Self-control Perspective Research Articles

Social Learning, Self-Control, and Offending Specialization and Versatility among Friends.

While it is generally understood that people tend not to specialize in specific types of deviance, less is understood about offending specialization and versatility in the context of friendships. Using a large sample of persons nested within friendship pairs, this study's goal is to explore how self-control and social learning theories contribute to an explanation for specialization and versatility in offending among friends. We estimate a series of multilevel, dyadic, mixed-effects models which regress offending versatility onto measures of perceptual peer versatility, self-reported peer versatility, attitudinal self-control, behavioral self-control, and demographic controls. Results indicate that higher amounts of perceptual peer versatility and peer self-reported versatility are both related to increases in versatility among friends. Lower levels of the target respondent's attitudinal and behavioral self-control are also related to higher amounts of offending versatility. However, the peer's self-control shares no relationship with offending versatility - a point which both supports and fails to support self-control theory's expectations about how peer effects should operate. Learning and self-control perspectives both appear to explain offending versatility among friends. However, self-control theory's propositions about how peer effects should operate are contradictory. The concept of opportunity may help remediate this inconsistency in Gottfredson and Hirschi's theory.

Reasons why undergraduate women comply with unwanted, non-coercive sexual advances: A serial indirect effect model integrating sexual script theory and sexual self-control perspectives

ABSTRACTThis study explored the predictors of young women’s compliance with unwanted sexual activities, integrating the social with the cognitive and behavioral correlates of sexual compliance. In total, 222 young heterosexual women completed measures examining the Sexual Self-Control model, including reasons for consenting, sexual resourcefulness, and compliance with unwanted sex, as well as gender role measures pertaining to sexual script theory, including the sexual double standard, gender role stress, and virginity scripts. An exploratory analysis of serial indirect effects demonstrated that women scoring lower in sexual resourcefulness endorsed higher female gender role stress, which in turn was associated with higher endorsement of reasons for consent, translating into more frequent compliance with unwanted sexual activities. The relationship between one’s ability to refuse and their decision to refuse appears quite complex. Understanding one’s decision requires consideration of the social aspects of gender role endorsement.

Polluted work: A self-control perspective on air pollution appraisals, organizational citizenship, and counterproductive work behavior

In rapidly developing nations such as China, air pollution is a growing concern. Nonetheless, theory and data on the impact of air pollution on employee behavior are essentially nonexistent. In this paper we employ a diary methodology to examine the within-individual effects of air pollution appraisals on employees’ daily self-control resources and behavior. Multilevel data collected across two weeks from 155 employees located in urban China indicate that appraisals of air pollution severity deplete employees’ self-control resources. This depletion in turn mediates the effects of air pollution appraisals on employee behavior, resulting in decreased organizational citizenship behavior and increased counterproductive work behavior. In support of the depletion perspective, the effects of air pollution appraisals are moderated by employees’ trait self-control, and hold even after controlling for employees’ daily negative affectivity and objective levels of air pollution. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Understanding who cyberloafs from the self-control perspective: A study in the public service sector

The aim of this study is to understand cyberloafing behavior of employees from the self-control perspective, and to examine differences in cyberloafing according to gender and age, and the gender-age interaction effect. We used survey questionnaires to collect data from 260 Malaysian employees in the public service sector. Our results indicate that the employees engage in cyberloafing with males cyberloafing more than females, irrespective of age. This study contributes to cyberloafing behavior literature by providing an explanation of gender difference in cyberloafing using the self-control theory. The non-significant results on difference in cyberloafing according to age and gender-age interaction effect are discussed. Implications of these results for research and organizational Internet policies and practices are presented.

Out of control: A self-control perspective on the link between surface acting and abusive supervision.

In this study, we examined how leaders' customer interactions influence their tendency to abuse their followers. Specifically, we drew from ego-depletion theory to suggest that surface acting during customer interactions depletes leaders of their self-control resources, resulting in elevated levels of abusive supervision. Furthermore, we hypothesized that the effect of surface acting on abusive supervision is moderated by leaders' trait self-control, such that leaders with high trait self-control will be less affected by the depleting effects of surface acting than their peers. Results from a multiwave, multisource leader-follower dyad study in the service and sales industries provided support for our hypotheses. This research contributes to several literatures, particularly to an emerging area of study--the antecedents of leaders' abusive behaviors.

