A Stitch in Time: Strategic Self-Control in High School and College Students

Food cravings are associated with increased self-regulation, even in the face of strong instigation habits: A longitudinal study of the transition to plant-based eating

Frequently engaging in a positive health behaviour, like following a vegetarian or vegan (veg*n) diet, can bring benefits to both the individual and society. We investigated the roles of two psychological determinants of behaviour-instigation habits and self-regulation strategy use-in a cohort of individuals who were newly transitioning to a veg*n diet. In a longitudinal study over 6 months (7 waves including baseline), 222 individuals transitioning to a veg*n diet reported their monthly habit strength, craving frequency, self-regulation strategies and animal product consumption. Our results supported the benefits of having a healthy habit, as stronger habits predicted fewer cravings and lower consumption of animal products, in line with the person's target diet. However, in contrast to some theoretical accounts, having a strong instigation habit did not reduce the use of self-regulation strategies; people with strong habits used multiple strategies to maintain their diet, especially when they experienced frequent diet-inconsistent cravings. These findings challenge the idea that habits eliminate the need for self-regulation, and suggest that habits do not fully circumvent motivational challenges in the pursuit of complex health behaviours. Our results are consistent with recent suggestions that automatic and intentional processes act simultaneously during the enactment of complex health behaviours.

Uncontrolled vaping and restraint strategies: A qualitative study

INTRODUCTION

Little is known about uncontrolled vaping, defined as vaping more than the user prefers. We sought to understand e-cigarette users' experiences with uncontrolled vaping and how they restrain their vaping.

METHODS

Participants were 24 US adult e-cigarette users recruited in 2021. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews about uncontrolled vaping and restraint strategies and analyzed findings based on behavioral categories described in the Process Model of Self-Control.

RESULTS

While most participants (21 of 24) described experiences of uncontrolled vaping, some expressed ambivalence about how much they vaped. To restrain vaping, willpower was rarely used and was not perceived as effective. Distraction, deployment of attention away from the urge to vape, and reappraisal, thinking differently about vaping such as reminding oneself of health consequences, were common and helped some participants limit use in the moment of wanting to vape. Participants described using both situation selection, choosing to be in situations where e-cigarette use was less possible, and situation modification, modifying their circumstances to restrict opportunities to vape.

DISCUSSION

Uncontrolled vaping is not yet a well-defined concept for many e-cigarette users. E-cigarette users employed proactive situational strategies that required planning ahead to restrain use and found these strategies more effective compared to reactive strategies. Tobacco control programs and interventions should consider leveraging restraint strategies that people who vape are naturally using and perceive to be effective.

Metacognition and polyregulation in daily self-control conflicts

Metacognition is important for self-regulated learning, and it has recently been argued that it may play an important role in self-control more generally. We studied multiple aspects of metacognition in self-control, namely metacognitive knowledge including a person's repertoire ("toolbox") of different self-regulatory strategies, metacognitive regulation (planning, monitoring, and evaluation), and polyregulation (using more self-regulatory strategies in a single self-control conflict) as predictors of people's self-control success in daily life. In a preregistered experience sampling study, N = 503 participants reported their self-control conflicts up to eight times per day for 10 days, yielding 9,639 reports of daily self-control conflicts. Analyses showed that higher levels of metacognitive knowledge, planning, monitoring, evaluation, and polyregulation as well as a larger strategy repertoire were associated with higher levels of success in resolving daily self-control conflicts. Additionally, higher levels of trait self-control were associated with higher levels of metacognitive knowledge, planning, and monitoring. These findings highlight the importance of metacognition and polyregulation for successful self-control.

Correlates of Cannabis Use and Self-Control Across a Diverse Sample of College Students: 2020-2022

Background

Despite the established relationship between substance use and self-control, it is unknown how the COVID-19 pandemic may have played a role in this association. Given the unique circumstances of the pandemic along with changing societal regulations surrounding cannabis use, and their collective impact on college students, there is a need to examine the relationship between cannabis and self-control during the pandemic era.

