Self-control Domains Research Articles

Choosing Your Future: Temporal Distance and the Balance between Self-Control and Indulgence

This article investigates how temporal distance influences consumers’ self-control. We demonstrate that self-control is dependent on the content of currently active information in decisions for the future. When indulgence information is currently active, decisions for the future tend to be oriented toward self-control. When self-control information is currently active, decisions for the future tend to be oriented toward indulgence. In four experiments investigating two self-control domains (healthy eating and saving money), we find evidence for an information activation/inhibition account of the influence of temporal distance on self-control decisions.

Behavioral and emotional self-control: Relations to substance use in samples of middle and high school students.

The authors tested how behavioral and emotional self-control are related to adolescent substance (tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana) use. Data were obtained from 489 middle school students and 602 high school students. Multiple indicators were developed for each domain of self-control, and confirmatory analyses were used to test the measurement structure of latent constructs. Results showed that the domains of behavioral self-control and emotional self-control were statistically distinct, and both were related to adolescent substance use. Structural modeling analyses indicated indirect effects for self-control constructs primarily through pathways to competence and recent events. In addition, poor behavioral control had a direct effect to deviant peer affiliations, and poor emotional control had a direct effect to coping motives for substance use. The results indicate that both types of self-regulation are relevant for adolescent substance use. Implications for prevention and treatment research are discussed.

Commentaries on Target Articles

The three target articles presented in this issue add to a growing body of literature in social psychology that focuses on the of the self (Baumeister, 1998). That is, in these target articles the self is viewed as a regulator of mood or emotion. This perspective expands on the relationship between emotion and self-regulation by identifying emotion as not only a by-product of self-control (Carver & Scheier, 1990) but also as an explicit object of self-regulation. Tice and Bratslavsky (this issue) note that certain executive functions of the self with respect to emotion are similar to those in other domains of self-control. For instance, they note that individuals hold standards for appropriate emotional expression, monitor their actions with respect to their emotions, and assert control to obtain long-term goals. In his target article, Larsen (this issue) also shows that how the self functions as a controller in the emotional domain is similar to other control processes. He applies a general cybernetic control model to mood. According to this model an individual's current mood is compared to a desired mood state making mood the object of self-regulation. When discrepancies between the current mood and the desired mood are detected the self acts in its executive function capacity to invoke regulatory mechanisms intended to effect changes in the situation. Erber and Erber (this issue) present empirical data that document that individuals' use of regulatory mechanisms is dependent on their appraisals of the social constraints in a given situation. In their target article, the Erbers give concrete examples of the self as a regulator of mood highlighting the executive function of the self with respect to emotion. Whereas collectively these target articles stress the executive function of the self with respect to emotion, they also make assumptions about the interpersonal antecedents and consequences of emotion regulation. Because we feel that relationships provide a context that is definitely implicated in a science of mood regulation, in this commentary we emphasize and expand on the role of relationships in emotion regulation. Aspects of all three target articles point to the ties between emotion regulation and relationships. Erber and Erber focus on the effects of specific types of others in moderating mood control motives. Whereas the Erbers note that some of the individual differences that determine individuals' regulatory strategies may not be social, many behavioral traits, and beliefs and cognitions that are related to an individuals' regulatory styles are associated with family relationships (Calkins, 1994). Furthermore, many of Larsen's six potential mechanisms of individual differences may have been influenced by individuals' experiences with their caregivers. Cassidy's (1994) review, for instance, suggests that individuals' internal working models of their attachment relationships relate to their attention to affect (Larsen, Box 1), use of regulation mechanisms (Larsen, Box 2), perception of current affective states (Larsen, Box 4), discrepancy sensitivity (Larsen, Box 5), and beliefs about the optimal affective state (Larsen, Box 6). Finally, individuals' tendencies to underregulate or misregulate their emotion (Tice & Bratslavsky, this issue) may also be influenced by relationship contexts and ultimately influence relationship outcomes. We are inspired by these target articles to share our thoughts and data about relationships and emotion regulation. Across the life span, relationships serve as both inputs and outputs for emotion regulation; that is relationships serve as a context for the development of emotion regulation and emotion regulation is a key component of socially competent relationships. In the sections that follow, we give examples that illustrate how these processes may operate in infancy and early childhood, and adolescence and young adulthood.