Thesis (Ph. D.)--Duke University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Self-control is arguably one of the most beneficial adaptations of the agentic self. It enables humans to alter spontaneous, impulsive responses in order to fit one’s goals and standards. Variations in self-control capacity are strong predictors of a wide array of individual and societal outcomes including psychological adjustment, academic achievement, physical health, financial condition, and criminality. In this respect, investigating how to prevent self-control failures is a promising way for psychologists to improve human well-being. To this end, it is important for researchers to understand why people fail to control themselves. The limited-energy model suggests that self-control behaviors draw on a limited, depletable internal resource. People will become more vulnerable to self-control failures if the internal energy is depleted by prior use. Research demonstrates that an initial volitional act would undermine subsequent self-control performance as if the initial exertion exhausts an internal resource that is required for all self-control behaviors. This phenomenon is known as ego-depletion. Although much research lends credence to the validity of the ego-depletion phenomenon, little is known about its underlying psychological mechanisms. To fill this research gap, the present research tested a self-efficacy account of ego-depletion, which suggests that reduction in self-efficacy mediates the effect of initial self-control exertion on subsequent performance. A series of four experiments were conducted to examine the self-efficacy account. Experiment 1 found that initial self-control exertion resulted in lower self-efficacy to regulate eating habits. Two subsequent experiments found that self-efficacy mediated the negative effect of initial self-control exertion on mental calculation performance under distraction (experiment 2) and persistence on anagrams (experiment 3). In experiment 4, self-efficacy explained how implicit theory of willpower moderated the ego-depletion effect. In particular, participants who believed that “willpower is unlimited” were less affected by ego-depletion because their self-efficacy did not decrease after initial exertion. Taken together, the current data suggest that self-efficacy is one of the cognitive processes underlying ego-depletion. Moreover, the current research distinguishes task-specific, prospective self-efficacy from other positive beliefs such as retrospective confidence of the initial task (experiment 2 and 4), outcome expectation (experiment 3) and general confidence in one’s ability (experiment 4). It shows that among these positive beliefs, only self-efficacy serves a mediation role in ego-depletion. The current findings not only enrich the self-efficacy theory by identifying a potential source of efficacy belief, but also contribute to a fuller mechanistic understanding of self-control failures. Implications for intervention and human agency are discussed. / published_or_final_version / Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 342-352).

The goal of the current research was to investigate the impact of lying on self-control depletion. I hypothesised that lying would require more self-control than would truth telling. In Study 1, participants were assigned one of two topics, a favourite movie or a personal problem, about which they lied or told the truth in counterbalanced order on camera for two minutes. Following the first video in which they either told the truth or lied, participants completed an anagram task that served as the measure of self-control depletion. I found that participants in the movie condition did not differ as a function of lying or telling the truth although the means were in the expected direction. Also, contrary to my predictions, participants who lied about a personal problem were significantly less depleted than were participants who told the truth about their personal problem. In Study 2, participants were assigned to either deny or confess possession of an object in two interviews, but they actually possessed the object in only one interview creating the lie versus truth-telling manipulations. After both interviews, participants’ reaction times were recorded for the Stroop task, which served as the measure of ego- depletion. I did not find a significant difference between participants who lied first versus participants who told the truth first. Furthermore, participants assigned to deny versus confess to possessing the object did not differ on the Stroop task reaction times. Possible explanations for why the results did not support the hypothesis that lying is ego- depleting are discussed. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2013-08-02 22:32:53.067

<p>An abstract of a dissertation that examines the effect of practicing different forms of self-control, inhibition and initiation, on the occurrence of subsequent behaviors reflecting one or both types of self-control. Previous work based on the limited strength model of self-control has demonstrated that practicing small acts of self-control can improve self-control over time. However, past research involving self-control practice has operationalized self-control primarily as the inhibition of impulses. The current set of studies distinguishes between two forms of self-control: self-control by inhibition and self-control by initiation. This work also contributes to the self-control literature by treating self-control as an idiosyncratic process. Study 1 tested whether fluctuations in each form of self-control, aggregated at the daily level, would predict the degree to which people reported engaging in other self-control behaviors. Study 1 was a two-week experience sampling study in which 101 undergraduates reported several times daily on their self-control behaviors. The results of Study 1 support a distinction between self-control by inhibition and initiation. Moreover, the finding that participants actually studied more on days when they reported exerting more self-control by initiation seems to support a possible practice effect on self-control that may be specific to form. Study 2 introduced a practice manipulation, testing whether practicing one form of self-control (either inhibition or initiation) leads to improvement in only that type of self-control (but across domains), or across both forms. Study 2 was four weeks in total: two weeks of a practice manipulation (either inhibition, initiation, or a no-practice control) and two weeks of experience sampling. Analyses were carried out using multilevel modeling in SAS Proc Mixed and SAS Proc Glimmix. However, results indicated that there was no main effect of practice on subsequent self-control behaviors. Follow-up analyses revealed that the effect of practice varied across dependent variables and as a function of reported exertion of inhibition and initiation. Several effects from Study 1, including the effect of within-person exertion of initiation on subsequent self-control behaviors, were replicated. Possible explanations for the unexpected findings, including the strength of the practice manipulation, are discussed. Ideas for future research, including tailoring self-control practice to specific demands on self-control, are presented. Implications for the effect of practice on future self-control pursuits and a distinction between inhibition and initiation are also discussed.</p> / Dissertation

Not available / text

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1975. / Bibliography: leaves 310-319. / x, 319 leaves ill

Victoria, Monash Univ., Diss.--Clayton, 1990. / Based on the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Monash University, early 1990s.

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2007. Graduate Programme in Higher Education. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-67). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR29271

Thesis--Bonn. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 145-153).