Methods

Data was collected from a repeated cross-sectional sample of college students at a mid-sized, urban U.S. institution during 2020-2022. Logistic and negative binominal regression analyses along with an ANCOVA were conducted to examine associations between self-control and past 30-day cannabis use.

Results

Lower self-control was significantly associated with using cannabis in the past 30-days with those individuals with self-reported low self-control using cannabis significantly more and more times per day. Finally, we found that both past 30-day cannabis use and cohort significantly predicted self-control with both individuals who report past 30-day cannabis use and the 2020 cohort reporting lower levels of self-control. There was not a significant interaction effect.

Conclusions

Despite evolving legislation regarding both medicinal and recreational cannabis use, colleges often maintain drug-free campus policies. Given high rates of cannabis use among college students and continued development of self-control, this association should be examined longitudinally and considered when creating college-level cannabis policies. Implications for college students surrounding COVID-era environments, and self-control are discussed.

Self-control and SAT outcomes: Evidence from two national field studies

Self-control is often thought to be synonymous with willpower, defined as the direct modulation of impulses in order to do what is best in the long-run. However, research has also identified more strategic approaches to self-control that require less effort than willpower. To date, field research is lacking that compares the efficacy of willpower to strategic self-control for consequential and objectively measured real-world outcomes. In collaboration with the College Board, we surveyed two national samples of high school students about how they motivated themselves to study for the SAT college admission exam. In Study 1 (N = 5,563), compared to willpower, strategic self-control predicted more hours of SAT practice and higher SAT scores, even when controlling for prior PSAT scores. Additionally, the more self-control strategies students deployed, the higher their SAT scores. Consistent with dose-response curves in other domains, there were positive albeit diminishing marginal returns to additional strategies. Mediation analyses suggest that the benefits of self-control strategies to SAT scores was fully explained by increased practice time. These results were confirmed in Study 2, a preregistered replication with N = 14,259 high school students. Compared to willpower, strategic self-control may be especially beneficial in facilitating the pursuit of goals in high-stakes, real-world situations.

Moral disciplining: The cognitive and evolutionary foundations of puritanical morality

Why do many societies moralize apparently harmless pleasures, such as lust, gluttony, alcohol, drugs, and even music and dance? Why do they erect temperance, asceticism, sobriety, modesty, and piety as cardinal moral virtues? According to existing theories, this puritanical morality cannot be reduced to concerns for harm and fairness: It must emerge from cognitive systems that did not evolve for cooperation (e.g., disgust-based "purity" concerns). Here, we argue that, despite appearances, puritanical morality is no exception to the cooperative function of moral cognition. It emerges in response to a key feature of cooperation, namely that cooperation is (ultimately) a long-term strategy, requiring (proximately) the self-control of appetites for immediate gratification. Puritanical moralizations condemn behaviors which, although inherently harmless, are perceived as indirectly facilitating uncooperative behaviors, by impairing the self-control required to refrain from cheating. Drinking, drugs, immodest clothing, and unruly music and dance are condemned as stimulating short-term impulses, thus facilitating uncooperative behaviors (e.g., violence, adultery, free-riding). Overindulgence in harmless bodily pleasures (e.g., masturbation, gluttony) is perceived as making people slave to their urges, thus altering abilities to resist future antisocial temptations. Daily self-discipline, ascetic temperance, and pious ritual observance are perceived as cultivating the self-control required to honor prosocial obligations. We review psychological, historical, and ethnographic evidence supporting this account. We use this theory to explain the fall of puritanism in western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societies, and discuss the cultural evolution of puritanical norms. Explaining puritanical norms does not require adding mechanisms unrelated to cooperation in our models of the moral mind.

