Dispositional Self-control Research Articles

Not merely a question of self-control: The longitudinal effects of overeating behaviors, diet quality and physical activity on dieters' perceived diet success

This longitudinal study was conducted between 2010 (T1) and 2014 (T2) on a random sample from the general Swiss population (N = 2781, 46% male). Results showed that dieters (restrained eaters) who reported lack of success in T2 were overweight in T1, had higher levels of emotional and external eating, overeating, and ambivalence toward eating palatable food in T1, and a significantly increased body mass index (BMI) in the period between T1 and T2. Dieters who reported success in T2 had maintained a normal BMI between T1 and T2, had a higher diet quality in T1 and had maintained regular physical activity for at least one year before T2. The logistic regression revealed that high levels of dispositional self-control provided the most important predictor of being a successful dieter. When controlling for dispositional self-control, high levels of emotional eating, overeating, and ambivalence in T1, together with increases in these levels between T1 and T2, were associated with a decreased likelihood of being a successful dieter in T2. High levels of diet quality in T1 and the maintenance of regular physical activity were associated with an increased likelihood of being a successful dieter in T2. Results suggest that diet success and failure is a long-term phenomenon, partly but not fully explained by dispositional self-control. Independent of self-control persistent patterns of overeating due to emotional eating and ambivalent feelings toward eating palatable food, also explain long-term diet failure. A high diet quality and maintenance of regular physical activity accounted for dieters' long-term success. This is the first study that examined the long-term psychological and behavioral characteristics of successful and unsuccessful restrained eaters.

Interaction between implicit aggression and dispositional self-control in explaining counterproductive work behaviors

Implicit component of aggression as a personality trait seems to be important for understanding aggressive behavior in different life domains, including counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs). However, the expression of aggressive urges might depend on the level of self-control an individual possesses. In this paper we report the results of 2 studies that tested the interaction between implicit aggression, as measured with the Conditional Reasoning Test for Aggression (CRT-A), and dispositional self-control (DSC) in explaining counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs). In Study 1, 333 employees completed a study package consisting of the CRT-A, a DSC scale, and a CWB scale. In Study 2, an additional sample of employees (n=341) completed a research battery consisting of the CRT-A, another DSC scale, and another CWB instrument. Additionally, in Study 2 we collected ratings about the participants' DSC and CWBs from their coworkers. The moderation analyses confirmed that high DSC buffers the effect of implicit aggression on self-reported CWBs in both studies, irrespective of whether self-control was self- or other-reported. However, the moderation effect was nonsignificant when other-reports of CWBs were used as the criteria.

The association between dispositional self-control and longitudinal changes in eating behaviors, diet quality, and BMI

In a random sample from the general population (N = 2781, 46% males), a longitudinal survey was conducted. The association between dispositional self-control and changes in eating behaviours and diet quality was analysed between the first wave (2010) and the last wave (2014). Results show that the higher the dispositional self-control, the lower the increase in overeating behaviours (emotional eating, external eating, ambivalence towards palatable food and overeating), and BMI and the larger the improvement in healthy diet over time. Self-control was not associated with changes in dietary restraint. This is one of the first studies suggesting that dispositional self-control is associated with changes in eating behaviours and healthy food intake over time.

Understanding school burnout: Does self-control matter?

Three studies examined school burnout and self-control. Study 1 investigated their association in two independent undergraduate samples (N=243, N=126) and documented a consistent, negative relationship between dispositional self-control and school burnout when controlling for affective symptomology. Study 2 (N=428) examined whether dispositional self-control moderated the relationship between school burnout and important academic outcomes (grade point average, absenteeism). A school burnout by dispositional self-control interaction emerged such that poorer academic outcomes occurred at higher levels of school burnout when levels of self-control were lower. Using an experimental design, Study 3 (N=477) evaluated the casual relationship between school burnout and state self-control. Individuals induced to experience low rather than high state self-control demonstrated a stronger association between school burnout and arithmetic performance. These findings highlight the critical role of dispositional and state self-control in moderating school burnout. Directions for future research are discussed.

Assessing Self-Control and Geosocial Networking App Behavior Among an Online Sample of Men Who Have Sex with Men.

Geosocial networking phone applications (GSN apps) used to meet sexual partners have become popular in the men who have sex with men (MSM) communities of the USA since 2009. Previous studies have shown greater incidence of gonorrhea and chlamydia and lower testing frequency for HIV testing among GSN app users when compared to non-users. The present study aims to determine the type, number, and frequency of apps used, as well as the association between dispositional self-control and health-related behaviors. Participants (n = 146) were recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk program to respond to a brief GSN app marketing survey. Multivariate regression was used to determine differences in app priorities, length of app use, and number of sexual partners between high self-control and low self-control participants. A majority of the participants reported using Grindr (78%) followed by Scruff (19%), Growlr (12%), and Jack'd (12%). Most individuals used one app only (58%), but a significant proportion reported using two apps (28%) or three or more apps (14%). Respondents with low self-control were more likely to report a higher number of hours using GSN apps and a higher number of sexual partners, controlling for race/ethnicity, education, employment, and HIV status. Given the popularity of this burgeoning communication medium, these findings have important implications for developing prevention resources for different segments of GSN app users.

