Self-regulation and solution-focused thinking mediate the relationship between self-insight and subjective well-being within a goal-focused context: An exploratory study

Abstract Self-insight, the clarity of one’s understanding of one’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour, has long been thought to be an important factor in change methodologies. It has been assumed that higher levels of self-insight are related to self-regulation and solution-focused thinking which facilitates goal striving. There has been little to no research that has explored the links between self-insight and self-regulation, or between solution-focused thinking and self-regulation. Further, there has been little research exploring the relationship between self-insight and subjective well-being (SWB). In a goal-priming process, 169 participants identified three specific goals that they have strived for over the past 3 years. The aim of this priming process was to make salient participants’ understanding of their personal capacity for self-regulation in the light of a real-life goal striving experience. Participants then completed measures related to self-regulation, self-insight, solution-focused thinking and SWB. Path analysis indicated that there was no direct path from self-insight to SWB, but self-insight significantly predicted self-regulation which in turn predicted solution-focused thinking, which then predicted SWB. Self-regulation displayed a significant positive relationship with SWB which was fully mediated by solution-focused thinking. These exploratory findings have important implications for understanding the psychological “mechanics” of positive change processes.


PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
This research explores the links between selfinsight and self-regulation (self-control), and between solution-focused thinking and self-regulation. It is often thought that the more time one spends in self-reflection, the greater one's levels of self-insight and the greater one's level of well-being. This research shows that these relationships are more complex than that, and that self-insight is more important than selfreflection in this goal attainment process and well-being. Self-insight works by facilitating selfcontrol which in turn influences solution-focused thinking, which then enhances subjective wellbeing. The takeaway for those interested in enhancing goal attainment and boosting wellbeing is to ensure that you spend time building self-insight rather than solely focusing on improving self-control or engaging in deep selfreflection.

Introduction
Self-insight forms an integral part of the psychological mechanisms within coaching, counselling and psychotherapy approaches to instigating change and facilitating goal attainment. The notion that greater self-insight leads to enhanced levels of well-being is a fundamental assumption in a broad range of modalities including the psychodynamic (Freud, 1920), the systemic (Bowen, 1966), the cognitive behavioural (Beck & Emery, 1985) and solution-focused approaches (de Shazer, 1988). "Self-insight" can be understood as the clarity with which an individual is able to perceive and understand their thoughts, feelings and behaviour (Grant, Franklin, & Langford, 2002). There is now a significant amount of empirical research indicating the existence of a positive correlational relationship between self-insight and well-being (e.g., Beauvais, Özbaş, & Wheeler, 2019;Chen, Chen, & Pai, 2019;Harrington & Loffredo, 2011;Harrington, Loffredo, & Perz, 2014;Liu & Liu, 2018;Lyke, 2008). However, there has been comparatively little empirical work exploring the psychological mechanisms that underpin the correlational relationship between self-insight and well-being. This exploratory study seeks to address this issue.
Coaching, counselling and psychotherapy approaches vary in a number of ways including in terms of the levels of psychopathology exhibited by typical clients. For example, coaching clients are generally deemed to have lower levels of mental illness problems than counselling and psychotherapy clients. However, there are also many similarities between coaching, counselling and psychotherapy, regardless of specific theoretical orientation or the client's levels of mental health. This is because the change process facilitated by coaching, counselling and psychotherapy practitioners all involve the following: (1) identification of a problematic issue; (2) the articulation of a goal or preferred outcome state; (3) an orientation towards potential solutions; (4) the development of action plans or steps; (5), the enactment of such plans and (6) then a process of monitoring, evaluating and adapting in response to feedback.
In essence, all purposeful change modalities aim to enhance the client's ability to self-regulate and to achieve an improved sense of well-being (Keller, Eisen, & Hanss, 2019). Thus, a better understanding of the relationships between self-insight, self-regulation, solution-focused thinking and well-being would potentially benefit a wide range of positive change interventions and potentially lead to more effective change methodologies within coaching, counselling and psychotherapeutic contexts. This paper explores the relationships between self-insight, self-regulation, solution-focused thinking and subjective well-being (SWB). To set the context, we initially present an overview of the self-regulation processes that sit at the heart of goal-focused, intentional change. We then present an overview of the empirical research detailing the relationship between self-insight and SWB and present a proposed model that may represent the relationships between these constructs. Finally, following the discussion of our findings, we present some recommendations for further research and practice.