Can personality traits and daily positive mood buffer the harmful effects of daily negative mood on task performance and service sabotage? A self-control perspective

Although researchers have suggested that employee daily negative mood leads to unfavorable performance outcomes, it remains unclear “when” daily negative mood is particularly or less harmful with respect to performance outcomes. Based on the self-control framework and the undoing hypothesis, we examined whether daily negative mood impairs employee daily task performance and increases service sabotage behaviors, as well as whether individual characteristics associated with self-control can buffer the detrimental impacts of daily negative mood. After testing our theoretical model using data from two field studies with different research settings and designs, we found that employee daily negative mood negatively predicts task performance, while employee conscientiousness and daily positive mood can weaken this association. In addition, employee daily negative mood positively predicted service sabotage, whereas emotional stability attenuated the positive relationship between daily negative mood and service sabotage. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

New Development in Self-Control Theory and its Applications in Organizational Research

Self-control is one of the most important functions that human beings possess. However, current research on how it affects organizational management is limited. Self-control theory perspectives suggest that although individuals differ in their self-control ability (i.e., trait self-control), engagement in self-control also depletes one’s self-control resources, resulting in diminished state self-control ability (i.e., ego depletion) and subsequent self-control failure. The four empirical papers in the symposium consider the role of both trait and state self-control in affecting various organizational phenomenon. The symposium contributes to our understanding of how self-control works in organizational management by examining: (1) organizational behaviors that deplete one’s self-control resources (e.g., ethical leadership and surface acting when interacting with customers); (2) the interactive effects of factors depleting self-control resources and self-control capacity (e.g., surface acting and trait self-control; status loss and demonstration of self-control ability; hostility and mindfulness); (3) mediating mechanisms that explain how individual differences in self-control play a role (e.g., mindfulness leads to reduced surface acting); (4) consequences of self-control success or failure (i.e., abusive supervision, aggression, protecting the legitimacy of authorities after status loss). The papers included in this symposium draw on the self-control literature, use strong methodological approaches (e.g. experimental designs, multi-source designs, multi-wave data collections, multiple studies) to test their hypotheses, and propose novel perspectives on self-control (e.g., mindfulness as an indicator of self-control capacity, the benefits of demonstrating self-control ability). This symposium will contribute to the 2015 Academy of Management Conference by adding new perspectives to self-control theories and their applications in explaining various organizational behaviors, and by evoking interesting discussions among management researchers. After the Fall: Demonstrating Self-Control Protects the Legitimacy of Authorities After Status Loss Presenter: Jennifer Carson Marr; Georgia Institute of Technology Presenter: Stefan Thau; INSEAD Presenter: Nate Pettit; New York U. A Self-Control Perspective on the Link Between Surface Acting and Abusive Supervision Presenter: Kai Chi Yam; National U. of Singapore Presenter: Ryan Fehr; U. of Washington, Seattle Presenter: Fong T. Keng; U. of Washington Presenter: Anthony Klotz; Oregon State U. The Mechanisms of Mindfulness in Regulating Aggressive Behaviors Presenter: Lindie Hanyu Liang; U. of Waterloo Presenter: Huiwen Lian; Hong Kong U. of Science and Technology Presenter: Samuel Ian Hanig; U. of Waterloo Presenter: Douglas J. Brown; U. of Waterloo Presenter: Lance Ferris; Pennsylvania State U. Presenter: Lisa M. Keeping; Wilfrid Laurier U. When Ethical Leadership Turns Abusive: Role of Ego Depletion and Moral Licensing Presenter: Szu-Han Lin; Michigan State U. Presenter: Jingjing Ma; Michigan State U. Presenter: Russell E. Johnson; Michigan State U.

Polluted Work: A Self-Control Perspective on Air Pollution

In the 21st century, air pollution has become a global concern. Nonetheless, theory and data on the effects of air pollution in the workplace are essentially nonexistent. In this paper we employ a ...

Self-Control in School-Age Children

Conflicts between immediately rewarding activities and more enduringly valued goals abound in the lives of school-age children. Such conflicts call upon children to exercise self-control, a competence that depends in part on the mastery of metacognitive, prospective strategies. The process model of self-control organizes these strategies into five families corresponding to sequential phases in the process by which undesired and desired impulses lose or gather force over time. Situation selection and situation modification strategies involve choosing or changing physical or social circumstances. Attentional deployment and cognitive change strategies involve altering whether and how objective features of the situation are mentally represented. Finally, response modulation strategies involve the direct suppression or enhancement of impulses. The process model of self-control predicts that strategies deployed earlier in the process of impulse generation and regulation generally will be more effective than those deployed later. Implications of this self-control perspective for school-age children are considered.

