On Conceptualizing Self-Control as More Than the Effortful Inhibition of Impulses

Fujita, Kentaro

doi:10.1177/1088868311411165

Cited by 652 publications

(590 citation statements)

References 135 publications

(220 reference statements)

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“…The findings from the current study support the idea that there is potential for people to engage in successful, effortless self-regulatory strategies that extend beyond impulse inhibition (Adriaanse et al, 2014;De Ridder et al, 2012;Fujita, 2011;Gillebaart & De Ridder, 2015;. This suggests that people who pursue goals because they want to are able to make more efficient decisions without compromising progress toward their goals, likely because they use more unconscious strategies (e.g., implementation intentions, habits) that help buffer against potential obstacles or distractions that may arise when pursuing a goal (Koestner et al, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

“…While there are many different perspectives of self-regulation (e.g., Fujita, 2011), an important predictor of goal attainment is the reasons why a person is pursuing a goal. Research based on self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) suggests that people's reasons for pursuing a goal can vary from autonomous (because you truly want to) to controlled (because you feel like you have to) reasons.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Some goals just feel easier: Self-concordance leads to goal progress through subjective ease, not effort

Werner

Milyavskaya

Foxen‐Craft

et al. 2016

Personality and Individual Differences

113

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research examines the antecedents and underlying mechanisms that facilitate successful goal pursuit over time. Email: kaitlyn.werner@carleton.ca, address: Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Loeb 550, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1S 5B6.Werner, K. M., Milyavskaya, M., Foxen-Craft, E., & Koestner, R. (2016). Some goals just feel easier: Self-concordance leads to goal progress through subjective ease, not effort. Personality and Individual Differences, 96, 237-242. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.03.002The objective of the present study was to examine whether subjective ease of goal pursuit would mediate the relation between an individual's motivation for pursuing a goal and their subsequent goal progress. Toward the beginning of a university semester, participants (n=176) identified three goals they planned to pursue throughout the semester and reported their motivation for pursuing each of them. Participants then indicated, at two monthly follow-ups, how easy and natural it felt to pursue these goals and how much effort they were putting into attaining them. At the end of the semester, participants reported on their goal progress. Within-person analyses indicated that self-concordant goals were perceived as being easier to pursue relative to an individual's other goals. Using multilevel structural equation modelling, results indicated that subjective ease, but not effort, mediated the relation between motivation and goal progress, such that people were more likely to successfully accomplish self-concordant goals because pursuing those goals was perceived as being more effortless, and not because more effort was exerted.Discussion focuses on the implications and future directions for research on subjective effort and goal pursuit.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Some goals just feel easier: Self-concordance leads to goal progress through subjective ease, not effort

Werner

Milyavskaya

Foxen‐Craft

et al. 2016

Personality and Individual Differences

113

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“…Although the central idea of programs designed to train self-control involves improving peoples' ability to inhibit a dominant response, self-control involves more than just the effortful inhibition of impulses (Fujita, 2011) and, as such, there may be multiple ways to improve this skill (Inzlicht, Legault, & Teper, 2014). Indeed, there is emerging evidence that people with higher levels of self-control may not actually be better at inhibiting impulses or spend more time doing so, which implies that the ability to inhibit responses is not in fact responsible for the higher levels of success and well-being experienced by people with good self-control.…”

Section: Is Training Inhibition the Right Way To Improve Self-control?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Does self-control improve with practice? Evidence from a six-week training program.