Overview of the goal-focused self-regulation processes
The enhancement of an individuals' capacity to self-regulate sits at the heart of all goal-focused intentional change processes (Keller et al., 2019). The role of the coach, counsellor or psychotherapist is to help the client articulate their problematic issue or issues and then (1) identify potential desired outcomes, (2) help the client define their goals, (3) enhance the client's motivation by identifying personal strengths and building their self-efficacy, (4) identify potential resources and formulate specific action plans, (5) facilitate a monitoring and evaluation process and (6) modify action steps or goals (based on the evaluation of progress). As shown in Figure 1, the monitor-evaluate-modify steps form a change cycle of self-regulated change (Carver & Scheier, 1998) and this is central to all goal-focused intentional change processes.

Self-insight and self-regulation
Self-insight, "the clarity of one's understanding of one's thoughts, feelings and behaviour" (Grant et al., 2002, p. 821), is a metacognitive factor central to the process of purposeful, directed change (Boyatzis, 2006). It should be noted that there are three main conceptualisations of "insight" in psychology: (1) cognitive insight-which is result of complex problem-solving (often described as the "aha" moment; Topolinski & Reber, 2010); (2) clinical insight-which relates specifically to the self-understanding of psychiatric illness (Marková & Berrios, 1992) and (3) self-insight-one's understanding of one's thoughts, feelings and behaviour (Grant et al., 2002). This paper refers to self-insight.
Successful purposeful progress through the cycle of self-regulation towards a specific and appropriate goal is directed by on an individual's self-insight-which impacts their ability to monitor and evaluate their progress (on cognitive, affective and behavioural levels) and use such feedback to improve their performance (Bandura, 1991;Boyatzis & Howard, 2013;Gregory & Levy, 2015;Hyland, 1988). The theoretical relationship between self-insight and self-regulation (e.g., see Gregory & Levy, 2015;Hyland, 1988) is supported by empirical research. Grant et al. (2002) reported a correlation of r = .23 between self-insight and self-regulation, Cheers (2014) reported a correlation of r = .51 and Nakajima, Takano, and Tanno (2017) reported a correlation of r = .41. Both self-insight and selfregulation have been found to increase following participation in a coaching programme (e.g., Leung et al., 2011), further indicating links between these two constructs and their relevance to the goal-focused intentional change processes.

Past correlations between self-insight and SWB
There has been increasing interest worldwide in the links between self-insight and SWB. SWB is defined as "a person's cognitive and affective evaluations of his or her life" (Diener, Lucas, & Oishi, 2002, p. 63). The cognitive aspect of SWB refers to what one thinks about his or her life satisfaction and the affective aspect refers to one's emotions, moods and feelings.
The research findings on a positive relationship between self-insight and SWB (or proxy measures of SWB such as happiness and psychological well-being) have been remarkably consistent, both in terms of the positive relationship between self-insight and well-being and in terms of cross-cultural findings. For example, in the US community population, Lyke (2008) found that self-insight was significantly positively associated with satisfaction with life (r = .38) and with subjective happiness (r = .38). Using the Brazilian version of the Self-Reflection and Insight Scale (SRIS; Grant et al., 2002). Vieira, Vieira, Gomes, and Gauer (2013) found a positive relationship between self-insight and the World Health Organization's quality of life measure (r = .34) with Brazilian women. Self-insight has also shown a predictable negative relationship with anxiety and depression. Using the Turkish version of the SRIS, Aşkun and Çetin (2017) found a negative correlation between self-insight and social anxiety (r = −.40). Nakajima, Takano, and Tanno (2018) reported a negative correlation between selfinsight and depression (r = −.39) with a Japanese population. Similar findings have been reported by a wide range of researchers (e.g., Cowden & Meyer-Weitz, 2016;Haga, Kraft, & Corby, 2009;Harrington & Loffredo, 2011;Harrington et al., 2014;Silvia & Phillips, 2011). Although the positive relationship between self-insight and well-being appears to be well established, it is not clear why such a positive relationship should exist. Indeed, it has been argued that selfinsight could just as easily be associated with anxiety, stress or depression (Nakajima et al., 2018). To date, there has been little research exploring why self-insight is related to well-being. One study by Stein and Grant (2014) found that positive core self-evaluations mediated the relationship between self-insight and SWB. The presents study aims to extend Stein and Grant's (2014) findings by examining the possibility that self-regulation and solution-focused thinking play a role in the relationship between self-insight and SWB within the context of goal-focused change.