When (deliberate) practice is not enough – the role of intelligence, practice, and knowledge in academic performance

It is well established that academic performance (AP) depends on a number of factors, such as intellectual capacities, practice, and previous knowledge. We know little about how these factors interact as they are rarely measured simultaneously. Here we present mediated-Factors of Academic Performance (m-FAP) model, which simultaneously assesses direct and indirect, mediated, effects on AP. In a semester-long study with 118 first-year college students, we show that intelligence and working memory only indirectly influenced AP on a familiar, less challenging college course (Introduction to Psychology). Their influence was mediated through previous knowledge and self-regulated learning activities akin to deliberate practice. In a novel and more challenging course (Statistics in Psychology), intellectual capacities influenced performance both directly and indirectly through previous knowledge. The influence of deliberate practice, however, was considerably weaker in the novel course. The amount of time and effort that the students spent on the more difficult course could not offset the advantage of their more intelligent and more knowledgeable peers. The m–FAP model explains previous contradictory results by providing a framework for understanding the extent and limitations of individual factors in AP, which depend not only on each other, but also on the learning context.

Leader Trait Self-control and Follower Trust in High-Reliability Contexts: The Mediating Role of Met Expectations in Firefighting

Drawing from the theory of met expectations, this study aims to create new knowledge on the antecedents of follower trust in leaders in the context of high-reliability organizations. We hypothesize that highly self-controlled leaders instill more trust than leaders with less self-control, as the former tend to meet follower expectations. This work combines data from a field survey ( N = 256) and a multi-wave field study ( N = 106), using samples of professional firefighters to support our hypotheses that met follower expectations mediate the relationship between leader trait self-control and follower trust in the leader. Our research highlights the importance of met expectations in high-reliability contexts and demonstrates the value of leader trait self-control in building trustful relationships.

Person × domain interactions in resisting desires in daily life

Self-control has predominantly been characterized as a domain-general individual difference, assuming that highly self-controlled individuals are generally, that is, irrespective of domain, better at resisting their desires. However, qualitative differences in the domains in which these desires emerge and how individuals interact with these domains have rarely been examined. We re-analyzed three experience sampling datasets ( N participants = 431, N observations = 15,962) and found that person × domain interactions predicted significant additional variance in momentary self-control above and beyond person differences, ranging from additional 6.2% of variance in desire strength to 17.0% of variance in conflict strength. Moreover, person × domain interactions in resistance strength predicted significantly more variance in resistance success than person or domain differences. Nevertheless, the number of individual resistance profiles was too diverse to be meaningfully reduced to a core set of latent resistance profiles. Thus, our results demonstrate the importance of considering person × domain interactions in future investigations of self-control and show that there is great diversity in how and how successfully different people interact with their self-control conflicts in different domains.

Self-Regulated Learning Practice of Undergraduate Students in Health Professions Programs

BACKGROUND

University students are expected to take charge of their learning without being dependent on teachers. Self-regulated learning (SRL) is the process by which students direct their learning to achieve their set targets and goals in a timely and controlled manner. This study was undertaken to explore the practice of SRL by undergraduate students from different programs in a health science focused university during COVID-19 pandemic.

METHOD

Thirty-three undergraduate students of five health professions education programs were recruited to take part in focus group discussions to explore their SRL practice with online learning. Their responses were subjected to thematic analysis.

RESULT

Our students appeared to practice SRL, going through the phases of forethought and goal setting, performance and self-reflection. They set goals for academic as well as personal development in the university. Academic goals like achieving target GPA or marks were achieved by following different study techniques, personal management including time management, and by creating a conducive learning environment. Personal development such as interpersonal skills, social networking was achieved through socializing and participating in extracurricular activities. The students also engaged in self-reflection and analysis of their own performance followed by designing strategies to manage the challenges they faced.

CONCLUSION

Undergraduates of health professions programs appear to show evidence of practicing SRL. Although impacted by COVID-19 induced lockdown and online learning, they seem to have strategized and achieved their goals through individualized SRL processes. Promoting and fostering an atmosphere of SRL in universities to cater to the needs of the students would help them be more successful in their careers.

