1 Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
2 Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA.
Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2017 May;43(5):693-705. doi: 10.1177/0146167217695555. Epub 2017 Mar 16.
Self-control is a highly adaptive human capacity. Accordingly, development of self-control is widely encouraged. Whereas the benefits of having self-control are well documented, little is known about the impact of wanting self-control. The present investigation fills this void by exploring the effect of desire for self-control on the ability to exert self-control. It was expected that in the context of demanding self-control challenges, a desire for self-control will highlight a discrepancy between one's goals and perceived performance potential, leading to reduced efficacy beliefs and task disengagement. Four studies ( N = 635) supported the prediction. Study 1 showed that a strong desire impaired performance on a demanding task but not on a simple task. Study 2 conceptually replicated the decrement in performance and established causality by experimentally manipulating desire for self-control. Studies 3 and 4 showed that reduction in efficacy beliefs mediate the effect. Implications of the findings are discussed.
自我控制是一种高度适应人类的能力。因此，广泛鼓励发展自我控制。虽然有自我控制的好处有充分的记录，但很少有人知道想要自我控制的影响。本研究通过探讨对自我控制的渴望对自我控制能力的影响来填补这一空白。预计在需要自我控制挑战的背景下，对自我控制的渴望将突出一个人的目标和感知到的表现潜力之间的差距，导致效能信念降低和任务脱离。四项研究（N=635）支持了这一预测。研究 1 表明，强烈的欲望会损害高要求任务的表现，但不会损害简单任务的表现。研究 2 通过实验性地操纵对自我控制的渴望，从概念上复制了表现的下降，并确定了因果关系。研究 3 和 4 表明，效能信念的降低是这种影响的中介。讨论了研究结果的意义。