Self-insight and solution-focused thinking
It has long been assumed that, within the context of goal-focused intentional change, that selfinsight is associated with solution-focused thinking (Bandura, 1977). The rationale here is that as people engage with their goals, they need to develop a thinking style that is solution-focused, that is they need a style of thinking that is orientated towards imagining their goals, developing effective action plans, avoiding getting stuck in thinking about their problems and noticing and activating potential resources. To engage in such solution-focused thinking successfully, one needs to have an awareness of one's thoughts, feelings and behaviours. People need a clear idea about why they've behaved in a certain way and they need to be able to make sense of the way they feel about things-that is, they need good levels of self-insight.
Despite this being a sound rationale for a relationship between self-insight and solution-focused thinking, there have been very few empirical studies that have examined the actual correlations between self-insight and goal-orientated or solution-focused thinking. For example, Lakota (2010) reported a correlation of r = .47 and Grant and Cavanagh (2007) reported a correlation of r = .33. However, there is a larger body of research showing that participation in a solution focused, cognitive behavioural coaching programme increases both solution-focused thinking and selfinsight (Athanasopoulou & Dopson, 2018;Theeboom, Beersma, & van Vianen, 2013), and such findings suggest that there are consistent links between self-insight and solution-focused thinking.

Modelling the relationships
Based on the discussion so far, it would appear to be self-evident that, within a goal-focused change context, there is a clear relationship between self-insight, self-regulation, solution-focused thinking and SWB. Although many of the relationships between these variables have been measured individually or have been observed as changes following participation in a coaching programme, we are not aware of any published research that has attempted to model the relationships between all of these four constructs. Given the increasing amount of research that has identified the positive correlation between self-insight and SWB, we are particularly interested in exploring the relationship between self-insight and SWB when the constructs of self-regulation and solution-focused thinking are factored into a model.
In summary: Self-insight is an essential component of self-regulation (Bandura, 1991), and it is through the ability to self-regulate that one is able focus on solutions (Baumeister & Heatherton, 1996;Carver & Scheier, 2012). In addition, because focusing on solutions is akin to mentally experiencing or savouring a desired outcome (Finn, 2008) and engaging in solution-focused thinking has been found to induce positive affect (Grant, 2012) and to be negatively correlated with anxiety, stress and depression , solution-focused thinking is likely to be related to well-being in our model. Hence, our hypotheses is that self-insight will be positively related to self-regulation, which in turn will be related to solution-focused thinking and these two constructs will meditate the relationship between self-insight and SWB. We present a hypothesis path model in Figure 2. The aim of this study was to test this model.