The influence of meaning in life on children and adolescents' problematic smartphone use: A three-wave multiple mediation model

Using a three-wave longitudinal design, the current study examined the relationship between early meaning in life and subsequent problematic smartphone use (PSU). As depression and self-control are a strong predictor of Internet-related addiction, we examined these two variables as possible mediators in this relationship based on existing literature. A total of 478 Chinese children and adolescents (243 boys and 235 girls, mean age = 11.26 years) completed questionnaires regarding meaning in life, depression, self-control and PSU. The results indicated that: (a) presence of meaning and search for meaning are positive correlation, and they are negatively associated with PSU among children and adolescents; (b) depression and self-control mediated the link between presence of meaning and children and adolescents' subsequent PSU respectively; and (c) depression and self-control sequentially mediated the relationship between early presence of meaning and children and adolescents' subsequent PSU; whereas not sequentially mediated the relationship between search for meaning and children and adolescents' subsequent PSU. These results suggested that three types of interventions could be effectively used to decrease the risk of PSU among children and adolescents, namely, enhancing presence of meaning, relieving depression, and improving self-control.

Sample Size Requirements for Simple and Complex Mediation Models

Mediation models have been widely used in many disciplines to better understand the underlying processes between independent and dependent variables. Despite their popularity and importance, the appropriate sample sizes for estimating those models are not well known. Although several approaches (such as Monte Carlo methods) exist, applied researchers tend to use insufficient sample sizes to estimate their models of interest, which might result in unstable and inaccurate estimation of the model parameters including mediation effects. In the present study, sample size requirements were investigated for four frequently used mediation models: one simple mediation model and three complex mediation models. For each model, path and structural equation modeling approaches were examined, and partial and complete mediation conditions were considered. Both the percentile bootstrap method and the multivariate delta method were compared for testing mediation effects. A series of Monte Carlo simulations was conducted under various simulation conditions, including those concerning the level of effect sizes, the number of indicators, the magnitude of factor loadings, and the proportion of missing data. The results not only present practical and general guidelines for substantive researchers to determine minimum required sample sizes but also improve understanding of which factors are related to sample size requirements in mediation models.

Working from home during the COVID-19 crisis: How self-control strategies elucidate employees' job performance

Employees around the globe experience manifold challenges to maintain job performance during the so‐called work‐from‐home experiment caused by the COVID‐19 crisis. Whereas the self‐control literature suggests that higher trait self‐control should enable employees to deal with these demands more effectively, we know little about the underlying mechanisms. In a mixed‐methods approach and two waves of data collection, we examine how self‐control strategies elucidate the link between teleworking employees' trait self‐control and their job performance. Using a qualitative approach, we explored which strategies employees use to telework effectively (N = 266). In line with the process model of self‐control, reported strategies pertained to situation modification (i.e., altering the physical, somatic, or social conditions) and cognitive change (i.e., goal setting, planning/scheduling, and autonomous motivation). Subsequent preregistered, quantitative analyses with a diverse sample of 106 teleworkers corroborated that higher trait self‐control is related to job performance beyond situational demands and prior performance. Among all self‐control strategies, modifying somatic conditions and autonomous motivation was significantly associated with job performance and mediated the self‐control‐performance link. This research provides novel insights into the processes by which employees productively work from home and inspires a broad(er) view on the topic of self‐control at work.

What’s inside is all that counts? The contours of everyday thinking about self-control

Does self-control require willpower? The question cuts to the heart of a debate about whether self-control is identical with some psychological process internal to the agents or not. Noticeably absent from these debates is systematic evidence about the folk-psychological category of self-control. Here, we present the results of two behavioral studies (N = 296) that indicate the structure of everyday use of the concept. In Study 1, participants rated the degree to which different strategies to respond to motivational conflict exemplify self-control. Participants distinguished between intra-psychic and externally-scaffolded strategies and judged that the former exemplified self-control more than the latter. In Study 2, participants provided various solutions to manage motivational conflict and rated their proposals on effectiveness. Participants produced substantially more intra-psychic strategies, rated them as more effective, and advised them at a higher rate than externally-scaffolded strategies. Taken together, these results suggest that while people recognize a plurality of strategies as genuine instances of self-control, purely internal exercises of self-control are considered more prototypical than their externally-scaffolded counterparts. This implies a hierarchical structure for the folk psychological category of self-control. The concept encompasses a variety of regulatory strategies and organizes these strategies along a hierarchical continuum, with purely intra-psychic strategies at the center and scaffolded strategies in the periphery.

