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Current accounts of self-control are highly individualistic. When individuals succeed
at exerting self-control, we assume that they possess some positive internal characteristic
that explans their success. Similarly, when individuals do not succeed, we blame their
failure on an internal flaw. Yet many factors may influence the likelihood that an
individual will exert self-control, including not only internal characteristics of
individuals but also external factors. In this dissertation, I develop a framework
for understanding the multiple sources of influence on individuals' state self-control
that groups these factors into three categories: social, personal, and environmental.
Further, I detail the multiple mechanisms by which the factors in the Social, Personal,
and Environmental Control of Self (SPECS) model may influence self-control. Specifically,
I examine the potential role of regulatory accessibility as a mechanism of influence
on state self-control. In Study 1, I show that individuals who think about a friend
with good self-control demonstrate increased performance on a persistence task than
do participants who think about a friend with bad self-control. In Study 2, I replicate
this effect, showing increased inhibitory capacity among individuals who wrote about
a friend with good self-control compared to a control group, and decreased inhibitory
capacity among individuals who wrote about a friend with bad self-control. In Study
3, I show that regulatory exertion increases among individuals subliminally primed
with the name of a friend with good self-control and that regulatory exertion decreases
among indivdiuals primed with the name of a friend with bad self-control. These findings
support my hypothesis that models of self-control should account for sources of influence
external to the individual, as well as explore the multiple pathways by which regulatory
exertion is influenced. These findings support my hypothesis that social factors influence
regulatory exertion, or state self-control. Further, they provide evidence that state
self-control is influenced not only by regulatory capacity, but also by other mechanisms,
including regulatory accessibility. Further research following the SPECS model will
investigate the combined influence of social and environmental influences on self-control
and the indirect influences of personal characteristics, such as trait self-control,
on regulatory exertion.
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