Participants
In order to employ a diverse and multifaceted sample, we recruited participants from both university students and the general population. The use of samples that are restricted to student populations has long been recognised as problematic (Peterson, 2001). A key issue has been the possible discrepancies between the student populations used in much psychological research and the characteristics of the general (non-student) population (Gallander, North, & Sugar, 2001), leading to a potential lack of confidence in the generalisability of findings (Blair & Zinkhan, 2012). With these issues in mind, we recruited a total of 169 individuals (100 females; 69 males; mean age 32.86) from both the student and the general populations. Participants were 69 first-year psychology students (47 females; 22 males; average age: 19.58 years) who received course credit for their participation, and 100 general population participants recruited through Mechanical Turk (53 females; 47 males; average age: 40.02 years) who received monetary compensation for taking part.
Our total sample size of 169 is slightly smaller than other work in this area. For example, Harrington et al. (2014) used a sample size of 184, Silvia and Phillips (2011) used a sample size of 233 and Stein and Grant (2014) used a sample size of 227. Past research has typically found medium to large effects sizes in exploring the relationships between the variables such as self-insight, selfregulation, solution-focused thinking and SWB. Cohen (1992, p. 158) posits that a sample size of 84 should be sufficient to detect the expected medium effect size with a power of .80. Thus, the current sample provides appropriate statistical power for this study's design.

Measures
Self-insight was measured using the 8-item self-insight (INS) sub-scale of the SRIS (Grant et al., 2002). Examples of items include "I am usually aware of my thoughts" and "I usually know why I feel the way I do." This scale has demonstrated good construct validity and is positively correlated with measures of cognitive flexibility and self-regulation and negatively correlated with

Self-regulation
Solution-Focused Thinking Self-insight Well-being Figure 2. The hypothesised path model.
Trait self-regulation was measured using the Self-Control Scale (SCS; Tangney, Baumeister, & Boone, 2004). The SCS has high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .89) and good construct validity, being positive correlated with broad range of behaviours-including resisting temptation, emotional regulation and physical and psychological health, academic achievement and negatively correlated with alcohol abuse and measures of psychopathology (Tangney et al., 2004). Cronbach's α for the present study was .94.
Solution-focused thinking was measured using eight items from the solution-focused thinking inventory (SFI; Grant et al., 2012). The SFI has been found to be a reliable and valid measure of solution-focused thinking and to be correlated with perspective taking capacity, resilience and psychological well-being (Del Carmen Neipp, Tirado, Beyebach, & Del Carmen Martínez González, 2017). Item examples include "Setbacks are a real opportunity to turn failure into success," "There are always enough resources to solve a problem if you know where to look" and "There is always a solution to every problem." The SFI has been translated into a number of languages including Chinese (Yang & Hai, 2015) and Spanish (del Carmen Neipp et al., 2017) all displaying appropriate psychometric characteristics. Cronbach's α for the present study was .86.
SWB comprises an individual's cognitive and affective evaluations of their life experience (Diener, Suh, & Oishi, 1997) and has been demonstrated to have a single factor structure across genders and ethnicities (Linley, Maltby, Wood, Osborne, & Hurling, 2009). Previous studies in this area have measured SWB using a composite score made up from scales that combine both cognitive and affective factors of life evaluations (e.g., Stein & Grant, 2014). The present study measured SWB as a single variable extracted from the scores of two scales covering different areas of well-being: the Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) for an affective perspective (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999) and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) for a cognitive perspective (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985).
SHS (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999) is a 4-item scale that measures a participants' personal affective perspective of their happiness level. The scale shows good internal reliability (α = .86) and construct validity. Cronbach's α for the present study was .90.
SWLS (Diener et al., 1985) is a 5-item scale that measures an individual's satisfaction with their life and as such is a cognitive measure of well-being. Item examples include: "I am satisfied with my life." Diener et al. (1985) report good internal reliability (α = .87) and good test-retest reliability (r = .82). Cronbach's α for the present study was .91.

Procedure
As this study was exploring the relationships between self-insight, self-regulation, solution-focused thinking and SWB in relation to clinical, counselling and coaching-related change methodologies, we set a contextual goal-related framework by asking participants to identify, think about and then describe three goals that they had specifically pursued over the past 3 years: "These goals may relate to any part of your life (e.g., academic, health, relationships). Some examples might include "perform at my best academically," "develop stronger relationships with my family" etc.
The aim of this priming process was to make participants' understanding of their personal capacity for self-regulation salient in the light of a personal real-life goal striving experience. This is an important methodological point as the reliability of the findings of psychological studies such as these can be undermined when participants hold personal frames of references that are incongruent with the issues being studied (Lievens, de Corte, & Schollaert, 2008). The use of a common frame of reference leads to higher methodological validity as a result of the reduction of between-person variability and within-person inconsistency, and it is also important to use a frame of reference that is conceptually relevant to the criterion being studied (Lievens et al., 2008). Participants then completed the measures related to self-insight, self-regulation, solution-focused thinking and SWB.