Good Character at College: The Combined Role of Second-Order Character Strength Factors and Phronesis Motivation in Undergraduate Academic Outcomes

A renewed interest in the study of character and virtue has recently emerged in the fields of Education and Psychology. The latest research has confirmed the association between virtuous consistent behaviours and academic positive outcomes. However, the motivational dimension of character (the intentions underlying the patterns of observed behaviours) has received little attention. This research aims to extend the knowledge on this topic by examining the predictive relationships between the behavioural and motivational dimensions of character, with reference to academic engagement, career self-doubt and performance of Spanish university students. A total of 183 undergraduates aged 18–30 (142 of whom were women) from the north of Spain completed specific parts of self-report questionnaires, including the Values in Action VIA-72, a Spanish translated and validated version of the Moral Self-Relevance Measure MSR, and the Utrecht Work Engagement Student Scale UWES-S9. The collected data were analysed using Structural Equation Modelling. The behavioural dimension of character (character strength factors of caring, self-control and inquisitiveness) showed positive associations with academic engagement and performance. The motivational dimension of character (phronesis motivation), was negatively related to career self-doubt. For the first time, the present study has provided support for the contribution of both dimensions of character to undergraduate academic outcomes.

A meta-analysis of financial self-control strategies: Comparing empirical findings with online media and lay person perspectives on what helps individuals curb spending and start saving

Self-control can be assisted by using self-control strategies rather than relying solely on willpower to resist tempting situations and to make more goal-consistent decisions. To understand how self-control strategies can aid financial goals, we conducted a meta-analysis (Study 1) to aggregate the latest research on self-control strategies in the financial domain and to estimate their overall effectiveness for saving and spending outcomes. Across 29 studies and 12 different self-control strategies, strategies reduced spending and increased saving significantly with a medium effect size (d = 0.57). Proactive and reactive strategies were equally effective. We next examined whether these strategies studied in the academic literature were present in a media sample of websites (N = 104 websites with 852 strategies) and in individuals' personal experiences (N = 939 participants who listed 830 strategies). About half the strategies identified in the meta-analysis were present in the media sample and about half were listed by lay participants as strategies they personally use. In sum, this paper provides a comprehensive overview of the self-control strategies that have been studied in the empirical literature to date and of the strategies promoted in the media and used in daily life, identifying gaps between these perspectives.

Moving beyond Inhibition: Capturing a Broader Scope of the Self-Control Construct with the Self-Control Strategy Scale (SCSS)

The purpose of the present research was to develop a more comprehensive measure of self-control that reflects recent theoretical advancements that extend beyond inhibition. Across six samples (N = 1,946, 48.95% males, Ages 18-76, US-MTurkers/Israelis), we sought to develop and validate the Self-Control Strategies Scale (SCSS), as well as examine its predictive validity across important life domains (e.g., weight, physical activity, savings). The SCSS is comprised of eight self-control strategies that represent three categories: anticipatory control (situation selection, reward, punishment, pre-commitment), down-regulation of temptation (distraction, cognitive change, acceptance), and behavioral inhibition. Results indicate that there was a strong association between the widely used Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS). and the behavioral inhibition strategy of the SCSS. While the behavioral inhibition strategy was a strong and consistent predictor of most self-control related outcomes, results further indicate that in some domains, but not others, certain strategies may be beneficial whereas others may be detrimental. While inhibition remains to be an important factor of self-control, our findings point to the importance of adapting the use of different strategies to different domains. The SCSS can therefore be used to gain a more fine-grained understanding of the self-control construct.