Psychologically detaching despite high workloads: The role of attentional processes.

Although psychologically detaching from work is beneficial for employee well-being and productivity, heavy workloads can interfere with detachment. Drawing from the self-regulation literature, we expand the stressor-detachment model to explore 2 attentional factors that shape the workload-detachment relationship: dispositional self-control-defined as a trait ability to regulate thoughts and behavior-and a daily planning intervention designed to direct attention away from incomplete work goals. Overall, we hypothesized that the ability to control and redirect attention is crucial for detaching from high workloads. Using an experimental daily diary design with 103 employees, we replicated previous results that daily workload is negatively associated with daily psychological detachment. However, this relationship was nonsignificant for individuals high on dispositional self-control and those that completed the planning intervention. We also observed a 3-way interaction, where the planning intervention was only effective for individuals low on dispositional self-control because employees high on self-control were naturally better at detaching from high workloads. Overall, these results illustrate the theoretical and practical utility of an attention-based perspective on detachment processes, including a simple intervention for helping individuals detach at home despite high workloads. (PsycINFO Database Record

Measuring Dietary Restraint Status: Comparisons between the Dietary Intent Scale and the Restraint Scale.

The measurement of young women’s self-reported dietary restraint status is complex. Compared to Herman and Polivy’s commonly utilized Restraint Scale (RS), Stice’s Dietary Intent Scale (DIS) is less understood. Because the DIS is becoming a popular research tool, it is important to understand how this scale compares to more traditional measures of restraint. We conducted two correlational studies (Study 1 N = 110; Study 2 N = 216) to ascertain the similarities and the differences between the DIS and – as a comparison measure – the well-researched RS. We explored how the two scales were related to several body image variables (e.g., thin-ideal internalization); with a range of self-regulatory variables (e.g., dispositional self-control); with observed food intake during a taste test; and with 18-month weight change (Study 2 only). Participants were female University students and were not selected for dieting or disordered eating. Unlike RS scores, DIS scores were not significantly correlated with the majority of variables tapping into unsuccessful self-regulation. However, our data also highlighted similarities between the two restraint scales (e.g., association with 18-month weight-loss) and demonstrated that not only were participants’ DIS scores un-related to unsuccessful self-regulatory variables, neither were they related to the variables tapping into successful self-regulation.

Examining relationships between facial emotion recognition, self-control, and psychopathic traits in a non-clinical sample

Although psychopathy is a low prevalence disorder, individuals with sub-clinical psychopathic traits have been shown to reside within the community. One account of psychopathy proposes that deficits in self-control play a causal role. Other theorists propose that psychopathy-related antisocial behaviour can be attributed to a constitutional deficit of empathy, resulting from an inability to interpret and respond to the affective cues of others. These theoretical perspectives may both be relevant if psychopathy is understood as a dimensional construct, with primary psychopathy the consequence of a neurological vulnerability to emotional deficits, and secondary psychopathy reflecting an environmental adaptation and subsequent failure of self-control. Using a non-clinical sample (n=479), this study examined the relationship between sub-clinical psychopathic traits, self-control and the identification of facial emotion. Both primary and secondary psychopathic traits were associated with reduced accuracy in identifying facial affect, with more pronounced impairments seen for primary psychopathy. While both primary and secondary psychopathic traits were found to be related to deficits in dispositional self-control, the effect was significantly greater for secondary psychopathy.

Prospective predictors of short-term adjustment after the Canterbury earthquakes: Personality and depression.

The present study examined the relationship between pretrauma variables (neuroticism, optimism, self-control, and pretrauma depression) and postearthquake adjustment (posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, sense of normality) 1 month and 3 months after 2 major earthquakes in Canterbury, New Zealand. Earthquake related hassles were examined as a potential mediator. Participants completed questionnaires preearthquakes (T1–T3), and again 1 month (T4; N 185) and 3 months (T5; N 156) postearthquakes. Controlling for perceived life threat and objective trauma severity, higher levels of neuroticism and pretrauma depression, and lower levels of self-control and optimism, were significantly associated with higher levels of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms after both earthquakes. Neuroticism, pretrauma depression, and self-control, but not optimism, were also associated with an increase in PTSD symptoms over time. All 3 personality variables were associated with sense of normality after the 2011 earthquake, again controlling for perceived life threat and objective trauma severity. However, when the relative contribution of the pretrauma factors was examined (i.e., all pretrauma factors were entered into the analyses simultaneously rather than individually), optimism ceased to be a significant predictor in all cases. Neuroticism emerged as a robust independent predictor of postearthquake adjustment. Pretrauma depressive symptoms and dispositional self-control were both independent predictors of PTSD symptoms after both earthquakes. Earthquake related hassles mediated the relationship between neuroticism and post-2011 PTSD symptoms, changes in PTSD symptoms over time, and sense of normality.