Factor analysis of SWB measures
Results on the SWLS and SHS were found to be normally distributed and positively correlated (r = .643, p < .01), satisfying the requirements for an exploratory factor analysis (Thompson, 2004). In line with Costello and Osborne's (2005) recommendations, the principal axis factoring approach was used in order to determine whether a single latent variable could be extracted from the two well-being measures. The factor analysis produced a single factor with an Eigenvalue greater than 1, a result which was supported by Cattell's scree plot. This single factor explained 64.2% of variance in the underlying variable and factor loadings were .801 for SWLS and .801 for SHS. Our results support the single factor model of SWB. In order to estimate the SWB latent variable, this study used SPSS factor scores as recommended by Marsh (2001) and as used by Stein and Grant (2014) and these scores were used in the subsequent path analyses. Table 1 shows the pattern of correlations between the variables of interest. Results supporting our hypotheses were that self-insight held significant positive relationships with each of self-regulation, solution-focused thinking and SWB. As predicted, both self-regulation and solution-focused thinking held significant positive relationships with SWB.

Preliminary analyses
Two significant main effects of age were found in our study. For every standard deviation increase in age, participants scored on average .491 standard deviations higher for self-insight (F 1,167 = 53.13, p < .01), and on average .476 standard deviations higher for self-control (F 1,167 = 49.04, p < .01). Additionally, two main effects of group were found. Participants in the MTURK sample scored significantly higher on self-insight than those in the student sample (F 1,167 = 114.70, p < .01), and also significantly higher on trait self-control (F 1,167 = 97.33, p < .01). These results are aligned with previous research which found that self-insight is significantly associated with age (Lakota, 2010;Roberts & Stark, 2008). We thus conducted separate path analyses, segmenting the data based on group and also on age. However, the results of these path analyses did not differ significantly from one another. Thus, our final path analysis was collapsed across age and group. We did not find statistically significant relationships between gender and our variables of interest (see Figure 3). INS, Self-insight; SCS, Self-control scale (self-regulation); SFI, solution-focused thinking inventory (solution-focused thinking); SWB, Subjective well-being: ** = p < 0.01.

Path analysis
The goodness of fit measures indicates that the path model (see Figure 3) provided a good fit with 2 degrees of freedom (K 2 /df = 1.405, CFI = .995 and RMSEA = .049 with 90% CI [.000:.169]). Brown and Cudeck (1993) suggest that RMSEA > .10 represents an unacceptable model fit and RMSEA of 0.05-0.08 represents a fair fit. This position is supported by others including MacCallum, Browne, and Sugawara (1996). Thus, our findings are in line with past work and indicate that this model is indeed a good fit.

Direct effects
All direct effects in this path analysis were significant, except that between self-insight and solution-focused thinking. As hypothesised, scores on the self-insight sub-scale significantly predicted scores on the self-control scale (β = .62, p < .001). However, in this path analysis, self-insight was not observed to directly predict solution-focused thinking (β = .161, p = .076). This lack of a direct effect between self-insight and solution-focused thinking occurs because the relationship is fully mediated by self-control. Self-regulation was observed to significantly predict solutionfocused thinking (β = .27, p < .01). Solution-focused thinking was in turn shown to directly predict levels of SWB (β = .56, p < .001) (see Table 2).

Indirect effects
Using bootstrapping analyses, the self-insight scale demonstrated a significant indirect effect on solution-focused thinking through self-control (β = .168, p < .01). Self-insight also demonstrated a significant indirect effect on SWB through both self-control and solution-focused thinking (β = .183, p < .01). Finally, self-control demonstrated a significant indirect effect on SWB through solutionfocused thinking (β = .150, p < .01).