Flexibility in using self-regulatory strategies to manage self-control conflicts: The role of metacognitive knowledge, strategy repertoire, and feedback monitoring

For regulating emotion, it has been shown that people benefit from being flexible in their use of emotion regulation strategies. In the current study, we built on research focused on regulatory flexibility with respect to emotions to investigate flexibility in the use of self-regulatory strategies to resolve daily self-control conflicts. We investigated three components of flexibility: (1) metacognitive knowledge, (2) strategy repertoire, and (3) feedback monitoring. In a 10-day experience sampling study, 226 participants reported whether they had, within the past hour, experienced a self-control conflict of initiating an aversive activity, persisting in it, or inhibiting an unwanted impulse in response to a temptation. Results support the hypothesis that higher levels of all three components of flexibility are associated with higher levels of success in managing daily self-control conflicts, except for strategy repertoire and feedback monitoring in conflicts of persistence. Results also support the hypothesis that higher levels of trait self-control are associated with higher levels of metacognitive knowledge and feedback monitoring for conflicts of initiation, but not for conflicts of persistence and inhibition. We found no evidence of an association between trait self-control and strategy repertoire. These findings demonstrate the importance of flexible strategy use during daily self-control conflicts.

Integrating Models of Self-Regulation

Self-regulation is a core aspect of human functioning that helps facilitate the successful pursuit of personal goals. There has been a proliferation of theories and models describing different aspects of self-regulation both within and outside of psychology. All of these models provide insights about self-regulation, but sometimes they talk past each other, make only shallow contributions, or make contributions that are underappreciated by scholars working in adjacent areas. The purpose of this article is to integrate across the many different models in order to refine the vast literature on self-regulation. To achieve this objective, we first review some of the more prominent models of self-regulation coming from social psychology, personality psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. We then integrate across these models based on four key elements—level of analysis, conflict, emotion, and cognitive functioning—specifically identifying points of convergence but also points of insufficient emphasis. We close with prescriptions for future research.

Self-control in daily life: Prevalence and effectiveness of diverse self-control strategies

OBJECTIVE

What strategies do people use to resist desires in their day-to-day life? How effective are these strategies? Do people use different strategies for different desires? This study addresses these questions using experience sampling to examine strategy use in daily life.

METHOD

Participants (N = 197, M_age  = 20.4, 63% female) reported on their use of six specific strategies (situation modification, distraction, reminding self of goals, promise to give in later, reminder of why it is bad, willpower) to resist desires (4,462 desires reported over a week).

RESULTS

Participants reported using at least one strategy 89% of the time, and more than one strategy 25% of the time. Goal reminders and promises to give in later were more likely to be used for stronger desires. People also preferred different strategies for different types of desires (e.g., eating vs. leisure vs. work, etc.).

CONCLUSION

In contrast to recent theoretical predictions, we find that many strategies, including inhibition, are similarly effective and that using multiple strategies is especially effective.

Spatiotemporal brain signal associated with high and low levels of proactive motor response inhibition

Proactive motor response inhibition is used to strategically restrain actions in preparation for stopping. In this study, we first examined the event related potential (ERP) elicited by low and high level of proactive response inhibition, as assessed by the stop-signal task. Corroborating previous studies, we found an increased amplitude of the contingent negative variation (CNV) in the high level of proactive inhibition. As the main goal of the present study, swLORETA was used to determine the neural generators characterising CNV differences between low and high levels of proactive inhibition. Results showed that the higher level of proactive inhibition involved numerous generators, including within the middle and medial frontal gyrus. Importantly, we observed that the lower level of proactive inhibition also involved a specific neural generator, within the frontopolar cortex. Altogether, present findings identified the specific brain sources of ERP signals involved in the later phase of motor preparation under low or high levels of proactive motor response inhibition.