Losing control, literally: Relations between anger control, trait anger, and motor control

Self-control perspectives of multiple traits have been proposed, perhaps most particularly so in the anger realm. Four studies sought to examine potential relations between anger control, trait anger, and motor control. Across the four studies, individuals (total N=366) were asked to hold a joystick cursor on a spatial target as accurately and steadily as possible and two indices of motor control were quantified. Studies 1 and 2 found that higher levels of (trait) anger control were predictive of better motor control. Studies 3 and 4 then showed that higher levels of trait anger were predictive of worse motor control. All studies also examined possible state-related influences on motor control (e.g., as a function of aversive noise), but no such effects were found. Thus, the trait-related findings were basic in nature and informative for this reason. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding personality variations in anger control and anger and the value of motoric probes of self-control.

“Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop”: Self-Control, Risky Lifestyles, and Repeat Victimization

Drawing from lifestyle-routine activity and self-control perspectives, the causal mechanisms responsible for repeat victimization are explored. Specifically, the present study investigates: (1) the extent to which self-control influences the changes victims make to their risky lifestyles following victimization, and (2) whether the failure to make such changes predicts repeat victimization. Two waves of panel data from the Gang Resistance Education and Training program are used (N = 1,370) and direct measures of change to various risky lifestyles are included. Two-stage maximum likelihood models are estimated to explore the effects of self-control and changes in risky lifestyles on repeat victimization for a subsample of victims (n = 521). Self-control significantly influences whether victims make changes to their risky lifestyles post-victimization, and these changes in risky lifestyles determine whether victims are repeatedly victimized. These changes in risky lifestyles are also found to fully mediate the effects of self-control on repeat victimization. Findings suggest that future research should continue to measure directly the intervening mechanisms between self-control and negative life outcomes, and to conceptualize lifestyles-routine activities as dynamic processes.

The Consequences of Maladaptive Coping: Integrating General Strain and Self-Control Theories to Specify a Causal Pathway Between Victimization and Offending

Drawing from general strain and self-control perspectives, the role of maladaptive coping (i.e., substance use) in the causal pathway between victimization and offending is explored. Specifically, the present study investigates: (1) the extent to which self-control influences substance use in response to victimization, and (2) whether victims with low self-control and who engage in substance use are more likely to commit violent offenses in the future. Three waves of panel data from the Gang Resistance Education and Training program are used (N = 1,463), and negative binomial regression models are estimated to explore the interactive effects of low self-control, victimization, and substance use on violent offending. Victims with low self-control are more likely to engage in substance use post-victimization, and low self-control and substance use are found to exert significant conditional effects on the pathway between victimization and offending. These results remained robust even after controlling for prior violent offending, peer influences, prior substance use, and other forms of offending. The causal pathway between victimization and offending can be explained by drawing upon key concepts drawn from self-control (i.e., how self-control shapes coping responses) and general strain (i.e., how those responses influence offending above and beyond self-control) theories, indicating that these two perspectives can and should be integrated more explicitly to explain the dynamics of victimization and offending.

Just a Little Bit Longer: Viewing Time of Erotic Material from a Self-Control Perspective

Summary For many individuals, watching erotic material constitutes a self-control conflict in which reflective tendencies compete with impulsive urges for the control of behavior. Boundary conditions such as the ability to control attention determine which influence will prevail over the other. Here, we tested this framework in the context of viewing erotic videos. Reflective tendencies, as indicated by self-reported attitudes, predicted viewing time of erotic videos for individuals high, but not low, in attention control. By contrast, impulsive tendencies, as indicated by automatic associations toward sex, predicted viewing time for individuals low, but not high, in attention control. This effect was particularly pronounced for single individuals. The adoption of a self-control framework to research on viewing erotic material has several advantages, including a better understanding of the psychological processes involved in watching erotic material, an illustration of these processes' interactive dynamic, and a more fine-grained prediction of viewing time behavior. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An Investigation of Neighborhood Disadvantage, Low Self-Control, and Violent Victimization Among Youth

