How do people with high trait self‐control achieve their success? This research aimed to investigate beliefs about emotion utility as a potential mechanism. Specifically, because beliefs about the ...utility of emotions predict emotion regulation and successful performance, we investigate the hypothesis that trait self‐control influences beliefs about the utility of emotions for self‐control. Two preregistered studies examined whether beliefs about the utility of emotions in everyday self‐control situations varied depending on the person (trait self‐control) and the situation (initiatory or inhibitory self‐control). Our key finding was that people considered positive emotions more useful for self‐control than negative emotions. This effect was also moderated by situational and individual factors, such that positive emotions were considered especially useful by participants with high trait self‐control and in situations requiring initiatory self‐control (with the opposite effect for negative emotions). This research suggests a potential role for instrumental emotion regulation in self‐control success.
The organizational self-control literature usually applies resource perspectives that explain self-control failure at work by depletion of self-control resources. However, these perspectives neglect ...the role of self-control motivation. On a daily level, we examine several self-control aspects (resources, motivation, demands, and effort) as predictors of a manifestation of self-control failure at work, namely, daily counterproductive work behavior toward the organization (CWB-O). Additionally, we investigate self-control effort as a mechanism predicting the depletion of self-control resources throughout the day. We analyzed data from 155 employees in a 2-week diary study with 2 daily measurement points. Multilevel path modeling showed that self-control motivation and self-control demands, but not self-control resource depletion, predicted self-control effort. There was an indirect effect from self-control motivation on CWB-O via self-control effort but no indirect effect from self-control demands on self-control resource depletion throughout the day via self-control effort. Findings suggest that self-control motivation is a crucial factor explaining self-control failure at work and cast further doubt on the idea that exerted self-control effort is the only mechanism leading to self-control resource depletion.
Self‐control training (SCT) is a method of practicing self‐controlled behavior in one domain that enhances self‐controlled behavior in additional domains. We investigated whether 4 and 12 weeks of ...practicing self‐control would improve control over aggressive behavior. Relative to the active control group, SCT did not reduce aggression regardless of the training duration. We also did not find supportive evidence to suggest that theoretically relevant variables mediated or moderated the effects of SCT on aggression over time. Bayesian analyses showed greater support for the null hypotheses than the alternative hypothesis. Our experiment casts doubt on the long‐term effectiveness of using SCT for reducing reactive aggression. Additional research is necessary to identify the conditions under which SCT is most likely to facilitate control over aggressive behavior.
Background
Self‐regulation (SR) is central to developmental psychopathology, but progress has been impeded by varying terminology and meanings across fields and literatures.
Methods
The present ...review attempts to move that discussion forward by noting key sources of prior confusion such as measurement‐concept confounding, and then arguing the following major points.
Results
First, the field needs a domain‐general construct of SR that encompasses SR of action, emotion, and cognition and involves both top‐down and bottom‐up regulatory processes. This does not assume a shared core process across emotion, action, and cognition, but is intended to provide clarity on the extent of various claims about kinds of SR. Second, top‐down aspects of SR need to be integrated. These include (a) basic processes that develop early and address immediate conflict signals, such as cognitive control and effortful control (EC), and (b) complex cognition and strategies for addressing future conflict, represented by the regulatory application of complex aspects of executive functioning. Executive function (EF) and cognitive control are not identical to SR because they can be used for other activities, but account for top‐down aspects of SR at the cognitive level. Third, impulsivity, risk‐taking, and disinhibition are distinct although overlapping; a taxonomy of the kinds of breakdowns of SR associated with psychopathology requires their differentiation. Fourth, different aspects of the SR universe can be organized hierarchically in relation to granularity, development, and time. Low‐level components assemble into high‐level components. This hierarchical perspective is consistent across literatures.
Conclusions
It is hoped that the framework outlined here will facilitate integration and cross‐talk among investigators working from different perspectives, and facilitate individual differences research on how SR relates to developmental psychopathology.
Read the Commentary on this article at doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12707
Summary
When conceptualizing work performance as requiring self‐control, scholars often employ a resource‐depletion perspective. However, this perspective neglects the role of self‐control motivation ...and self‐regulation strategies. In this diary study, we examine self‐control motivation (viz. motivation to control impulses) and depletion at the beginning of work and at midday as predictors of afternoon task performance. Additionally, we investigate morning aversive tasks as an antecedent of increased depletion and decreased self‐control motivation. Further, we examine the role of self‐regulation strategies (organizing, meaning‐related strategies, and self‐reward) for maintaining and improving performance when depleted or low in self‐control motivation. Data from a 2‐week diary study with three daily measurements (N = 135 employees; n = 991 days) were analyzed. Multilevel path modeling showed that self‐control motivation at the beginning of work and depletion at midday predicted afternoon task performance. We found that self‐reward in the afternoon counteracts the negative relationship between depletion and task performance. Further, we found an indirect effect from morning aversive tasks on task performance via depletion at noon buffered by afternoon self‐reward. Organizing and meaning in the afternoon were positively related to afternoon task performance. Findings suggest that self‐control motivation is important for task performance, in addition to low depletion. Moreover, results highlight that self‐regulation strategies are beneficial for task performance.
Employees around the globe experience manifold challenges to maintain job performance during the so‐called work‐from‐home experiment caused by the COVID‐19 crisis. Whereas the self‐control literature ...suggests that higher trait self‐control should enable employees to deal with these demands more effectively, we know little about the underlying mechanisms. In a mixed‐methods approach and two waves of data collection, we examine how self‐control strategies elucidate the link between teleworking employees' trait self‐control and their job performance. Using a qualitative approach, we explored which strategies employees use to telework effectively (N = 266). In line with the process model of self‐control, reported strategies pertained to situation modification (i.e., altering the physical, somatic, or social conditions) and cognitive change (i.e., goal setting, planning/scheduling, and autonomous motivation). Subsequent preregistered, quantitative analyses with a diverse sample of 106 teleworkers corroborated that higher trait self‐control is related to job performance beyond situational demands and prior performance. Among all self‐control strategies, modifying somatic conditions and autonomous motivation was significantly associated with job performance and mediated the self‐control‐performance link. This research provides novel insights into the processes by which employees productively work from home and inspires a broad(er) view on the topic of self‐control at work.