MindHike, a Digital Coaching Application to Promote Self-Control: Rationale, Content, and Study Protocol

This protocol describes a study that will test the effectiveness of a 7-week non-clinical digital coaching intervention to promote self-control. The goal of the coaching is to support and guide people who are willing and motivated to improve their self-control with the help of the smartphone application MindHike. The coaching is based on a process model of self-control and aims to target five groups of self-control strategies. The goal of the study is to examine the effectiveness of the digital coaching intervention. A single-arm study design with pre-test, post-test and 2-month follow-up assessments and process assessments will be used to evaluate the 7-week digital coaching intervention. The digital coaching includes 49 daily lessons that are organized along 7 weekly core themes. Study participants will be at least 150 adults aged 18 years and older who are willing and motivated to improve their self-control using the MindHike application. This is the first study testing the effectiveness of a digital coaching intervention to promote self-control. Given that this approach proves effective, it could be easily implemented in various non-clinical settings such as education, health, relationship, and work, and in clinical settings. Due to its digital low-threshold character, it could also reach large numbers of people.

University students profiles of self-regulated learning and motivation

Abstract The aim of the study was to identify students’ self-regulation through learning strategies adoption in connection with motivation. A sample of 212 freshmen students answered a Likert-type questionnaire with the aim to assess learning strategies, mastery achievement goal, extrinsic goals, procrastination, and discipline valuation. Strategy use consisted in a specific task of writing a text. A person-centered approach was adopted according to the statistical data and four self-regulation clusters were identified, namely, highly self-regulated students, low regulation students, and two clusters with mixed scores. Through variance analysis mastery achievement goal appeared significantly associated only with thehighly self-regulated students cluster. Results were discussed in the framework of a self-regulated learning model and achievement goals theory. Finally, future investigations on other specific learning activities were proposed.

Nipping Temptation in the Bud: Examining Strategic Self-Control in Daily Life

Self-control is often thought to be reactive and focused solely on the inhibition of responses elicited by temptations. In two studies, we assessed whether self-control can instead (a) be planned and (b) target the antecedents of the response to temptation. We assessed self-control planning, four antecedent-focused self-control strategies (i.e., situation-selection, situation-modification, distraction, and reappraisal) and one response-focused strategy (i.e., response-inhibition). In both studies, we found that self-control planning predicted the initiation of self-control independently of temptation. Each antecedent-focused self-control strategy uniquely predicted goal-progress. Response-inhibition did not produce consistent effects on goal-progress. These studies provide evidence that people proactively initiate self-control by targeting the antecedents of temptation and that doing so supports goal-progress.

Strategies for self-controlling social media use: Classification and role in preventing social media addiction symptoms

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Many people present excessive patterns of social networking site (SNS) use and try to self-regulate it. However, little is known regarding the strategies employed by young adult SNS users and their role in preventing the emergence of addiction-like symptoms in relation to SNS use.

METHODS

In Study 1, we employed a naturalistic-qualitative approach for finding commonly employed self-control strategies in relation to SNS use. In Study 2, we examined differences between the frequency and difficulty of the strategies identified in Study 1 and tested the process through which trait self-control exerts influence on reducing SNS addiction symptomology.

RESULTS

Study 1 revealed six families of self-control strategies, some reactive and some proactive. Study 2 pinpointed the most commonly used and most difficult to enact ones. It also showed that the difficulty to enact self-control strategies in relation to SNS use partially mediates the effect of trait self-control via SNS use habit on SNS addiction symptom severity.

CONCLUSIONS

Taken together, the present findings revealed that strategies for self-controlling SNS use are common and complex. Their theoretical and clinical significance stems from their ability to prevent the translation of poor trait self-control and strong SNS use habit to the emergence of excessive use as manifested in SNS addiction-like symptoms.

Self-Control and Academic Achievement

Self-control refers to the alignment of thoughts, feelings, and actions with enduringly valued goals in the face of momentarily more alluring alternatives. In this review, we examine the role of self-control in academic achievement. We begin by defining self-control and distinguishing it from related constructs. Next, we summarize evidence that nearly all students experience conflict between academic goals that they value in the long run and nonacademic goals that they find more gratifying in the moment. We then turn to longitudinal evidence relating self-control to academic attainment, course grades, and performance on standardized achievement tests. We use the process model of self-control to illustrate how impulses are generated and regulated, emphasizing opportunities for students to deliberately strengthen impulses that are congruent with, and dampen impulses that are incongruent with, academic goals. Finally, we conclude with future directions for both science and practice.

