Baumeister self control pdf download

The power of bad: How the negativity effect rules us—And how we can rule it. New York: Penguin. References Ampel, B. Mental work requires physical energy: Self-control is neither exception nor exceptional.

Frontiers in Psychology, 9, Suicide as escape from self. Psychological Review, 97 1 , 90— The self. Gilbert, S. Lindzey Eds. Ego depletion: Is the active self a limited resource? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74 5 , — Does high self-esteem cause better performance, interpersonal success, happiness, or healthier lifestyles?

Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 4 1 , 1— The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 3 , — Relation of threatened egotism to violence and aggression: The dark side of high self-esteem. Psychological Review, 1 , 5— Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory, and applications. Psychology as the science of self-reports and finger movements: Whatever happened to actual behavior?

Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2 4 , — Bem, D. Feeling the future: Experimental evidence for anomalous retroactive influences on cognition and affect. Learn how and why willpower and self control is the key ingredient for success Acquire valuable knowledge about why you give up important goals before you get there Gain practical evidence strategies to build your self control muscle Learn directly from one of the leading authorities of self-control and willpower in this deeply absorbing 2 hour course.

ASK about the science of willpower and self-control. Read More. How do people regulate their emotions, resist temptation, break bad habits, and perform up to their potential and why do they often fail to do so? The Need to Belong. Human Sexuality. How do nature and culture influence people's sex drive, rape and sexual coercion, and the cultural suppression of female sexuality.

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Only three studies showed positive effects. The results of these three studies can be explained by a facilitating effect of catecholamines on executive functions combined with a probable too short and too light exercise to produce negative effects. Negative and positive effects of acute exercise in sequence protocols Contrary to the negative effects observed in concomitance protocols, there is currently no plausible and satisfying rationale explaining both negative and positive effects of acute exercise on a subsequent cognitive D task tapping executive functions.

Cognitive-energetic models can predict positive effects when the cognitive task is performed immediately after exercise. The improvement of performance is generally explained by an increase of arousal and activation induced by exercise. Cognitive energetic models can also predict negative effects when a sub-optimal state is induced by too intense or too long exercise that depletes effort.

Table 4 presents studies that C reported a positive effect of acute exercise on executive functions in sequence protocols with the same pieces of information than inTable 3. AC By contrast to in-task exercise protocols, positive effects of acute exercise are commonly observed in off- task exercise protocols.

As we will see further, we found only two studies showing a detrimental effect of off-task exercise on tasks clearly involving executive functions see further in this section. We also found two studies showing a detrimental effect of acute exercise on cognitive tasks tapping more indirectly executive functions.

The first study showed a clear detrimental effect of a marathon race on explicit memory processes The second study showed that pedaling on a cycle ergometer at a maximal level of effort for 6 min impaired performance of the divergent thinking task i.

The strength model of self-control has been specifically conceived to predict sequential effects. The first variable that must be taken into account in considering the effects is the level of self-control resources required to maintain exercise. If the exercise requires a high level of self-control resources e.

Conversely, if the exercise requires a low level of self-control resources e. As yet and to our knowledge, exercise has been manipulated in order to purposefully induce a depletion of self-control resources and test the effect of acute exercise on a subsequent self-regulation task in only two experiments. In their first pilot experiment, these authors used 15 min of strenuous resistance exercises at maximal intensity as the depleting self-control task PT and the d2 test61 as the dependent self-control task in semi-professional athletes.

They considered the hypothesis that people differently allocate self-control resources once they start feeling depleted according to their personality profile. According to the action control theory62, action-oriented individuals respond to increase in demands with decisiveness and initiative whereas state-oriented individuals sustain and preserve RI their current mental and behavioral states in the same situation. The detrimental effect of the depleting self- control task was only observed in state-oriented participants but not in their action-oriented counterpart meaning that action-oriented athletes continued to invest self-control resources when they felt depleted SC whereas state-oriented athletes did not.

Thus, a strenuous exercise can lead to detrimental effects on self- regulation tasks in state-oriented people. The second study was conducted in our laboratory and is currently unpublished. An incremental maximal running task was used as the depleting self-control task, a self-paced jogging task was used as the control condition, and a modified version of the Stroop task was the dependent U self-control task.

The dependent self-regulation task tapped two executive functions: inhibition of a prepotent response and cognitive flexibility. We observed a significant increase of errors for incongruent AN and switching trials tasks expected to require self-control in the depleting condition by comparison to the control condition, but no change in mean reaction time.