Figure 3. Path analysis show-
ing that self-regulation and solution-focused thinking mediate the relationship between self-insight and subjective well-being.

Total effects
The total effect of self-insight on solution-focused thinking was .328, p < .01 and on SWB was .183, p < .01. The model accounted for 39% of the variance in self-control, 15% of the variance in solution-focused thinking and 31% of the variance in SWB.

Discussion
In order to explore the relationship between self-insight and SWB in the context of a coachingrelated, goal-orientated frame of reference, we primed participants to think about their real-life experiences of goal striving and then asked them to complete a series of measures related to goal striving, namely, self-insight, self-regulation, solution-focused thinking and SWB.
Self-insight, self-regulation and solution-focused thinking all displayed significant total effects on SWB and higher self-insight was associated with higher levels of self-regulation. Unexpectedly, within the pathway analysis model, self-insight did not directly predict SWB. Rather, self-insight displayed a significant indirect effect on SWB through self-regulation and solution-focused thinking. Furthermore, and unexpectedly, within the model, self-regulation did not display a direct association with SWB. The effects of self-insight and self-regulation on SWB were entirely mediated by solutionfocused thinking. Thus, this model provides evidence that self-regulation plays an important role in solution-focused thinking and that solution-focused thinking plays a vital role in SWB. It appears that higher self-insight is predictive of greater solution-focused thinking among individuals with high selfregulation, and in turn these factors facilitate higher levels of SWB.
In addition to adding empirical weight to a range of theoretical understandings of self-regulation (e.g., Gregory & Levy, 2015;Hyland, 1988;Karoly, 1993;Zimmerman, 1994), as will be discussed, our findings have practical significance to coaches and agents of change by highlighting the vital role that self-insight plays in the goal-focused, self-regulation process.

Virtuous or vicious cycles
Based on our study, within a goal-orientated context, it would appear that the ability to engage in solution-focused thinking rests upon an individual's capacity for self-regulation. That is, the more capable that an individual is in altering their dominant (e.g., problematic) response tendencies, the more likely it is that they are to then be able to focus on developing solutions to their problems (de Ridder, Lensvelt-Mulders, Finkenauer, Stok, & Baumeister, 2012). This makes sense what one considers the nature of the "virtuous cycle"-a positive feedback loop consisting of a chain of events in which each iteration of the cycle reinforces the previous one (see Figure 1). In this case, as people develop confidence based on their self-perceived ability for self-regulation, their willingness to confront personal problems and focus on their goals may grow and a solution-focused mindset becomes more dominant. Self-regulation has long been considered integral in facilitating positive outcomes in one's life (Vohs & Baumeister, 2016). An increase in self-regulation in one behavioural domain has also been shown to improve self-regulatory success across other domains (Oaten & Cheng, 2007). Our study suggests that this generalisation effect may occur because greater self-regulation leads to higher levels of solution-focused thinking. The finding that there were significant main effects of age for self-insight and for self-regulation also lends support for the "virtuous cycle" notion-because older people presumably have had more experience with goal striving over the course of their lives.
On the other hand, in situations where a person has a limited capacity for self-regulation, they may be less inclined to focus on solutions because they do not perceive themselves as having the capacity to implement any effective behavioural strategies. Indeed, such conceptualisation echoes Bandura's (1977) notion of behavioural change and its relationship to self-efficacy. Although goal attainment itself was not measured in the present study, it can be speculated that where people experience chronic failure to reach their goals over a period of time, their sense of SWB would be lowered and one would expect to find a lower level of self-insight, lower solution-focused thinking and a lower capacity for self-regulation. The notion of a "vicious cycle" of self-defeating behaviour has long been recognised (Olden, 1943;Seligman, 1974) and future research drawing on our model may help illuminate some of the psychological mechanisms at play.