This review examines mechanisms contributing to the intergenerational transmission of self-regulation. To provide an integrated account of how self-regulation is transmitted across generations, we ...draw from over 75 years of accumulated evidence, spanning case studies to experimental approaches, in literatures covering developmental, social, and clinical psychology, and criminology, physiology, genetics, and human and animal neuroscience (among others). First, we present a taxonomy of what self-regulation is and then examine how it develops-overviews that guide the main foci of the review. Next, studies supporting an association between parent and child self-regulation are reviewed. Subsequently, literature that considers potential social mechanisms of transmission, specifically parenting behavior, interparental (i.e., marital) relationship behaviors, and broader rearing influences (e.g., household chaos) is considered. Finally, evidence that prenatal programming may be the starting point of the intergenerational transmission of self-regulation is covered, along with key findings from the behavioral and molecular genetics literatures. To integrate these literatures, we introduce the self-regulation intergenerational transmission model, a framework that brings together prenatal, social/contextual, and neurobiological mechanisms (spanning endocrine, neural, and genetic levels, including gene-environment interplay and epigenetic processes) to explain the intergenerational transmission of self-regulation. This model also incorporates potential transactional processes between generations (e.g., children's self-regulation and parent-child interaction dynamics that may affect parents' self-regulation) that further influence intergenerational processes. In pointing the way forward, we note key future directions and ways to address limitations in existing work throughout the review and in closing. We also conclude by noting several implications for intervention work.
Self‐control and investment choices Sekścińska, Katarzyna; Rudzinska‐Wojciechowska, Joanna; Jaworska, Diana
Journal of behavioral decision making,
December 2021, 2021-12-00, 20211201, Volume:
34, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Three studies (N1 = 799, N2 = 359, and N3 = 310) investigating the role of self‐control in investment decisions are reported. Study 1 focused on links between trait self‐control, the propensity to ...invest, and the propensity to make risky investment decisions. Study 2 investigated whether reflecting on one's prior successes and failures in exercising self‐control has an impact on subsequent investment decisions. Study 3 considered the joint effect of both self‐control factors considered in the first two studies. The results indicated that self‐control plays a significant role in explaining investment decisions. Specifically, self‐control level was positively related to the propensity to invest but negatively related to the propensity to take investment risks. Paralleling these findings, participants reflecting on situations in which they resisted temptation allocated more money to investments than control group members but were less willing to make risky decisions when creating investment portfolios. Finally, an interplay was observed between trait self‐control and factors modifying the situational level of this variable: Among participants recalling successes in self‐control, higher levels of trait self‐control were linked to investment decisions, but this was untrue for participants reflecting on failures in self‐control.
Daily emotional labor can impair psychological well-being, especially when emotions have to be displayed that are not truly felt. To explain these deleterious effects of emotional labor, scholars ...have theorized that emotional labor can put high demands on self-control and diminishes limited regulatory resources. On the basis of this notion, we examined 2 moderators of the daily emotional labor process, namely day-specific sleep quality and individual self-control capacity. In particular, in 2 diary studies (NTOTAL = 171), we tested whether sleep quality moderates the influence of emotional dissonance (the perceived discrepancy between felt and required emotions) on daily psychological well-being (ego depletion, need for recovery, and work engagement). In addition, we examined 3-way interactions of self-control capacity, sleep quality, and emotional dissonance on indicators of day-specific psychological well-being (Study 2). Our results indicate that the negative relations of day-specific emotional dissonance to all day-specific indicators of well-being are attenuated as a function of increasing day-specific sleep quality and that self-control capacity moderates this interaction. Specifically, compared with low self-control capacity, the day-specific interaction of emotional dissonance and sleep quality was more pronounced when trait self-control was high. For those with low trait self-control, day-specific sleep quality did not attenuate the negative relations of emotional dissonance to day-specific well-being. Implications for research on emotional labor and for intervention programs are discussed.
Why does self-control predict such a wide array of positive life outcomes? Conventional wisdom holds that self-control is used to effortfully inhibit maladaptive impulses, yet this view conflicts ...with emerging evidence that self-control is associated with less inhibition in daily life. We propose that one of the reasons individuals with better self-control use less effortful inhibition, yet make better progress on their goals is that they rely on beneficial habits. Across 6 studies (total N = 2,274), we found support for this hypothesis. In Study 1, habits for eating healthy snacks, exercising, and getting consistent sleep mediated the effect of self-control on both increased automaticity and lower reported effortful inhibition in enacting those behaviors. In Studies 2 and 3, study habits mediated the effect of self-control on reduced motivational interference during a work-leisure conflict and on greater ability to study even under difficult circumstances. In Study 4, homework habits mediated the effect of self-control on classroom engagement and homework completion. Study 5 was a prospective longitudinal study of teenage youth who participated in a 5-day meditation retreat. Better self-control before the retreat predicted stronger meditation habits 3 months after the retreat, and habits mediated the effect of self-control on successfully accomplishing meditation practice goals. Finally, in Study 6, study habits mediated the effect of self-control on homework completion and 2 objectively measured long-term academic outcomes: grade point average and first-year college persistence. Collectively, these results suggest that beneficial habits-perhaps more so than effortful inhibition-are an important factor linking self-control with positive life outcomes.
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