Self-control performance may be improved by the regular practice of small acts of self-control.
Ninety-two adults’ self-control capacity was assessed using the stop signal paradigm before they ...started practicing self-control and again at the end of 2
weeks. Participants who practiced self-control by cutting back on sweets or squeezing a handgrip exhibited significant improvement in stop signal performance relative to those who practiced tasks that did not require self-control. Participants who did not practice self-control believed that the tasks should improved self-control, engaged in tasks that were effortful and made self-control salient, but did not actually require self-control. Supplemental analyses suggested that only practicing self-control built self-control capacity; the improved outcomes cannot be explained by self-fulfilling prophecies, increased self-efficacy or awareness of self-control. The results may have implications for understanding the development of self-control in both children and adults, as well as clinical implications for treating disorders that involve low self-control.
Recent research has suggested that practicing small acts of self-control can lead to an improvement in self-control performance. Because smoking cessation requires self-control, it was hypothesized ...that a treatment that builds self-control should help in quitting smoking. A total of 122 smokers either practiced small acts of self-control for 2 weeks before quitting smoking or practiced a task that increased their awareness of self-control or feelings of confidence, without exercising self-control. Their smoking status was assessed using daily telephone calls and biochemically verified. Individuals who practiced self-control remained abstinent longer than those who practiced tasks that did not require self-control. Supplemental analyses suggested that the increased survival times were a product of building self-control strength and were not produced by changes in feelings that practicing should help in cessation, effort exerted on the practice task, or thinking more about self-control while practicing.
Research has found that individuals who are lower in self-control strength because of previous self-control exertions perform more poorly on subsequent tests of self-control. The present studies ...suggest that this effect may be moderated by motivation. In particular, depletion and motivation jointly determine self-control performance. Individuals who were depleted and believed that the task would help others (Experiment 1) or believed that their efforts could benefit them (Experiment 2) performed better on a subsequent test of self-control than individuals who were depleted and lower in motivation. The results of Experiment 3 replicated these findings and suggested that depletion only affects performance on tasks that require self-control; tasks that are difficult but do not require self-control are immune to the effects of depletion. Hence, depleted individuals may compensate for their lack of self-control resources when sufficiently motivated. The results may help explain the nature of self-control strength.
Social rejection can lead to feeling disliked and disrespected. From research on the culture of honor and perception of procedural justice, we predicted that feeling disrespected should be a more ...potent predictor of retaliatory aggression than feeling disliked. In four experiments, using correlational measures and experimental manipulations of dislike and disrespect, people who felt disrespected responded with greater aggression than people who felt disliked. The results suggest that merely being rejected may not be enough to trigger aggression; the person needs to feel disrespected. This has implications for understanding why people are more likely to respond to rejection with aggression, as well as future research explaining how people’s perception of rejection affects their behavior.
•Feeling disrespected mediates the relationship between exclusion and aggression.•Feeling disrespected from exclusion increases aggression more than feeling disliked.•Disrespectfully excluding people increased aggression.•However, respectfully excluding people may reduce aggression.
Previous work has shown that acts of self-regulation appear to deplete a psychological resource, resulting in poorer self-regulation subsequently. Four experiments using assorted manipulations and ...measures found that positive mood or emotion can counteract ego depletion. After an initial act of self-regulation, participants who watched a comedy video or received a surprise gift self-regulated on various tasks as well as non-depleted participants and significantly better than participants who experienced a sad mood induction, a neutral mood stimulus, or a brief rest period.
The authors review evidence that self-control may consume a limited resource. Exerting self-control may consume self-control strength, reducing the amount of strength available for subsequent ...self-control efforts. Coping with stress, regulating negative affect, and resisting temptations require self-control, and after such self-control efforts, subsequent attempts at self-control are more likely to fail. Continuous self-control efforts, such as vigilance, also degrade over time. These decrements in self-control are probably not due to negative moods or learned helplessness produced by the initial self-control attempt. These decrements appear to be specific to behaviors that involve self-control; behaviors that do not require self-control neither consume nor require self-control strength. It is concluded that the executive component of the self-in particular, inhibition-relies on a limited, consumable resource.
Previous research has found that individuals low in trait self-control are more likely to take excessive risks than individuals high in trait self-control. The authors expand on this by examining the ...causal effects of state fluctuations in self-control on subsequent risk taking. Using the self-control strength model, the authors predicted that depleted individuals would take more risks than individuals who did not exert self-control initially. This was tested in two experiments, using both self-reports and performance on the Balloon Analogue Risk Task. In both experiments, greater risk taking by depleted participants was related only to the amount of self-control previously exerted. This suggests that situational decrements in self-control strength lead to greater risk taking. Additional data suggest that the effects of depletion on taking chances are above and beyond the effects of trait self-control. This may help to explain situational effects, such as why conscientious people sometimes take unnecessary risks.
The brain's reliance on glucose as a primary fuel source is well established, but psychological models of cognitive processing that take energy supply into account remain uncommon. One exception is ...research on self-control depletion, where debate continues over a limited-resource model. This model argues that a transient reduction in self-control after the exertion of prior self-control is caused by the depletion of brain glucose, and that self-control processes are special, perhaps unique, in this regard. This model has been argued to be physiologically implausible in several recent reviews. This paper attempts to correct some inaccuracies that have occurred during debate over the physiological plausibility of this model. We contend that not only is such limitation of cognition by constraints on glucose supply plausible, it is well established in the neuroscience literature across several cognitive domains. Conversely, we argue that there is no evidence that self-control is special in regard to its metabolic cost. Mental processes require physical energy, and the body is limited in its ability to supply the brain with sufficient energy to fuel mental processes. This article reviews current findings in brain metabolism and seeks to resolve the current conflict in the field regarding the physiological plausibility of the self-control glucose-depletion hypothesis.
Ego Depletion Baumeister, Roy F; Bratslavsky, Ellen; Muraven, Mark ...
Journal of personality and social psychology,
05/1998, Letnik:
74, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
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Choice, active response, self-regulation, and other volition may all draw on a common inner resource. In Experiment 1, people who forced themselves to eat radishes instead of tempting chocolates ...subsequently quit faster on unsolvable puzzles than people who had not had to exert self-control over eating. In Experiment 2, making a meaningful personal choice to perform attitude-relevant behavior caused a similar decrement in persistence. In Experiment 3, suppressing emotion led to a subsequent drop in performance of solvable anagrams. In Experiment 4, an initial task requiring high self-regulation made people more passive (i.e., more prone to favor the passive-response option). These results suggest that the self's capacity for active volition is limited and that a range of seemingly different, unrelated acts share a common resource.
Predictions made by the self-control strength model were tested in a sample of underage social drinkers using ecological momentary assessment methodology. On days that participants experienced more ...self-control demands than average, they were more likely to violate their self-imposed drinking limit after controlling for mood and urge to drink. There was no relationship between self-control demands and urge or intention to drink, nor were self-control demands related to plans to limit drinking. When individuals planned to limit their alcohol intake, they were more affected by self-control demands than when they did not plan to limit their alcohol intake. Trait self-control moderated these relationships. Consistent with the self-control strength model, it appears that exerting self-control in nondrinking areas undermines individuals' capacity to exert self-control of drinking in daily life.
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