Miles¹,

Sheeran²,

Baird³

et al. 2016

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

127

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Can self-control be improved through practice? Several studies have found that repeated practice of tasks involving self-control improves performance on other tasks relevant to selfcontrol. However, in many of these studies, improvements after training could be attributable to methodological factors (e.g., passive control conditions). Moreover, the extent to which the effects of training transfer to real-life settings is not yet clear. In the present research, participants (N = 174) completed a 6-week training program of either cognitive or behavioral self-control tasks. We then tested the effects of practice on a range of measures of self-control, including labbased and real-world tasks. Training was compared to both active and no-contact control conditions. Despite high levels of adherence to the training tasks, there was no effect of training on any measure of self-control. Trained participants did not, for example, show reduced ego depletion effects, become better at overcoming their habits, or report exerting more self-control in everyday life. Moderation analyses found no evidence that training was effective only among particular groups of participants. Bayesian analyses suggested that the data was more consistent with a null effect of training on self-control than with previous estimates of the effect of practice.The implication is that training self-control through repeated practice does not result in generalized improvements in self-control.Keywords: self-control, self-regulation, intervention, ego depletion, self-control training 3 Does Self-Control Improve With Practice? Evidence from a 6-Week Training Program Self-control, or the ability to control thoughts, behaviors, and feelings, seems to be important for success in most areas of life (De Ridder, Lensvelt-Mulders, Finkenauer, Stok, & Baumeister, 2012). During the past 15 years, much of the research into self-control has been inspired by the strength model, which draws the analogy between self-control and a physical muscle (for a review, see Muraven & Baumeister, 2000). This model proposes that, just as using a muscle leads to temporary fatigue, exerting self-control leads to temporary reductions in selfcontrol performance; a phenomenon that has been termed 'ego depletion' (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Muraven, & Tice, 1998). However, the strength model also suggests that if selfcontrol is repeatedly exerted over time (interspersed with periods of rest), then the opposite effect should occur. In other words, just as a muscle grows stronger with exercise, so self-control should improve over time with practice (Muraven, 2010a;Muraven, Baumeister, & Tice, 1999).The ego depletion effect has been the subject of hundreds of empirical tests, extensive analysis of mediating and moderating factors, and much lively theoretical debate (e.g., Hagger, Wood, Stiff, & Chatzisarantis, 2010;Inzlicht & Schmeichel, 2012; Carter, Kofler, Forster, & McCullough, 2015). However, the strength model's predictions about the long-term effects of exerting self-control h...

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“…Defined as the capacity to regulate one's thoughts, feelings, and actions (1), self-control helps people to resolve motivational conflicts between concrete, proximal goals and abstract, distal goals (2). People with good self-control resist temptations that otherwise would impede progress toward valued longterm goals.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-control forecasts better psychosocial outcomes but faster epigenetic aging in low-SES youth

Miller

Chen

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

216

148

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There are persistent socioeconomic disparities in many aspects of child development in America. Relative to their affluent peers, children of low socioeconomic status (SES) complete fewer years of education, have a higher prevalence of health problems, and are convicted of more criminal offenses. Based on research indicating that low self-control underlies some of these disparities, policymakers have begun incorporating character-skills training into school curricula and social services. However, emerging data suggest that for low-SES youth, self-control may act as a "double-edged sword," facilitating academic success and psychosocial adjustment, while at the same time undermining physical health. Here, we examine this hypothesis in a five-wave study of 292 African American teenagers from rural Georgia. From ages 17 to 20 y, we assessed SES and self-control annually, along with depressive symptoms, substance use, aggressive behavior, and internalizing problems. At age 22 y, we obtained DNA methylation profiles of subjects' peripheral blood mononuclear cells. These data were used to measure epigenetic aging, a methylationderived biomarker reflecting the disparity between biological and chronological aging. Among high-SES youth, better mid-adolescent self-control presaged favorable psychological and methylation outcomes. However, among low-SES youth, self-control had divergent associations with these outcomes. Self-control forecasted lower rates of depressive symptoms, substance use, aggressive behavior, and internalizing problems but faster epigenetic aging. These patterns suggest that for low-SES youth, resilience is a "skin-deep" phenomenon, wherein outward indicators of success can mask emerging problems with health. These findings have conceptual implications for models of resilience, and practical implications for interventions aimed at ameliorating social and racial disparities.health disparities | resilience | stress | poverty | aging

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On Conceptualizing Self-Control as More Than the Effortful Inhibition of Impulses

Cited by 652 publications

References 135 publications

Some goals just feel easier: Self-concordance leads to goal progress through subjective ease, not effort

Some goals just feel easier: Self-concordance leads to goal progress through subjective ease, not effort

Does self-control improve with practice? Evidence from a six-week training program.

Self-control forecasts better psychosocial outcomes but faster epigenetic aging in low-SES youth

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