This last result means that the increase in error rate observed immediately after an incremental running exercise was not a strategy used by the participants to react more rapidly.

The results of these two experiments validate predictions of the strength model of self- M control and show that negative aftereffects of exercise can be obtained with highly depleting self-control exercises. These two studies open a new research avenue in exercise psychology concerning possible negative effects of acute exercise on cognition. However the results need to be replicated with other types of D depleting self-control exercises and miscellaneous subsequent self-regulation tasks in order to demonstrate their generalization to all the spheres of self-regulation.

TE As it was suggested previously in this paper, exercise may have a detrimental or a facilitating influence on self-regulation tasks according to its characteristics. On the one hand, effortful exercises Table 2 lead to self-control depletion and have a detrimental influence on a subsequent self-regulation task. On the other hand, we suggested in Section 2 that a state of positive mood allows individuals to resist the detrimental EP effect of resource depletion by expending more of the remaining self-control resources.

Considering that larger effect size on positive mood is consistently observed immediately after acute exercise for doses ranging from 10—30 min low intensity exercise to 20—30 min high intensity44, we can make here the C hypothesis that if exercise increases positive affect, it can have a facilitating effect of self-control strength and help individuals to go beyond their usual limits. The facilitating effect described by Baumeister and his collaborators must be only viewed as a compensatory mechanism allowing to restore a baseline level of performance.

However, several studies conducted by Isen and her collaborators clearly showed that positive affect leads to real improvement of performance in creativity63,64 and decision-making65, two cognitive functions involving executive control.

In addition, studies reported in Table 4 show clear improvements of performance in self- regulation tasks induced by acute exercise. Presently, no valuable explanation can account for these positive aftereffects of acute exercise on self-regulation tasks.

As muscular strength can be increased during an isometric contraction by recruiting more motor units principle of spatial recruitment66 , self-control strength could be increased by recruiting more neuronal units involved in pre-frontal areas.

Such a mechanism has already been observed in several occasions, for instance when older adults show greater extent of brain activation than younger adults for similar objective levels of difficulty67, Moreover, some studies showed that older adults had better performance than young adults in sustained attention tasks involving executive functions associated with more extended activation in prefrontal areas This extension of activation to additional neuronal units involved in self-regulation would be possible under certain circumstances such as PT an increase in positive emotion or an increase in motivation.

Another mechanism can also explain a positive effect of acute exercise and positive emotion on executive RI functions: the dopaminergic hypothesis. We do not develop this hypothesis here because it is not related to the strength model of self-control but shortly it considers that the increase in brain dopamine following acute exercise or positive emotion modulates prefrontal networks involved in self-regulation and enhances their SC processing effectiveness.

The overcompensation hypothesis and the dopaminergic hypothesis are not antagonistic and may act in convergence. These two hypotheses could be tested with mediational analyses and brain imagery. According to cognitive energetic models, the intensity of the arousing stimulation induced by acute exercise U is the most important dimension that must be taken into account in order to facilitate information processing or compensate for a sub-optimal state of energy.

In addition, as mentioned above, only sensory, perceptual AN and motor processes could benefit from an increase in arousal or activation By contrast, the strength model of self-control considers the positive valence of emotions as the most important stimulation dimension that must be taken into account to enhance self-control and effort and consequently improve executive functions.

A cognitive task generally involves several components and taps several cognitive and sensori-motor processes. We can thus hypothesize that sensory and motor D components of the task can be facilitated by an increase in arousal and activation induced by exercise while executive components of the task can be facilitated by the positive emotions induced by exercise.

Two different experimental approaches could test this hypothesis: 1 using a hierarchical regression approach TE determining the percentage of variance in self-regulation performance explained by each of the two mechanisms; 2 using a cognitive task that allows for the distinction between the different task components with different indices of performance e. Positive effects of chronic exercise Positive effects of chronic exercise or regular physical activity on executive processes are certainly the best C documented phenomena of exercise psychology concerning the exercise-cognition relationship.

Several narrative and meta-analytic reviews have been carried out on this topic16, 51, Two populations have been AC the preferential targets of most of the studies interested in the prophylactic effects of chronic exercise on cognition: children with reference to the improvement of academic achievement and older adults in order to slow-down the aging process or compensate for cognitive declines due to normal or pathological aging. The moderating effect of physical activity on cognitive and brain health has been studied with the help of epidemiological, longitudinal, cross-sectional, and interventional protocols.

