The current study examined the effects of good and poor control and changes in blood glucose following self-control depletion on task persistence. Good self-control attenuated the effect of depletion on task persistence. Poor control exerted a main effect; however, there were no significant interactions between poor control and self-control depletion. In addition, the association between depletion and task persistence was partially mediated by decreases in blood glucose. Task persistence in the experimental, but not control, condition was correlated with several risk behaviors. These correlations provide support for the external validity of the laboratory experiment. The differential effects of good and poor control support a two-mode model of self-control. The interaction between the depletion manipulation and good self-control suggests that associations between good self-control and behavior may be due, in part, to good self-control reducing the effects of self-control demands on behavior.
Aiken, L.S., & West, S.G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
2.
Baron, R.M., & Kenny, D.A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173-1182.
3.
Baumeister, R.F. (2002). Ego depletion and self-control failure: An energy model of the self's executive function. Self and Identity , 1, 129-136.
4.
Baumeister, R.F., Bratslavsky, E., Muraven, M., & Tice, D.M. (1998). Ego depletion: Is the active self a limited resource ? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1252-1265.
5.
Baumeister, R.F., Gailliot, M., DeWall, C.N., & Oaten, M. (2006). Self-regulation and personality: How interventions increase regulatory success, and how depletion moderates the effects of traits on behavior. Journal of Personality, 74, 1773-1801.
6.
Baumeister, R.F., Heatherton, T.F., & Tice, D.M. (1994). Losing control: How and why people fail at self-regulation . San Diego, CA: Academic Press .
7.
Baumeister, R.F., Vohs, K.D., & Tice, D.M. (2007). The strength model of self-control. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 351-355.
8.
Carver, C.S. (2005). Impulse and constraint: Perspectives from personality psychology, convergence with theory in other areas, and potential for integration . Personality and Social Psychology Review, 9, 312-333.
9.
Carver, C.S., & Scheier, M.F. (1998). On the self-regulation of behavior. New York: Cambridge University Press.
10.
Chen, K., Sheth, A., Elliott, D., & Yeager, A. (2004). Prevalence and correlates of past-year substance use, abuse, and dependence in a suburban community sample of high-school students . Addictive Behaviors, 29, 413-423.
11.
DeWall, C.N., Baumeister, R.F., Stillman, T.F., & Gailliot, M.T. (2007). Violence restrained: Effects of self-regulation and its depletion on aggression. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 62-76.
12.
Dimeff, L.A., Baer, J.S., Kivlahan, D.R., & Marlatt, G.A. (1999). Brief alcohol screening and intervention for college students (BASICS): A harm reduction approach. New York : Guilford Press.
13.
Eisenberg, N., Spinrad, T.L., Fabes, R.A., Reiser, M., Cumberland, A., Shepard, S.A., et al. (2004). The relations of effortful control and impulsivity to children's resiliency and adjustment. Child Development, 75, 25-46.
14.
Eysenck, S.B.G., Pearson, P.R., Easting, G., & Allsopp, J.F. (1985). Age norms for impulsiveness, venturesomeness and empathy in adults. Personality and Individual Differences , 6, 613-619.
15.
Fromme, K., Katz, E.C., & Rivet, K. (1997). Outcome expectancies and risk taking behavior . Cognitive Therapy and Research, 21, 421-442.
16.
Gailliot, M.T., & Baumeister, R.F. (2007). Self-regulation and sexual restraint: Dispositionally and temporarily poor self-regulatory abilities contribute to failures at restraining sexual behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 173-186.
17.
Gailliot, M.T., Baumeister, R.F., DeWall, C.N., Maner, J.K., Plant, E.A., Tice, D.M., et al. (2007). Self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source: Willpower is more than a metaphor. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 325-336.
18.
Gailliot, M.T., Schmeichel, B.J., & Baumeister, R.F. (2006). Self-regulatory processes defend against the threat of death: Effects of self-control depletion and trait self-control on thoughts and fears of dying. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 49-62.
19.
Gailliot, M.T., Schmeichel, B.J., & Maner, J.K. (2007). Differentiating the effects of self-control and self-esteem on reactions to mortality salience. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 894-901.
20.
Kendall, P.C., & Williams, C.L. (1982). Assessing the cognitive and behavioral components of children's self-management. In P. Kanfer & F. H. Kanfer (Eds.), Self-management and behavior change (pp. 240-284). New York: Pergamon Press.
21.
Kendler, H.H., Kendler, T.S., & Marken, R.S. (1969). Developmental analysis of reversal and half-reversal shifts. Developmental Psychology, 1, 318-326.
22.
Larsen, R.J., & Buss, D.M. (2005). Personality psychology: Domains of knowledge about human nature. New York: McGraw-Hill .
23.
Lieberman, M.D. (2007). Social cognitive neuroscience: A review of core processes. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 259-289.
24.
Lieberman, M.D., Harmon-Jones, E., & Winkielman, P. (2007). The X- and C-systems: The neural basis of automatic and controlled social cognition. In E. Harmon-Jones & P. Winkielman (Eds.), Social neuroscience: Integrating biological and psychological explanations of social behavior (pp. 290-315). New York: Guilford.
25.
Long, S. (1997). Regression models for categorical and limited dependent variables (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
26.
MacKinnon, D.P., Fritz, M.S., Williams, J., & Lockwood, C.M. (2007). Distribution of the product confidence limits for the indirect effect: Program PRODLIN. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 384-389.
27.
Matthews, D.B., & Miller, W.R. (1979). Estimating blood alcohol concentration: Two computer programs and their applications in therapy and research. Addictive Behaviors, 4, 55-60.
28.
