These phrases are used frequently and I’m curious about the distinction.
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Self-Regulation refers to regulating mood. It means you can experience feelings at an intensity and duration appropriately matching the situation and recover from various states of arousal (anger, frustration, anxious, sad, etc.) back to a neutral baseline in a reasonably short time. An example of poor self-regulation could be getting extremely angry and screaming at someone who cut in front of you, instead of being mildly annoyed as most people would. Another example for same situation, you’re just a little mad, but still the same level of mad for several days instead of letting it go.
Executive Function refers to having control of your attention, being able to think things through, and acting with intent. It means you can decide to focus on a task and work through it until it’s complete or until a reasonable stopping point. An example of poor executive function could be getting easily distracted in the middle of a task and impulsively following through on the distraction instead of the thing you meant to do.
You might hear these two terms used together because sometimes poor executive function is a result of being unable to push through anxiety that causes someone to avoid the task. Being unable to cope with anxiety is a form of poor Self-Regulation.
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