WK 6 - self-regulation and self-control

Self-control

 the capacity for altering one's own responses, especially to bring them in line with standards such as ideals, values, morals and social expectations, and to support the pursuit of long-term goals (Baumeister et al., 2007)

• Classic self-control test from the 1960s (Walter Mischel)

• "eat it now or wait 20 minutes, and I will give you another

• 10-15 years later, participants got retested

• Those who resisted the marshmallow (on average):

• Scored better on SATs

• Were better at dealing with stress and concentrated better - as rated by their parents

When a group of the ppt from the marshmallow test were tested again in their 40s,

who resisted the marshmallow still had (on average) higher willpower

The Dunedin study procedure

• Longitudinal study: Recruited 1000 children and they are now age 50

• Replicated the marshmallow test

The Dunedin study results

• kids higher on self-control were better able to resist

• Tested again in 30s and Higher self-control related to:

  • fewer physical health problems

  • reduced likelihood of: substance dependence, financial difficulties, being single parent, criminal record

So self-control represents an

energy or strength that helps people to resist or control urges, desires, impulses etc.

What components is self-control split into?

trait and state

• Items on the Self-control scale (Tangney et al., 2004)

• I have a hard time breaking bad habits

• I get distracted easily

• I say inappropriate things

• I refuse things that are bad for me, even if they are fun

• I am good at resisting temptation

• Meta-analysis (De Ridder et al, 2012) higher trait self-control associated with:

• Being more popular

• Academic success

• Better coping skills

• Lower chance of substance abuse

• Lower chance of criminal behaviour

Trait self-control: Methods for coping with stress (Englert et al., 2011)

• People high on trait self-control seem to react to stress more proactively than those low in self-control

Trait self-control: Doping susceptibility (Chan et al., 2015) procedure

• 400+ young athletes

  • Average age 18, and state, national or international level

Trait self-control: Doping susceptibility (Chan et al., 2015) results for high trait S-c

• more negative doping attitudes and intentions

• more avoidant behaviours (eg: how much do you avoid situations where you might inadvertently dope?)

High S-C athletes are more likely to pass the lollipop test

procedure

• All ppt offered a lollipop as a thanks for participating in the survey

• Lollipop was from a rare/not well-known brand

High S-C athletes are more likely to pass the lollipop test

conclusion

• High level athletes are very good at monitoring at what they eat. taking it would be a risk as they dont know the ingredients

Depleted resource hypothesis

• Every act of self-control draws from a limited pool of control resources

When people have emptied their self-control resources, they experience

ego depletion

Depleted resource notion is covered in the

 strength model of self-control (Baumeister's work)

ego depletion at these times when further acts of self-control become

much harder to achieve so more susceptible to self-control failures

• Ego depletion research

  • Studied using the dual-task paradigm

• Two groups, two conditions each

• Group A first task has depleting self-control task

  • Eg: watch funny video but don’t laugh

• Group B first task has general, not depleting task

  • Eg: watch funny video and react naturally

• Both complete second task is dependent self-control task

• Baumeister et al (1998)

  • Given plate of radish and plate of cookies

  • conditions?

• Group A: told ppt eat radish but do not touch cookies so requires impulse control

• Group B: told have chocolate, and to not touch the radish

• Baumeister et al (1998) then measured

persistence on unsolvable puzzle

• Baumeister et al (1998)

result for Group A

only peristed with the task for 8 minutes and made 19 attempts

• Baumeister et al (1998)

result for group B

persisted with task for 19 minutes and made 34 attempts

• Baumeister et al (1998)

result for no food control

persisted with task for 20.9 minutes and made 32 attempts

Why study ego depletion in sports?

• In-game issues

• Overcoming aggressive impulses

• Handling anxiety

• Taking instruction from coach/teamates

• Playing your role (vs showing off)

Why study ego depletion in sports?

 off-field issues

• Dealing with the media

• Training hard in poor weather

• Drugs/doping/diet

• Pre-season & injury rehab

Ego depletion is domain general

• Self control exertion in one domain reduces self-control in other domains

Evidence for ego depletion being domain general - Bray et al (2012)

different conditions

Depletion group did stroop task, control group did easy stroop task

Evidence for ego depletion being domain general - Bray et al (2012)

procedure

Stroop lasted 22 min, max handgrip every 3 minutes

Evidence for ego depletion being domain general - Bray et al (2012)

results

• Depleted group performed gradually worse

• The physical handgrip task felt harder for those who were depleted from the cognitive stroop task

ego depletion and endurance performance (Bray et al, 2011)

• Did dual task paradigm:

  • Cognitive depletion task: Group A had depleting Stroop task and group B had non-depleting Stroop task