Links to SWB: two conundrums
This study has extended our understanding of the relationship between self-insight and SWB. The SRIS (Grant et al., 2002) used in this study has been increasingly used to explore the role of selfreflection and self-insight in a wide range of goal-focused contexts, including improving caring behaviour in nurses (Chen, Chang, & Pai, 2017), improving critical thinking in physiotherapists (Huhn, 2017) personal and professional development in executive coaches (Grant, 2008), success in competitive rowing (Kiosoglous & Vidic, 2017) and dealing with complex organisational change (Grant, 2014) amongst others.
In the course of research into the roles of self-reflection and self-insight as components of goalorientated change, two conundrums have emerged. The first conundrum stems from the observation that self-reflection, "the inspection and evaluation of one's thoughts, feelings and behaviour" (Grant et al., 2002, p. 821), is not necessarily positively related to self-insight, "the clarity of one's understanding of one's thoughts, feelings and behaviour" (Grant et al., 2002, p. 821). For example, using the SRIS, Lyke (2008) found that self-reflection did not correlate with self-insight, a finding that has been replicated many times (e.g., Aşkun & Çetin, 2017;Chen et al., 2016;Grant et al., 2002;Sauter et al., 2010). This is a conundrum because many theoretical frameworks used to underpin coaching, counselling and psychotherapeutic modalities posit that self-insight is an outcome of self-reflection (e.g., Beck, 1995;Freud, 1920;Rogers, 1961). The disparity between self-reflection and self-insight has been long observed (e.g., Anderson, Bohon, & Berrigan, 1996;Nisbett & Wilson, 1977;Trapnell & Campbell, 1999;Wilson & Schooler, 1991). Contemporary research using the SRIS has found that the relationship between selfreflection and self-insight is mediated by dysfunctional attitudes and negative or positive views of the self (Nakajima et al., 2018;Stein & Grant, 2014). That is, where an individual has levels of depression or holds dysfunctional attitudes about themselves, engaging in self-refection is more likely to lead to rumination and decreased SWB rather than lead to enhanced self-insight (Elliott & Coker, 2008).
The second conundrum that has not received as much attention as the first is the relationship between self-insight and SWB. As previously mentioned, it is not initially obvious that higher levels self-insight should necessarily be associated with higher levels of SWB. Theoretically speaking, one could have low levels of SWB and high levels of self-insight. However, the empirical research has regularly demonstrated a positive relationship between self-insight and SWB-people with high levels of self-insight are significantly more likely to have high levels of SWB (e.g., Haga et al., 2009;Wang, Wang, Heppner, & Chuang, 2017). The relationship between self-insight and SWB thus constitutes a second conundrum in the context of goal-focused change.
In the current exploratory study, self-insight displayed a significant positive indirect effect on SWB through self-regulation and solution-focused thinking-the entire effect of self-insight on SWB was accounted for through the mediating role of these variables. This novel finding has extended our understanding of the roles of self-insight, self-regulation and solution-focused thinking within the context of goal-focused change and has implications for practitioners and future research.

Practical implications
This study has a number of practical implications for coaches, counsellors and psychotherapists. While it is clear that self-insight is a vital construct in the goal-orientated change process, self-insight is not in itself sufficient in terms of enhancing SWB. Insight-orientated approaches that focus purely or substantially on enhancing self-insight should also include interventions that build self-regulation. Merely facilitating the development of self-insight, for example, by focusing on a cathartic approach to a "talking therapy" may be less helpful for building SWB than incorporating goal-focused interventions that explicitly build one's capacity for self-regulation. Such observations echo much past discussion on the relative merits of cognitive and behavioural approaches to therapy (Sweet & Loizeaux, 1991).
A second key implication from this study relates to the importance of solution-focused thinking in enhancing SWB within a goal-focused change context. This model suggests that coaches, counsellors and psychotherapists should be mindful about building a solution-focused thinking capability in their clients rather than spending too much time in problem analysis. Indeed, past research has shown that problem-focused coaching approaches are less effective than solutionfocused approaches in terms of enhancing well-being and facilitating goal progression (Grant, 2012). While the above-mentioned issues have been discussed many times in the literature, the current research stands as a reminder that agents of change working within a goal-focused context need to take an approach that jointly enhances self-insight, self-regulation and solutionfocused thinking in order to better facilitate the enhancement of SWB.

