambiguous understanding of their relationship: is self-regulation part of subjectness, is it an independent phenomenon, or is there an intersection of the systems? Subjectness seems to us to be a more fundamental phenomenon; therefore, subjectness was not considered as part of self-regulation. In the empirical study, several alternative models were constructed and tested: 1) a model assuming that subjectness and self-regulation are a single phenomenon (a single-factor model); 2) a model assuming that self-regulation is a component of subjectness; 3) a model assuming that subjectness and self-regulation are two independent phenomena; 4) a model assuming a relationship between subjectness and self-regulation; 5) a model assuming an intersection of the systems, in which case subjectness uses certain properties of self-regulation, while self-regulation uses certain properties of subjectness, with both phenomena being understood as independent. Priority was given to the latter model. The models’ consistency with the empirical data was tested on a sample of 184 people aged 15 to 53 (M = 20.49, SD = 7.34), including 104 women and 80 men. These were mostly students of higher and secondary specialized educational institutions. The methods used were «The Development Level of a Person’s Subjectness» by M.A. Shchukina and the questionnaire «Behavior Self-Regulation Style – SSPM 2020» by V.I. Morosanova. The main statistical method was structural equation modeling. The intersecting systems model turned out to be most consistent with the data.