Just when we thought we had worked out the main outlines of self-regulation theory, several new findings have emerged to challenge that picture. Dr. Roy Baumeister, Florida State University, presents results from laboratory, longitudinal, and meta-analytic studies on how high self-control may specialize less in resisting temptation than in avoiding it. Self-control, ego depletion, self-control and other topics are addressed

1. New Directions in Self-Regulation
Theory
Roy F. Baumeister

2. Value of Self-Control
• Success in work, school
• Good relationships
• Adjustment, mental health
• Physical health
• Good behavior (vs. crime, abuse, prejudice)
• Longevity
• It is difficult to identify any major personal
problems that do not have some element of
self-control failure

3. What is Self-Control?
• Overriding responses
– Thoughts, emotions, impulses, performance
• Regulate: Change based on idea (standard)
• Vital for human social life (culture)
– Participating in large social systems with rules
– Working in organized groups/organizations
• Basis for free will

4. Ego Depletion Theory
• Limited resource
• Performance declines as willpower depleted
• Linked to blood glucose
• Also used for choice, intelligent
thought, initiative
– Also non-behavioral functions, such as immune
system

5. Like a Muscle
• Gets tired after exertion
• Conserving energy
• Exercise increases strength !
– Building character
– Stamina

6. Decision Fatigue:
Choosing While Depleted
• Postpone/avoid decision
• Less compromise
• Default option
• Impulse, self-indulge
• Irrational bias

8. Obama recent interview
• “You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits,” he said.
“I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want
to make decisions about what I’m eating or
wearing. Because I have too many other
decisions to make.” He mentioned research that
shows the simple act of making decisions
degrades one’s ability to make further decisions.
“You need to focus your decision-making energy.
You need to routinize yourself. You can’t be going
through the day distracted by trivia.”

10. Meta-Analysis
• High trait self-control predicts better
outcomes
• Strongest with work/school, moderate with
relationships & adjustment, weakest with
appetitive behaviors (eating, smoking)
– Not exactly what we thought self-control was for
• Automatic vs controlled behaviors
De Ridder et al. (2012) Pers. Soc. Psych. Revw.

11. Offense Not Defense
• Set up life to avoid problems
• Note most effective with work & school:
performance maximized by steady habits

12. Desire and Resistance in Everyday Life
• Experience sampling study
• Ten thousand occasions, seven thousand
desires
• Strength of
desire, conflict, resistance, execution
• Plenty of other measures, traits, situation
Hofmann, Baumeister, Förster, & Vohs (2012) J. Pers. Soc. Psy.

13. Frequency and Percentage Data
Total # of reports: 10,558
Total # of desires: 7,843
execution
(70%)
no desire no resistance
(27%) (62%)
no execution
start
(30%)
desire
(73%)
execution
(17%)
resistance
(38%)
no execution
(83%)
13

14. Power of Willpower
• Was the desired behavior actually performed?
– If no resistance: 70%
– If resistance: 17%
• Thus, self-control helped reduce the
enactment of desire, from 70% to 17%

15. Everyday Desire:
Extrapolate to 16 Waking Hours
• Desiring something: 8 hours per day
• Resisting problematic desires: 3 to 4 hours per
day
• Succumbing to previously resisted
temptations: half hour per day

16. Desire Strength x Conflict

17. Desire Strength x Conflict
2.5
Leisure
2.0
Sleep
1.5
Spending Sports
Conflict Media
Grand
Tobacco Sexual desire
1.0 mean
Social interaction
Alcohol
Eating
Work Hygiene
0.5 Coffee
Non-alcoholic drinks
0.0
3.0 3.5 Grand
4.0 4.5 5.0
mean
17
Desire Strength

18. Extremes on Conflict, Strength
• Strongest desires: sleep, sex
• Most conflicted desires: relaxing, leisure, sleep
(and sex)
• Least conflicted: tea
• Weakest: tobacco, alcohol!
– Bad habits, not irresistible urges

20. High on Trait Self-Control
• Less frequent resistance!
• Weaker desires, fewer problem desires
• Less guilt
– From other work: lower life stress
• Implications: Playing offense, avoiding
problems
Hofmann et al. (2012) J. Pers. Soc. Psych.

21. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_William_Waterhouse_Ulysses_and_the_Sirens_%281891%29.jpg

22. Ego Depletion in Everyday Life
• More prior resistance leads to more execution
now, more yielding to temptation

23. Ego Depletion in Daily Life
• Depletion score: sum of previous resistance attempts on same
day, weighted by temporal distance
No resistance Resistance
Probability of execution (present desire)
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Depletion score due to previous self-control 23

24. Similarity or Complementarity in
Relationship Success:
Or, Can Two Undercontrolled Lovers
Find Happiness Together?
• 3 Studies of relationship satisfaction
• What combination of trait self-control scores
is best?
– Low difference (similarity)
– High difference (complementarity)

25. Sum, Not Difference
• The more self-control in both, the better
• No sign of similarity effects
• Partners showed some complementarity, only
in romantic relationships (mainly dating)
– Per self-control, opposites attract
Vohs, Finkenauer, & Baumeister (2011) Soc. & Pers. Psych. Sci.