Protected By Your Self-Control

Self-control allows people to curb destructive behavior and behave more pro-socially in relationships. Thus, individuals generally trust partners with high dispositional self-control more. However, it is not clear whether partner self-control influences individuals’ responses to acutely risky situations, such as when partners are rejecting. A daily diary study of married and cohabiting couples examined whether actors with high self-control partners behave less self-protectively in risky situations. On days partners were highly rejecting, actors were less likely to retaliate against and more likely to value high self-control partners. On days after partners had been rejecting, actors also reported that high self-control partners behaved more responsively. Actors also trusted partners with high self-control more regardless of risk. Taken together, our findings suggest that partners’ greater self-control may help foster more positive interaction cycles in romantic relationships.

Overriding “Doing Wrong” and “Not Doing Right”: Validation of the Dispositional Self-Control Scale (DSC)

We present the Dispositional Self-Control (DSC) Scale, which reflects individuals’ tendency to override 2 types of temptations, termed doing wrong and not doing right. We report a series of 5 studies designed to test the reliability and validity of the scale. As hypothesized, high DSC predicts distant future orientation and low DSC predicts deviant behaviors such as aggression, alcohol misuse, and aberrant driving. DSC also predicts task performance among resource-depleted participants. Taken together, these findings suggest that the DSC Scale could be a useful tool toward further understanding the role of personality in overcoming self-control challenges.

Successful and unsuccessful restrained eating. Does dispositional self-control matter?

In a random sample (N=1078) from the general population, this study examined whether individual differences in dispositional self-control can explain restrained eaters’ success in controlling their weight. A regression analysis with body mass index (BMI) as dependent variable revealed a significant negative association between dispositional self-control and BMI, and a significant positive association between dietary restraint and BMI. These effects were qualified by a significant interaction between restraint and self-control. Among restrained eaters, the association between self-control and BMI was significantly more negative than among normal eaters. Furthermore, among female restrained eaters higher dispositional self-control scores were associated with BMIs within the normal-weight range (BMI<25) and lower dispositional self-control scores were associated with BMIs within the overweight range (BMI>25). Among male restrained eaters very high scores on dispositional self-control were associated with BMIs within the normal-weight range, whereas medium or low scores on self-control were associated with BMIs within the overweight range. Results suggest that high dispositional self-control facilitates successful restrained eating.

Childhood self-control, adolescent behavior, and career success

Research indicates that dispositional self-control is an important predictor of a wide range of behaviors and outcomes but little research has examined this characteristic in the context of career success. This work adds to the limited findings in this area and extends previous research by developing and examining a model of self-control and career success. Specifically, drawing from the concepts of cumulative and interactional continuity (Caspi, Bem, & Elder, 1989) and the recently proposed distinction between start/initiatory and stop/inhibitory self-control (e.g., de Ridder, de Boer, Lugtig, Bakker, & van Hooft, 2011), we developed and tested a model of the pathways leading from childhood self-control to career outcomes focusing on adolescent behavior that is positive (e.g., studying) versus negative (e.g., stealing), education, and job complexity. Results indicated that childhood self-control predicted positive and negative adolescent behavior; this behavior predicted educational attainment; education predicted the complexity and income associated with one’s job; job complexity predicted income and job satisfaction; and income predicted job satisfaction. These findings add to research on self-control and career success, further demonstrating the relevance of self-control in this context and highlighting key links connecting these variables involving factors related to start and stop control.

Self-control, negative affect and neural activity during effortful cognition in deprived smokers

The vast majority of attempts to quit smoking cigarettes are unsuccessful. Negative affect (NA) is one of the primary factors contributing to smoking relapse, in part because it interferes with psychological processes that are essential for self-regulation and coping. Converging evidence suggests that NA may be less of a problem for smokers with high relative to low dispositional self-control, but very little is known about the mechanisms that underlie this effect. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to address this issue by examining the associations between trait self-control, state levels of NA and patterns of brain activation in nicotine-deprived smokers (n = 117) during the performance of a verbal n-back paradigm (a task requiring cognitive processes that support self-regulation). While the activation of several brain regions linked to executive control correlated positively and negatively with state NA and trait self-control, respectively, an interaction between these factors was identified in only one region: the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). We conclude that the functions supported by the vmPFC are an important source of variability in smokers' self-regulatory functioning and propose that the region may contribute to the use of implicit forms of self-control under demanding circumstances.

