Browsing by Subject "Self-control"

Despite the considerable influence of situational factors and the resulting variability in behavior, individuals maintain stable average ways of acting. The purpose of the studies presented in this paper was to investigate one possible explanation of this trait stability. It is hypothesized that contra-trait behaviors, those that are different from typical trait levels, demand more effort, or self-control, than do trait-typical behaviors. In Study 1, participants reported on the trait content of their behavior along with several other variables. In Study 2, participants completed several tasks in the lab and were instructed to act at contra-trait or trait-typical levels of conscientiousness. Support for the contra-trait effort hypothesis was found in Study 1: Participants reported that contra-trait behavior was more effortful than trait-typical behavior. In addition, habitual contra-trait behaviors, which do not require self-control, were exempt from this effect. In Study 2, no support was found for contra-trait hypotheses: Participants generally did not rate contra-trait behaviors as more effortful, and subsequent behaviors were not affected by contra-trait behaviors. The implications of the findings and the possible explanations of the non-findings are discussed.

This dissertation concerns methods to test whether or not self-control

is costly, the form of temptation, and the affects different assumptions

about costly self-control and temptation have on optimal borrowing

and saving mechanisms. The second chapter shows that costly self-control

and temptation can be differentiated from changing impatience in a

stochastic income consumption-savings environment. The third chapter

describes an experiment to test whether subjects have time inconsistent

preferences, whether self-control is costly, and if so, whether the

cost of self-control is time dependent. The fourth chapter describes

the affects on the optimal borrowing and savings mechanisms that assumptions

about the myopia of temptation and the strength of costly self-control

have.

People value others’ good self-control when they feel their own self-control is inadequate or need help pursuing our goals. However, the process by which people distinguish good vs. poor self-control in others has not been examined. This study examined the behavioral evidence people use to judge others’ self-control. Participants (N=297) described the behaviors of two people they know with high and low self-control. Each behavior was coded for presence of successful/failed initiation of desired behaviors (e.g., going to the gym, missing work), successful/failed inhibition of undesired behaviors (e.g., not losing one’s temper, binge drinking), and behavioral domain. Eating and financial behaviors were the most frequently cited domains for both high and low self-control others, whereas other domains were more common in descriptions of high (exercise) or low (substance use) self-control. Successful initiation and inhibition behaviors were equally prevalent in high self-control descriptions, whereas low self-control descriptions were biased toward failures of inhibition. This pattern of results held regardless of relationship length and type (e.g., spouse, friend). The results suggest people either fail to recognize others’ failures to initiate or consider them less important when judging poor self-control others. The limitations of and future directions for this line of research will be discussed.

The current study assessed the relationship between licensing and self-control maintenance. Previous research on licensing has found mixed results for the effect of perceived progress on goal pursuit. Some studies find evidence that progress increases commitment and motivation to a goal, making licensing less likely, whereas other studies have found that progress leads to coasting and feelings of earned licensing. Previous work on managing food consumption has demonstrated that using a mental budget in tandem with a salient avoidance goal is an effective means of monitoring and limiting overindulgence. The current study used a mixed event-contingent and fixed-interval experience sampling design to examine the role of licensing in the eating domain and its effect on goal pursuit. Participants in the experimental condition were prompted with personalized commitment devices each day to assess if they promoted goal pursuit and appropriate licensing. We found that licensing occurs infrequently, but when it does occur, goal progress and goal commitment increase. The use of commitment device has little impact on licensing or goal pursuit.

An abstract of a dissertation that examines the effect of practicing different forms of self-control, inhibition and initiation, on the occurrence of subsequent behaviors reflecting one or both types of self-control. Previous work based on the limited strength model of self-control has demonstrated that practicing small acts of self-control can improve self-control over time. However, past research involving self-control practice has operationalized self-control primarily as the inhibition of impulses. The current set of studies distinguishes between two forms of self-control: self-control by inhibition and self-control by initiation. This work also contributes to the self-control literature by treating self-control as an idiosyncratic process. Study 1 tested whether fluctuations in each form of self-control, aggregated at the daily level, would predict the degree to which people reported engaging in other self-control behaviors. Study 1 was a two-week experience sampling study in which 101 undergraduates reported several times daily on their self-control behaviors. The results of Study 1 support a distinction between self-control by inhibition and initiation. Moreover, the finding that participants actually studied more on days when they reported exerting more self-control by initiation seems to support a possible practice effect on self-control that may be specific to form. Study 2 introduced a practice manipulation, testing whether practicing one form of self-control (either inhibition or initiation) leads to improvement in only that type of self-control (but across domains), or across both forms. Study 2 was four weeks in total: two weeks of a practice manipulation (either inhibition, initiation, or a no-practice control) and two weeks of experience sampling. Analyses were carried out using multilevel modeling in SAS Proc Mixed and SAS Proc Glimmix. However, results indicated that there was no main effect of practice on subsequent self-control behaviors. Follow-up analyses revealed that the effect of practice varied across dependent variables and as a function of reported exertion of inhibition and initiation. Several effects from Study 1, including the effect of within-person exertion of initiation on subsequent self-control behaviors, were replicated. Possible explanations for the unexpected findings, including the strength of the practice manipulation, are discussed. Ideas for future research, including tailoring self-control practice to specific demands on self-control, are presented. Implications for the effect of practice on future self-control pursuits and a distinction between inhibition and initiation are also discussed.

Religious observance has been reliably shown to improve a wide variety of health outcomes across the lifespan. Significant work has already been done to find mediating processes that explain this relationship, but as yet no studies have been published that attempt to integrate these mediators into a single model to see if they all work together. The current study presents three possible mediators of the religiosity-health link: social support, self-control, and reliance on others. Participants were recruited from Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk worker system (N = 112) for a 14-day diary study in which all relevant constructs were measured on a daily basis, with daily health behaviors being the outcome. Social support, self-control, and reliance on others were all found to be simultaneous partial mediators of the religiosity-health link, though some questions remain as to the causal flow between religiosity and each of these mediators. It is concluded that each of these mechanisms is related to religiosity and in turn aid in the pursuit of superior health.