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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



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


  • Is self-control a limited resource?

    • ego-depletion model says yes

      • cognitive load is a related concept

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



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


  • Is self-control a limited resource?

    • ego-depletion model says yes

      • cognitive load is a related concept