Rational Misbehavior? Evaluating an Integrated Dual-Process Model of Criminal Decision Making

Test the hypothesis that dispositional self-control and morality relate to criminal decision making via different mental processing modes, a ‘hot’ affective mode and a ‘cool’ cognitive one. Structural equation modeling in two studies under separate samples of undergraduate students using scenarios describing two different types of crime, illegal downloading and insurance fraud. Both self-control and morality are operationalized through the HEXACO model of personality (Lee and Ashton in Multivariate Behav Res 39(2):329–358, 2004). In Study 1, negative state affect, i.e., feelings of fear and worry evoked by a criminal prospect, and perceived risk of sanction were found to mediate the relations between both dispositions and criminal choice. In Study 2, processing mode was manipulated by having participants rely on either their thinking or on their feelings prior to deciding on whether or not to make a criminal choice. Activating a cognitive mode strengthened the relation between perceived risk and criminal choice, whereas activating an affective mode strengthened the relation between negative affect and criminal choice. In conjunction, these results extend research that links stable individual dispositions to proximal states that operate in the moment of decision making. The results also add to dispositional perspectives of crime by using a structure of personality that incorporates both self-control and morality. Contributions to the proximal, state, perspectives reside in the use of a new hot/cool perspective of criminal decision making that extends rational choice frameworks.

The multiple pathways by which self-control predicts behavior

The multiple pathways by which self-control predicts behavior

The erosive effects of racism: reduced self-control mediates the relation between perceived racial discrimination and substance use in African American adolescents.

Perceived racial discrimination, self-control, anger, and either substance use or use cognitions were assessed in 2 studies conducted with samples of African American adolescents. The primary goal was to examine the relation between discrimination and self-control over time; a 2nd goal was to determine whether that relation mediates the link between discrimination and substance use found in previous research. Study 1, which included a latent growth curve analysis with 3 waves of data, indicated that experience with discrimination (from age 10 years to age 18 years) was associated with reduced self-control, which then predicted increased substance use. Additional analyses indicated anger was also a mediator of this discrimination to use relation. Study 2, which was experimental, showed that envisioning an experience involving discrimination was associated with an increase in substance-related responses to double entendre words (e.g., pot, roach) in a word association task, especially for participants who were low in dispositional self-control. The effect was again mediated by reports of anger. Thus, the "double mediation" pattern was discrimination → more anger and reduced self-control → increased substance use and/or substance cognitions. Results are discussed in terms of the long-term impact of discrimination on self-control and health behavior. Implications for interventions aimed at ameliorating the negative effects of discrimination and low self-control on health are also discussed.

The role of consumer self-control in the consumption of virtue products

Virtue products (such as sunscreen lotion and dental floss) promise future benefits and, at the same time, carry immediate and ongoing usage costs. Although consumers acknowledge the benefits of virtue products, they find it difficult to consume them on a daily basis. This research focuses on a key problem in the consumption of virtue products–ongoing use–and identifies ways to help consumers maintain ongoing consumption.We propose and show that products' attributes (in terms of future versus present benefits) and consumers' dispositional self-control interact to shape the consumption of virtue products. In two field experiments that use different product categories–dental floss and sunscreen lotion–we show that low self-control participants consume a virtue product whose product description highlights a present benefit more than they consume a virtue product whose description highlights a future benefit. Among high self-control participants the reverse effect was observed. In a third study we show the same pattern of results when willingness to pay is measured.

Low Trait Self‐Control Predicts Self‐Handicapping

Past research has shown that self-handicapping stems from uncertainty about one's ability and self-presentational concerns. The present studies suggest that low dispositional self-control is also associated with self-handicapping. In 3 studies (N = 289), the association between self-control and self-handicapping was tested. Self-control was operationalized as trait self-control, whereas self-handicapping was operationalized as trait self-handicapping in Study 1 (N = 160), self-reported self-handicapping in Study 2 (N = 74), and behavioral self-handicapping in Study 3 (N = 55). In all 3 studies, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that low self-control predicts self-handicapping, independent of self-esteem, self-doubt, social desirability, and gender.

Disengaging From a Task

This study tests the assumption that disengagement from a task indicates poor self-control, especially following little progress. A total of 120 undergraduate students worked on Sudoku puzzles, a logical reasoning task for which progress could be measured. A binary logistic regression revealed a three-way interaction among dispositional self-control, dispositional self-awareness, and actual task progress in predicting disengagement versus persistence. Among individuals with high self-awareness, greater self-control was associated with significantly higher probabilities of task persistence during high task progress. Alternatively, greater self-control was associated with lower probabilities of task persistence during low task progress among individuals with high self-awareness. These results support theories of adaptive goal disengagement suggesting that how individuals apply control is dependent on factors other than self-regulatory capacity. Specifically, assessments of progress among highly self-aware individuals may facilitate adaptive self-regulation.