  • Physical outcome task: handgrip time

• Performance on endurance task is poorer when in depleted state

ego depletion and Skill-based performance (McEwan et al., 2013)

• Dart-throwing activity before and after depleting task (they used the stroop approach)

• People who were ego depleted showed reduction in performance when measured before and after depletion

ego depletion and Skill-based performance (McEwan et al., 2013) other finding

people in the ego depletion with high trait self-control were not as badly affected

ego depletion and Performance under pressure (Englert et al., 2015)

procedure

• Both groups do sprints and measured number of false starts

• Then got group A to transcribe piece of text and omit e and n

• Or group B transcribe piece of text with no rules

• Then did another sprint

ego depletion and Performance under pressure (Englert et al., 2015)

results

• Number of false starts on sprint increased in ego depletion group

State self-control in soccer referees

• Experience of hassle and travel time to the match related to lower self control

• Ego depletion associated with self-reported match difficulty and negatively related to self-rated match performance

Ego depletion and decision making (Furley et al., 2013)

procedure

• Basketball players shown still photos and given choice about best option

• Asked if the best option was to past, shoot or dribble

• Same depletion method (transcription method)

Ego depletion and decision making (Furley et al., 2013)

results

• Correct decisions results

  • Depletion group - 37%

  • Control group - 45%

Ego depletion & attention regulation

• Under high anxiety conditions (i.e when there is a need for self control), ego depleted performers are less able to hold their final fixation on a target in a dart-throwing task

• Effect of anxiety appears to be more pronounced for depleted performers

Ego depletion & attention regulation - how did they mainpulate anxiety

having them do it at different heights on climbing wall - higher height meant higher anxiety

Methods to get around ego depletion: training

• Evidence that you can train people to beat ego depletion

• Training includes self-control exercises often practiced over 2,3, 4 weeks

Methods to get around ego depletion: example of training Gailliot et al (2007)

Using non-dominant hand, refraining from swearing

Methods to get around ego depletion: example of training (Muraven, 2010)

Cutting back on lollies, squeezing a hand grip regularly

Methods to get around ego depletion: Doing regular physical exercise might be one method for training self-control (Oaten & Cheng, 2006) procedure

• Australian undergraduates participated in exercise training by receiving a gym membership and exercising regularly for 2 months

Methods to get around ego depletion: Doing regular physical exercise might be one method for training self-control (Oaten & Cheng, 2006) results

• Cigarettes, caffience and alcohol consumption reduced

• Healthy eating increased, junk food decreased, impulse spending decreased, over spending decreased, losing temper decreased

Methods to get around ego depletion: self-control training among undergrads (Denson et al., 2011): for 2 weeks they?

• Using non-dominant hand for 2 weeks for everyday tasks

  • Brushing teeth

  • Opening doors

  • Using a computer mouse

Methods to get around ego depletion: self-control training among undergrads (Denson et al., 2011): At the end of the 2 weeks…

• ppt asked to give a 2 min speech about their life goals to someone over skype

• The feedback they all received from their speech was that iwas boring and they hadnt given much thought about their future goals

Methods to get around ego depletion: self-control training among undergrads (Denson et al., 2011): After they recieved feedback they…

• were the given the opportunity to retaliate by blasting white noise into the persons headphones that had given them that feedback

• The people that had been through the training programme were less likely to retaliate

Methods to get around ego depletion: self-control training among undergrads (Denson et al., 2011): results may help our understanding of

agression in sport

Methods to get around ego depletion:Recovery

• Idea that R & R helps replenish self-control stores (Baumeister, 2002)

• Diet broken & addictive relapses = later in the day

• Impulsive crimes occur after midnight

• A boring lecture is harder to listen to at 4pm than 10am

Methods to get around ego depletion: A period of recovery and then…

 having self-control task protects against the effects of ego depletion

Other Methods to get around ego depletion:

• Mood - improve mood offset effects of ego depletion

• Physiological methods

• Boost self-regulation skills

Self-regulation skills

• Ideally boosting trait self-control would help

• But traits can be fairly resistant to change

Question for concurrent self-regulatory efficacy (CRSE)

• "How confident are you in your ability to manage your time so that your progress toward X and Y is effective"

At times when high self-control is needed, high…

CSRE predicts greater physical activity engagement

How might you increase CRSE

• Planning

  • Health action process approach

Action planning to increase CRSE

• Making plans for behaviour in tersm of what, where, how and when people are going to act

• Provides support for goal progress

• Make people more likely to act in line with the plan, and facilitate behaviour

Coping planning to increase CRSE

• Anticipating risks and challenges, knowing that there will be barriers to your goals

• Set up plans for how to deal with them when they arise

• Similar to idea of implementation intentions (where people set up plans, "if X happens, then I will do Y"