Limitations and future research directions
In common with much of the psychological research in this area, this study utilised self-report data. Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, and Podsakoff (2003, p. 879) provide a detailed exposition of the problems associated with common method variance (i.e., the variance that arises from the measurement method itself rather than the constructs that the measures represent). Method variance can either inflate or deflate the observed relationships between constructs, potentially leading to Type I or Type II errors. Podsakoff et al. (2003) are particularly critical of self-report measures. However, to date, some psychological constructs such as self-insight can only be measured using self-report measures. Nevertheless, following Podsakoff, MacKenzie, and Podsakoff's (2012) recommendations, future research should seek to utilise objective measures where possible and to use larger samples than the present study. Regardless, this exploratory study has shone a measure of light in the relationship between self-regulation, solution-focused thinking and self-insight and SWB.
Although this model demonstrated good fit and presents novel findings within a goal-focused intentional change context, we did not include variables such as self-reflection or other constructs that have previously been shown to be of importance within a goal-focused self-regulation context (Boyatzis & Akrivou, 2006) For example, Stein and Grant (2014) found that the relationships between self-reflection and selfinsight were suppressed by dysfunctional attitudes, and Nakajima et al. (2018) found a significant moderating role of negative self-complexity in the associations among self-insight, depressive symptoms and stress. Future research could draw on such findings and seek to develop a more sophisticated model than the one presented in the present study. This newer model could aim to give a complete pathway from (1) goal priming or goal setting, (2) self-reflection through to (3) self-insight to (4) SWB and then to (5) goal attainment, while including mediating factors such as dysfunctional attitudes and self-complexity. Such a study would usefully extend the novel findings presented here and help develop a more complete model of self-regulation within a goal-focused change context. Such an approach could allow exploration of some of the differences between research into the underlying psycho-mechanics of psychotherapy, counselling and coaching research.

Summary
The present exploratory study aimed to extend previous research into the relationship between selfinsight and SWB and to explore this relationship within the context of goal-focused change. The influence of both self-insight and self-regulation on SWB was completely mediated by solutionfocused thinking. Thus, while self-insight and self-regulation are important, they are not themselves sufficient to enhance SWB in a goal-focused context. This novel finding has extended our understanding of the roles of self-insight, self-regulation, solution-focused thinking and SWB within the context of goal-focused change and highlights the apparently vital role that solution-focused thinking plays in relation to SWB and within goal-focused change contexts. This exploratory study stands as a reminder that agents of change need to take an approach that jointly enhances self-insight, selfregulation and solution-focused thinking in order to better facilitate the enhancement of SWB.

Funding
The authors received no direct funding for this research.

Author statement
Professor Anthony Grant is globally recognised as a key pioneer of Coaching Psychology and evidence-based approaches to coaching. He has over 100 coachingrelated publications and he is a key contributor to the evidence-base of coaching. His research has a wide span, from randomised controlled studies of the impact of coaching in education, health and organisational settings, to research that looks at the psycho-mechanics of coaching in terms of self-insight, solution-focused thinking and self-reflection. He supervised Joseph Selwyn's postgraduate research, from which this paper is derived. Anthony holds a number of positions including Director of the Coaching Psychology Unit at the University of Sydney, Visiting Professor at Oxford Brookes University and Henley Business School, and an Associate Fellow at the Säid School of Business, Oxford University. He has received numerous international awards in recognition of his contributions to evidence-based approaches to coaching.

Citation information
Cite this article as: Self-regulation and solution-focused thinking mediate the relationship between self-insight and subjective well-being within a goal-focused context: An exploratory study, Joseph Selwyn & Anthony M Grant, Cogent Psychology (2019), 6: 1695413.