Metcalfe, J., & Mischel, W. (1999). A hot/cool-system analysis of delay of gratification: Dynamics of willpower. Psychological Review, 106, 3-19.
29.
Muraven, M., Collins, R.L., Morsheimer, E.T., Shiffman, S., & Paty, J.A. (2005). The morning after: Limit violations and the self-regulation of alcohol consumption. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors , 19, 253-262.
30.
Muraven, M., Collins, R.L., Shiffman, S., & Paty, J.A. (2005). Daily fluctuations in self-control demands and alcohol intake. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 19, 140-147.
31.
Muraven, M., & Shmueli, D. (2006). The self-control costs of fighting the temptation to drink. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 20, 154-160.
32.
Muraven, M., Tice, D.M., & Baumeister, R.F. (1998). Self-control as a limited resource: Regulatory depletion patterns. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 774-789.
33.
Muthén, L.K., & Muthén, B.O. (2006). Version 5 Mplus user's guide. Los Angeles: Author.
34.
Oaten, M., & Cheng, K. (2005). Improved self-control: The benefits of a regular program of academic study. Basic and Applied Social Psychology , 28, 1-16.
35.
Oaten, M., & Cheng, K. (2006). Longitudinal gains in self-regulation from regular physical exercise. British Journal of Health Psychology, 11, 717-733.
36.
Oaten, M., & Cheng, K. (2007). Improvements in self-control from financial monitoring . Journal of Economic Psychology, 28, 487-501.
37.
Rogosa, D., & Willet, J. (1983). Demonstrating the reliability of the difference score in the measurement of change. Journal of Educational Measurement, 20, 335-343.
38.
Rothbart, M.K., Posner, M.I., Kieras, J., McCartney, K., & Phillips, D. (2006). Temperament, attention, and the development of self-regulation. In K. McCartney & D. Phillips (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of early childhood development (pp. 338-357). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
39.
Sales, B.D., & Folkman, S. (2000). Ethics in research with human participants. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association .
40.
Schmeichel, B.J. (2007). Attention control, memory updating, and emotion regulation temporarily reduce the capacity for executive control. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 136(2), 241-255.
41.
Schmeichel, B.J., Baumeister, R.F., & Vohs, K.D. (2004). Self-regulatory strength. In R. F. Baumeister & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory, and applications (pp. 84-98). New York: Guilford .
42.
Schmeichel, B.J., & Zell, A. (2007). Trait self-control predicts performance on behavioral tests of self-control. Journal of Personality, 75, 743-755.
43.
Smith, E.R., & DeCoster, J. (2000). Dual-process models in social and cognitive psychology: Conceptual integration and links to underlying memory systems. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 4, 108-131.
44.
Springer, M.D. (1979). The algebra of random variables. New York: John Wiley.
45.
Strack, F., & Deutsch, R. (2004). Reflective and impulsive determinants of social behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8, 220-247.
46.
Tangney, J.P., Baumeister, R.F., & Boone, A.L. (2004). High self-control predicts good adjustment, less pathology, better grades, and interpersonal success. Journal of Personality, 72, 271-322.
47.
Tobin, J. (1958). Estimation of relationships for limited dependent variables. Econometrica, 26, 24-36.
48.
Twenge, J.M., Baumeister, R.F., Kashima, Y., Foddy, M., & Platow, M.J. (2002). Self-control: A limited yet renewable resource . In Y. Kashima, M. Foddy, & M. Platow (Eds.), Self and identity: Personal, social, and symbolic (pp. 57-70). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
49.
Veall, M.R., & Zimmermann, K.F. (1996). Pseudo-R2 measures for some common limited dependent variable models. Journal of Economic Surveys, 10, 241-259.
50.
Vohs, K.D., Baumeister, R.F., & Ciarocco, N.J. (2005). Self-regulation and self-presentation: Regulatory resource depletion impairs impression management and effortful self-presentation depletes regulatory resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 632-657.
51.
Watson, D., Clark, L.A., Wegner, D.M., & Pennebaker, J.W. (1993). Behavioral disinhibition versus constraint: A dispositional perspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
52.
White, H.R., & Labouvie, E.W. (1989). Towards the assessment of adolescent problem drinking. Journal of Studies on Alcohol , 50, 30-37.
53.
Wills, T.A. ( 1986). Stress and coping in early adolescence: Relationships to substance use in urban school samples. Health Psychology , 5, 503-529.
54.
Wills, T.A., Ainette, M.G., Mendoza, D., Gibbons, F.X., & Brody, G.H. (2007). Self-control, symptomatology, and substance use precursors: Test of a theoretical model in a community sample of 9-year-old children. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 21, 205-215.
55.
Wills, T.A., Cleary, S., Filer, M., Shinar, O., Mariani, J., & Spera, K. (2001). Temperament related to early-onset substance use: Test of a developmental model. Prevention Science, 2, 145-163.
56.
Wills, T.A., & Dishion, T.J. (2004). Temperament and adolescent substance use: A transactional analysis of emerging self-control. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 33, 69-81.
57.
Wills, T.A., Sandy, J.M., & Yaeger, A.M. (2002). Moderators of the relation between substance use level and problems: Test of a self-regulation model in middle adolescence . Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 3-21.
58.
Wills, T.A., & Stoolmiller, M. (2002). The role of self-control in early escalation of substance use: A time-varying analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 70, 986-997.
59.
Wills, T.A., Walker, C., Mendoza, D., & Ainette, M.G. (2006). Behavioral and emotional self-control: Relations to substance use in samples of middle and high school students. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 20, 265-278.
60.
Wills, T.A., Windle, M., & Cleary, S.D. (1998). Temperament and novelty seeking in adolescent substance use: Convergence of dimensions of temperament with constructs from Cloninger's theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 74, 387-406.