Because of the limitations inherent in cross-sectional and epidemiological studies, we made the choice to focus this review on interventional studies that use a randomized control trial RCT to test a causal effect of chronic exercise on executive functions. The number of intervention studies showing a positive effect of a physical activity program on executive functions is so large more than 20 that we will not report them in a table as in previous sections.

We invite the reader to consult recent reviews and meta-analyses on this topic60, 72, Since the beginning of the 21st century, the neurotrophic hypothesis has been commonly proposed to explain the positive effects of chronic exercise on executive functions and other cognitive functions such as episodic memory.

This hypothesis considers that chronic exercise leads to a cascade of biological mechanisms such as increasing brain availability of several classes of growth factors e. However, a series of alternative more psychological hypotheses can also explain, at least in part, the positive effects of chronic exercise on self-regulation and executive functions.

This series of three hypotheses is in line with the strength model of self-control and all three have been already validated. The first hypothesis is that exercising requires self-control resources to manage the discomfort and RI sometimes the pain that people experience during exercise and that this requirement is greater for people with a low physical fitness.

The second hypothesis training hypothesis already discussed in Section 2 is that training the self-regulation function will lead to an increase of self-control capacity i. The third hypothesis is that the benefit in self-control resources obtained through physical exercise can be transferred into the cognitive domain by facilitating self-regulation. We do not pretend that this series of self-control hypotheses explains the majority of the variance of executive task performance due to chronic exercise.

Our view is that it can explain a significant part of the variance in U addition to the neurotrophic hypothesis. The interest of these three hypotheses is supported by their extension in the domain of exercise adherence as we can see in Section 6.

Exercising self-control AN Baumeister and co-workers have often compared self-control to a muscle This analogy comes from the observation that self-control performance declines after an initial utilization that depleted self-control M resources Fig. In addition, just as exercise training can make muscles stronger, there are several arguments for an improvement of self-control strength following regular self-control exertions According to Oaten and Cheng75, chronic effects of self-regulation training programs designed to increase D regulatory strength lead to improvement in self-regulatory capacity, i.

This change in resource availability can be conceived of as being more TE durable and similar to a change in muscular phosphagen reserve after strength training.

These two hypotheses are derived from the strength model of self-control and come in addition to the three initial EP hypotheses presented in Section 2. The persistence hypothesis is very similar to the transitory change in conservation threshold induced by a shift to a positive mood or an increase in motivation see Sections 2 and 4.

However, after self-control training program the change in conservation threshold would be durable C instead to be transient. The capacity hypothesis of self-control strength improvement after self-control training is illustrated on Fig. It would be difficult to test between the capacity and the persistence AC hypotheses because they both predict the same changes in behavioral performance.

A first step could be to formalize these two hypotheses at the neurophysiological level but that challenge is beyond the scope of this paper. As yet, few studies have demonstrated that programs of self-regulatory exercises over several weeks lead to a decrease of the self-control depletion effect One of these studies is particularly interesting for the purpose of the present article because the researchers used a 2-month physical activity program as self- control training Tailored programs included weightlifting, resistance training, and aerobics exercises.

At the pre-intervention session, most participants showed the self-control depletion effect quite clearly, but after 2 months of adhering to the exercise regimen, the effect was substantially reduced. More recently, a review conducted by Berkman and colleagues examined the possible neurophysiological mechanisms underlying these training effects They presented several empirical arguments showing that the right inferior frontal gyrus is a key component in the network that ultimately inhibits behavior in the service of top-down goals, making this region an excellent candidate target for self-control training interventions.

These two ideas strongly resemble isomorphic hypotheses made in cognitive psychology concerning PT executive functions. There has recently been a significant interest in whether executive functions can be improved via cognitive training and mental stimulation in different populations Several narrative and meta-analytic reviews have assessed the effectiveness of these training methods with a specific interest in executive functions Although there is no doubt that executive functions such as attentional control, RI cognitive flexibility or working memory capacity can be improved through training, the extent to which these improvements generalize and show positive transfers to everyday life activities is still strongly debated.

Concerning the effectiveness of exercise training on the improvement of executive functions, we SC invite the reader to return to Section 4.