26. Uncertainty Causes Depletion?

27. Study 1: Manipulation
Please complete the equation associated with
the color you just saw:
Blue: 3 x 5 =
Green: 6 x 7 =
Yellow: 7 x 9 =
Red: 3 x 8 =

28. Study 1: Measure
• DV Persistence on Unsolvable Tracing Puzzles
(Baumeister et al., 1998)

30. Study 2
• Communication and Personality
• Three conditions
– Speech
– No Speech
– Uncertain
• Measure: Solvable Anagrams
(Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Muraven, & Tice, 1998)

32. Study 3
Mediators & Moderators
• Construal Level
• Time Perception
• Working Memory
• Neuroticism

34. Mediators, Moderators
No significant differences between conditions
in
Construal level
Time Perception
No interaction with neuroticism
No effects for mood, emotion

35. Glucose Counteracts Depletion
• Sugar Splenda
• Uncertain Speech 17.7 11.1

36. Implications
• Uncertainty is depleting
• Can be worse than certainty of bad outcome
• Likely mechanism: sustaining multiple
interpretations (and switching among)
Alquist, Baumeister, & Tice (submitted)

37. Power /Leadership
and Self-Regulation
• Leadership position increase indulgence?
• Able to take it easy
• Or raise performance regulation?
• Increased commitment, loyalty, accountability
• Regulating task performance vs. appetitive
desires might be orthogonal
DeWall, Baumeister, Mead, & Vohs (2011) J. Pers. Soc. Psych.

38. Power, Leadership Summary
• Leaders self-regulate performance more than
others
– Indulgence and pleasure may be different
• But not if the task is beneath them
• Depleted leaders exert regardless of suitability
• But then become extra depleted
– “Vicious” circle?
DeWall, Baumeister, Mead, & Vohs (2011) J. Pers. Soc. Psych

39. Depletion “All in your head”?
• Job, Dweck, & Walton (2010) found belief in
unlimited willpower prevented ego depletion
• How widespread are such beliefs?
• Effects perhaps right at borderline?

40. Mild vs. Severe Depletion
• Used Job et al. manipulation, inducing belief
in limited vs. unlimited willpower
• Zero, two, or four depleting tasks
– Choice among products, Stroop, stifle
laugh, override habit to cross e’s
• Measured performance on CET
(extrapolation), delay discounting
Vohs, Baumeister, & Schmeichel, JESP, 2012

41. Not All in Your Head
34
Limited Willpower
32
Unlimited Willpower
CET scores
30
28
26
24
22
20
0 Initial Tasks 2 Initial Tasks 4 Initial Tasks

42. Limited Willpower Part 2
6
Limited Willpower
Delayed Reward Scores
5
Unlimited Willpower
4
3
2
1
0
0 Initial Tasks 2 Initial Tasks 4 Initial Tasks

43. Thus
• Willpower is limited
• Belief in unlimited willpower can forestall
depletion, but not prevent it
• That belief actually makes things worse, when
demands are substantial (when you need it
most)

44. What Depletion Feels Like

46. Impulse and Restraint
• Self-control is all about restraint
• Impulse should be unaffected
• Or else: evaluation/executive tradeoff?
• Problem of glucose consumption but total
brain caloric use unaffected

47. Depletion and Emotional Upset
Negative Emotion
Suppressed Thoughts 16.8
Unconstrained Thought 11.5
Vohs, Baumeister, et al. (submitted)

48. Evaluations Stronger
• After depletion (Stroop), IAPS positive pictures
rated more positively
• And IAPS negative pictures more negatively
• After emotionally exaggerated
reading, Chinese characters were rated more
extremely in both directions (liked and disliked
more)

49. Behavior: Hand in Ice Water
Time (sec) Pain
Depletion 44.0 5.84
Not Depleted 62.3 5.21
Vohs, Baumeister, et al. (submitted)

50. Urge for Cookie
• Depletion: write about daily routine, without
using A or N
• After eating cookie, stronger desire for
another
• Depleted also ate more
• “Full” mediation

51. Time Course of Desire
• Depletion by control attention to video
• Watch wrapped gift, indicate ongoing desire
to open it
• Depletion caused higher desire throughout
– Thus effect is not mere delay
• Also: higher peak desire, faster to peak, more
“trap time” in high desire states, more
reverting to previous, more inertia

52. Experience Sampling Revisited
• Prior resistance linked to stronger desires
(more execution)

53. Conclusions, Old and New
• Self-control helps resist temptation…but also
helps avoid it
• Benefits relationships
• Uncertainty can be depleting
• Many factors can temporarily overcome mild
depletion
– Power, motivation, beliefs
– But one pays the price later
• Depletion weakens control…but also
strengthens desires & feelings

54. The End