Self-Control

Controlling Responses

• %%Physical Restraint:%% you physically manipulate the environment to prevent the occurrence of some problem behavior
    * covering nails with bandaids
    * removing access to cell phone while studying
    * deleting social media from phone
• %%Depriving and Satiating:%% deprive/satiate yourself, thereby altering the extent to which a certain event can act as a reinforcer
    * no naps during the day so you sleep longer at night
• %%Doing Something Else:%% performing an alternate behavior
    * no use of any distraction in the bed - only used for sleeping
    * no using phone in bed - may not use it while lying down
• %%Self-Reinforcement and Self-Punishment%%

 \n \n Risks of using Self-Control

• if other people are aware of your plan (social consequence) you are more likely to complete your goal

Self-Control

• Skinner on Self-Control
    * self control is not willpower but conflicting outcomes
    * two types of responses:
      * controlling response alters frequency of controlled response
      * physical restraint manipulates environment to prevent occurrence
    * depriving and satiating: utilize motivating operations of deprivation and satiation to alter extent to which certain event can act as reinforcer
    * doing something else: prevent engaging in certain behaviors by performing alternate behavior
    * self-reinforcement and self-punishment: reinforce your own behavior. less likely to produce consequences for yourself; use social consequences to keep accountable
• Self-Control as a Temporal Issue
    * behavior more heavily influenced by immediate consequences rather than delayed ones
    * later consequences are less certain than sooner consequences
    * delay of gratification: choosing a larger later reward over smaller sooner reward VS
    * impulsiveness: choosing smaller sooner over larger later reward
• Mischel’s Delay of Gratification Paradigm
    * extent to which children avoided paying attention to reward had significant effect on their resistance to temptation
    * manner in which children thought about rewards made a difference
    * children who devised tactics enabling them to wait for preferred reward were, at 17, more cognitively and socially competent
• Ainslie-Rachlin Model of Self-Control
    * preference between smaller sooner / larger later rewards can shift over time
      * get less impulsive when you get older
      * grand plans at night and give up by next day
    * value of reward increases more sharply as delay decreases / reward become imminent
      * graduating hs - reward was greater senior yr than it was freshman yr
    * some of us can delay gratification better than others
      * innate differences in impulsivity
      * individual differences in impulsivity
      * less impulsive after experience
      * availability of other reinforcement reduces impulsiveness
      * maintain responding for distant goal by setting up explicit series of subgoals
    * make a commitment (precommitment) response
      * carried out at early point in time
      * serves either to eliminate or greatly reduce the value of upcoming temptation
      * behavioral contract
• Small-but-Cumulative Effects Model
    * each individual choice on self-control task has small but cumulative effect on our likelihood of obtaining desired long-term outcome; helps explain who self-control is difficult
    * to improve self-control:
      * make salient that individual choices are not isolated events, but rather parts of a whole
      * have a relapse prevention plan
      * establish rules that clearly distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behaviors

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• Is self-control a limited resource?
    * ego-depletion model says yes
      * cognitive load is a related concept