Self-control
Counteractive Self-Control Theory states that when presented with such a dilemma, we lessen the significance of the instant rewards while momentarily increasing the importance of our overall values.
Without knowing anything else about a food, the mere suggestion of good taste triggered counteractive self-control and prompted them to devalue the temptation in the name of health.
Perceived unhealthiness of the food alone, regardless of actual health level, relates to faster satiation, but only for people with high trait self-control.
Abstraction of high-level construals may remind people of their large-scale values, such as a healthy lifestyle, which deemphasizes the current tempting situation.
[26]: 305 The difference in research methodologies with humans using tokens or conditioned reinforcers versus non-humans using sub-primary forces[jargon] suggested procedural artifacts as a possible suspect[specify].
[citation needed] Some in the field of developmental psychology think of self-control in a way that takes into account that sometimes impulsiveness is the more adaptive response.
[30] In the worst circumstances people with the most self-control and resilience have the best chance of defying the odds they are faced with, such as poverty, bad schooling, unsafe communities, etc.
[citation needed] Those at a disadvantage but with high self-control go on to higher education, professional jobs, and psychosocial outcomes, although there is conflicting evidence on health impacts later in adulthood.
[31][32] The psychological phenomenon known as "John Henryism" posits that when goal-oriented, success-minded people strive ceaselessly in the absence of adequate support and resources, they can—like the eponymous 19th-century folk hero who fell dead of an aneurysm after besting a steam-powered drill in a railroad-spike-driving competition—work themselves to death (or toward it).
In the 1980s, socio-epidemiologist Sherman James found that black Americans in North Carolina suffered disproportionately from heart disease and strokes.
[34] Philosopher Immanuel Kant, at the beginning of one of his main works, "Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals", mentions the term "Selbstbeherrschung"—self-control—in a way such that it does not play a key role in his account of virtue.
[35] In his apology of a solid[clarification needed] universal morality, he also saw compassion as a weak and misguided sentiment: "Such benevolence is called soft-heartedness and should not occur at all among human beings", he said of it.[relevant?]
In distancing from his previous positions on the matter of self-control, he points out that such qualities can have only instrumental value: they can promote the good will and make its work easier, but they can also have bad effects.
As a result, even when closer attention is paid to self-control, its role in adopting morally correct maxims remains neglected in Kant's secondary literature[clarification needed].
A common theme among studies of desire is an investigation of the underlying cognitive processes of a craving for an addictive substance, such as nicotine or alcohol.
According to EI, craving persists because individuals develop mental images of the coveted substance that are themselves pleasurable, but which also increase their awareness of deficit.
This quickly escalates into greater expression of the imagery that incorporates working memory, interferes with performance on simultaneous cognitive tasks, and strengthens the emotional response.
[14][40] That mental imagery served to reduce the level of craving in smokers suggests that it can be used as a method of self-control during times of deprivation.
[42] To analyze the possible effects of the cognitive transformation of an object on desire, a study was conducted on 71 undergraduate students, all of whom were familiar with a particular chocolate product.
The participants in the control condition were told to read a neutral article, about a location in South America, that was devoid of any words associated with food consumption.
Following the manipulation task, participants completed automatic evaluations that measured their reaction time to six different images of the chocolate, each of which was paired with a positive or a negative stimuli.
Functional imaging of the brain has shown that self-control correlates with activity in an area in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), a part of the frontal lobe.
To demonstrate this, researchers studied working memory and distraction by presenting participants with neutral or negative pictures and then a math problem or no task.
They found that participants reported less negative moods after solving the math problem compared to the no task group, which they attributed to an influence on working memory capacity.
In relation to self-control mechanisms, the reward centers in the brain compare external stimuli versus internal need states and a person's learning history.
Follow-up studies showed that the results correlated well with these children's success levels in later life in the form of greater academic achievement.
The children were encouraged to think about the marshmallow's "cool features" such as its shape and texture, possibly comparing it to a cotton ball or a cloud.
He found that those who showed less self-control by taking the single marshmallow in the initial study were more likely to develop problems with relationships, stress, and drug abuse later in life.
The results showed that those who exhibited lower levels of self-control had higher brain activity in the ventral striatum, the area that deals with positive rewards.
[64] In more recent years, other studies have shown that income status was a much larger influence than any internal factors (i.e. if their family could afford to have breakfast everyday the child would be more likely delay gratification).
