The article reviews the existing approaches to the concept of self-regulation within both Russian and international psychology. Emotional regulation is considered as a special form of regulation of behavior. Research on self-regulation is promising in terms of psychology of addictive behavior, in particular, of alcohol addictions, based on the data about the deficits in the regulatory mechanisms accompanying this pathology. The analysis of theoretical and research studies on self-regulation described in this paper aims to identify the theoretical and methodological basis for further empirical research.