For instance, in order to become a healthy person, I can decide to exercise regularly, to eat more vegetables and fruits, and to stop smoking. All these target behaviors need AN modification of the self and are effort consuming. A first difficulty is to engage oneself in these new behaviors. A second difficulty is to durably maintain these behavior adjustments and make them habits. In the first case, an abundant literature has been published in psychosocial research For instance, the transtheoretical model of behavior change demonstrated that the decision to engage in exercise is based on M cognitive factors like weighing pros and cons, appraising personal capabilities, or evaluating sources of support85, Another, still-under-appreciated possibility is that these decisions are influenced by affective variables such as whether previous exercise experiences were associated with pleasure or displeasure D However, interventions based on the transtheoretical model and similar models aiming to increase the maintenance of the new healthy behavior i.

Adherence to new behaviors requires the use of various effort consuming TE self-regulatory strategies e. Consequently, both adoption and maintenance of a new behavior draw on self-control resources. Because adherence to healthy behaviors is an important health-related issue, research programs are designed in order to improve adherence to these behaviors.

Specifically, intervention-based programs related to the strength model of self- EP control propose some interesting directions in studying the adherence process91,92 Among the main self- regulation-based intervention programs, the use of volitional components through goal setting, self- monitoring, formation of action plans, and recall of positive experiences has been shown to be effective to C strengthen self-regulation Despite interesting results concerning the effect of such interventions on the adoption of health behaviors92,96, very little information is given concerning the effectiveness of these AC interventions on long-term changes; in other words, can we hypothesize a chronic effect of exercising self- control on adherence behaviors?

As demonstrated earlier, self-regulation and executive functions are closely related and share effort as a resource to alter behavior. As suggested by Muraven and Baumeister22, who often restricted self-regulation to its inhibitory component, refraining from a behavior requires the expenditure of resources that are depleted afterward.

For instance, inactive individuals who begin a physical activity program must continually reinitiate the new behavior of being active and may be helped by continuing to think about the benefits of exercising and inhibiting the comfortable project to stay inactive on the sofa. However, behavioral change cannot be restricted to refraining from a behavior, but as a complete reframing of behavior that requires other higher-level cognitive functions such as planning and retrospective memory.

For instance, becoming active requires planning time and location of physical activity sessions and remembering when and where to practice.

All these cognitive functions solicit self-control resources. Consequently, by trying to maintain their exercise adherence, individuals deplete their resources in self-control. No study has examined the effects of training self-control on adherence process except indirectly through correlational studies. For instance, in an exercise adherence study, McAuley et al.

They reported that inhibitory processes and information processing speed PT were more important for adherence than cognitive flexibility and concluded that individuals who are able to inhibit habitual responses are more likely to adhere to an exercise program.

Similar results were obtained with medication adherence with authors reporting that impairment in executive functions was related to poor adherence98, To sum up, it will be appropriate to progressively introduce exercises requiring more and RI more self-control resources but never at the cost of stopping the activity.

In other words, it is our work to help individuals to adhere to exercise that develops self-control resources. This process may become a virtuous circle, self-control exercises leading to more self-control resources and consequently more SC adherence and so forth. The main ideas are that AN detrimental effects of acute exercise can be explained by the limited capacity of self-control resources, improvements of performance in self-regulation tasks observed after acute exercise by an increase in positive mood that extend the prefrontal areas activated to succeed in self-regulation, and positive effects of chronic exercise by a strengthening of self-control capacity.

This approach leads us to reconsider exercise, M not only as a physiological stimulation that enables increases in cardiovascular fitness or muscular strength, but also as a psychological stimulation that allows strengthening self-control ability and improvement of executive functions. A new avenue of research is now opened to exercise psychologists in order to explore D all the dimensions of exercise that must be taken into account to vary the amount of self-control required to perform the exercise.

It will be interesting to examine the time course of the restoration curve of self-control resources once they were depleted, test the effectiveness of physical activity programs combining both TE exercises that elicit positive emotions and self-control training exercises to increase exercise adherence and the core ability to self-regulate. EP Acknowledgment We would like to thank Yu-Kai Chang and Jennifer Etnier for inviting us to submit a paper in this special issue and for their helpful comments on a previous version of this manuscript.

C AC References 1. Karoly P. Mechanisms of self-regulation: a systems view. Annu Rev Psychol ; Executive functions and self-regulation. Trends Cogn Sci ; Barkley RA. The Executive functions and self-regulation: an evolutionary neuropsychological perspective. Neuropsychol Rev ; Cogn Psychol ; Neuropsychological assessment, 5th edition.

New York: Oxford University Press; Linkages between attention and executive functions. Attention, memory, and executive function. Sanders AF. Toward a model stress and human performance. Acta Psychol Amst ; Hockey GRJ. Compensatory control in the regulation of human performance under stress and high workload: a cognitive-energetical framework.

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