Keep your cool and win the game: Emotion regulation and performance in table tennis

OBJECTIVE

People often feel anxious prior to performance situations, and this can lead to performance decrements. Thus, applying effective emotion regulation strategies could be crucial for achieving maximum performance.

METHOD

We investigated the relation between dispositional precompetition emotion regulation and competition performance. Participants were 310 table tennis players (240 men, M_age  = 39.07, SD = 15.99). Self-reported emotion regulation behavior was matched with objective performance data.

RESULTS

We found that positive cognitive change strategies were positively related and negative cognitive change strategies were negatively related to winning in competitions. Furthermore, athletes with a higher performance status more often used situation modification, positive cognitive change, and response modulation strategies.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings contribute to personality research by providing evidence for the (non)effectiveness of certain emotion regulation strategies.

Beyond Willpower: Strategies for Reducing Failures of Self-Control

Almost everyone struggles to act in their individual and collective best interests, particularly when doing so requires forgoing a more immediately enjoyable alternative. Other than exhorting decision makers to "do the right thing," what can policymakers do to reduce overeating, undersaving, procrastination, and other self-defeating behaviors that feel good now but generate larger delayed costs? In this review, we synthesize contemporary research on approaches to reducing failures of self-control. We distinguish between self-deployed and other-deployed strategies and, in addition, between situational and cognitive intervention targets. Collectively, the evidence from both psychological science and economics recommends psychologically informed policies for reducing failures of self-control.

Pharmacists opinions of the value of specific applicant attributes in hiring decisions for entry-level pharmacists

OBJECTIVE

The Hiring Intent Reasoning Examination (HIRE) was designed to (1) explore the relative value of applicant-specific attributes evaluated during the hiring of entry-level pharmacists; (2) examine how each of these attributes influences hiring decisions; and (3) identify which attributes practicing pharmacists perceive as most and least valuable.

METHODS

An electronic questionnaire was developed and sent to 36,817 pharmacists; 3723 (11%) responded representing a broad cross-section of practice settings and job roles. Forty-eight attributes were analyzed, 24 character traits and 24 markers of academic success. Respondents identified: 1) the relative importance the possession of each attribute would play in the decision to hire an applicant; 2) the relative importance the lack of possession of the attribute would play on the decision to hire an applicant; 3) the 10 most important attributes used when considering an applicant, and; 4) the 10 least important attributes used when considering an applicant. After investigating the relative importance of the 48 traits, a factor analysis to further group the traits was undertaken.

RESULTS

Character traits were consistently ranked higher than academic traits, both in importance and as more likely to effect the hiring decision. Additionally, "the top ten most important attributes" were dominated by character traits and "the top ten least important attributes" used in the hiring of an entry-level pharmacist were dominated by the academic traits. A factor analysis provided further evidence of the distinction of the character traits from the academic success markers.

CONCLUSION

When selecting employees from a pool of qualified applicants, the most important attributes used in hiring decision relate to the character of the pharmacist. The results are similar across all practice settings and types of respondents completing the survey.

A Person-Centered Analysis of Risk Factors that Compromise Wellbeing in Emerging Adulthood

The transition to adulthood is a major life course transition that can pose risk to wellbeing. Research is needed to identify patterns of risk for compromised wellbeing, in order to best identify supports for individuals during this potentially vulnerable transition. The purpose of this study was to identify profiles of risk in an emerging adulthood sample, and to relate these profiles to mental health and subjective and academic wellbeing. Undergraduate emerging adults (N = 903, 82 % female), aged 18-25 years (M = 21.14, SD = 1.75), completed a series of questionnaires about risk factors, mental health, and academic variables. Results from a latent profile analysis identified four distinct risk profiles: Low Risk (76 %), Low Social Support Risk (4 %), Financial Risk (11 %), and Multiple Risk (8 %). The risk profiles were subsequently related to mental health and subjective and academic wellbeing outcomes, using a pseudo-class draws approach. Analyses indicated that the risk-pattern profiles differed in several ways across outcomes. Implications for targeted interventions are discussed.