This research combines social disorganization and self-control perspectives to understand personal victimization among youth. In doing so, several research questions are investigated to explore the independent and interactive influences on violent victimization risk. Using data from the Longitudinal Cohort Study in the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN-LCS), results from several multivariate models show that, independent of various situational and lifestyle choices made by adolescents, low self-control increases the likelihood of violent victimization. Further analysis shows that this association varies across levels of neighborhood concentrated disadvantage; low self-control’s influence in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods dissipates while it is amplified for those living in the least disadvantaged neighborhoods. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Self-Control and the Development of Work Arrangements

A significant part of the development experience is the change in the way work is structured. To use a historical example, the Industrial Revolution involved workers moving from agriculture to manufacturing; from working on their own to working with others in factories; and from flexible work-hours to rigid work-days. How are we to understand these changes? Why did they occur? What impacts did they have on labor productivity and possibly growth? In answering questions such as these, economic theories draw on different assumptions about aggregate production, market failures, and innovation. Yet almost all rely on one of two determinants of labor productivity: human capital and incentives. Human capital theories (broadly construed) emphasize how work arrangements utilize the distribution of human capital and, in learning models, facilitate its development. Incentive theories (again broadly construed) emphasize how workplace arrangements align worker payoffs to minimize moral hazard. In this paper, we bring together and advance a growing literature on a third feature: worker self-control. Individuals may not be able to work as hard as they would like. Some workplace arrangements may make self-control problems more severe, while others may ameliorate them. Below, we describe evidence from a field experiment broadly supportive of the selfcontrol perspective. We then argue that many work arrangements can be understood differently through this perspective. Specifically, we

Impulse and Self-Control From a Dual-Systems Perspective.

Though human beings embody a unique ability for planned behavior, they also often act impulsively. This insight may be important for the study of self-control situations in which people are torn between their long-term goals to restrain behavior and their immediate impulses that promise hedonic fulfillment. In the present article, we outline a dual-systems perspective of impulse and self-control and suggest a framework for the prediction of self-control outcomes. This framework combines three elements that, considered jointly, may enable a more precise prediction of self-control outcomes than they do when studied in isolation: impulsive precursors of behavior, reflective precursors, and situational or dispositional boundary conditions. The theoretical and practical utility of such an approach is demonstrated by drawing on recent evidence from several domains of self-control such as eating, drinking, and sexual behavior.

Adolescent self-control and music and movie piracy

Recent studies have applied Grottfredson and Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime to investigate whether college students’ inclinations toward internet software piracy is related to low self-control and opportunity (i.e., computer ownership). Given the widespread use of the internet to illegally obtain copies of music and movies, it is important to understand the factors in this form of piracy as well. This study applied the self-control perspective to examine the attitudes of high school students toward the internet piracy of music and movies. Attitudes toward the internet piracy of music and movies were related to self-control, biological sex, internet experience, affiliation with deviant peers, and grade level in this study of high school students. This information is important because studies of internet piracy had not yet confirmed the presence and predictability of internet piracy in high school students. This study also suggests that piracy prevention efforts may be most appropriately focused on high school age individuals and directed toward increasing self-control.

The ‘Drug–Crime Link’ from a Self-Control Perspective

The present paper explores to what extent low self-control can account for the ‘drug–crime link’, i.e. the correlation between substance use and delinquency. Based on a large representative sample of Swiss 9th grade students, we reassess the dimensionality of Grasmick et al.'s self-control scale and propose a fivedimensional second-order factor model. This model is then used as a predictor of two correlated behavioural continua, one measuring overall delinquency and the other overall substance use. Results indicate that self-control is a strong and stable predictor of both types of behaviour. However, although self-control substantially accounts for the correlation between delinquency and substance use, a considerable residual correlation remains. It is argued that dynamic or ‘state-dependent’ factors are most likely to account for this residual correlation. Analyses of the predictive power of individual sub-dimensions of self-control further indicate that self-control might be reduced to the sub-dimensions of ‘risk-seeking’ and ‘impulsivity’. Results are discussed in the broader context of past research and of the ongoing theoretical debate.

An Integrated Perspective of Self-Control in Organizations

A theoretical view of control is developed that argues that self-control is at the core of the organizational control process. Various "levels "making up the control process and issues regarding "sources"from which to initiate control attempts are considered. Also, contingency variables relevant to decisions regarding the appropriate source from which to initiate control are addressed. Overall, the need for an expanded view of control is developed; this view recognizes the importance of self-control as well as external control mechanisms and identification of an adequate fit between these two modes for each unique situation.