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Beyond Self-Control: Mechanisms of Hedonic Goal Pursuit and Its Relevance for Well-Being
Abstract
Self-control helps to align behavior with long-term goals (e.g., exercising to stay fit) and shield it from conflicting hedonic goals (e.g., relaxing). Decades of research have shown that self-control is associated with numerous positive outcomes, such as well-being. In the present article, we argue that hedonic goal pursuit is equally important for well-being, and that conflicting long-term goals can undermine it in the form of intrusive thoughts. In Study 1, we developed a measure of trait hedonic capacity, which captures people’s success in hedonic goal pursuit and the occurrence of intrusive thoughts. In Studies 2A and 2B, people’s trait hedonic capacity relates positively to well-being. Study 3 confirms intrusive thoughts as major impeding mechanism of hedonic success. Studies 4 and 5 demonstrate that trait hedonic capacity predicts successful hedonic goal pursuit in everyday life. We conclude that hedonic goal pursuit represents a largely neglected but adaptive aspect of self-regulation.
... For instance, sex reduces stress (Ein-Dor & Hirschberger, 2012), helps falling asleep (Oesterling et al., 2023), boosts the immune system (Charnetski & Brennan, 2004), and enhances the emotional connection argue that sexual pleasure is linked to individuals' ability to shield hedonic activities from intrusive thoughts, which encompass thoughts related to long-term goals or values that disrupt a hedonic activity (e.g., thoughts about duties during leisure time). Recent research indicates that individuals vary in their capacity to shield hedonic activities, and these differences in trait hedonic capacity are positively associated with affective well-being, life satisfaction, and mental health (Bernecker & Becker, 2021). By integrating this research with studies on cognitive factors in sexual functioning (e.g., Newcombe & Weaver, 2016), our aim was to investigate whether people with higher trait hedonic capacity experience greater sexual pleasure and are less prone to distraction by conflicting thoughts. ...
... Individuals indulge in eating tasty food, taking walks in nature, practicing yoga, and engaging in sexual activity to experience the pleasurable affective states these activities offer (Bernecker & Becker, 2021;Papies et al., 2008). However, the pursuit of immediate pleasure is not always successful; individuals sometimes fail to attain the positive affective states they seek. ...
... However, the pursuit of immediate pleasure is not always successful; individuals sometimes fail to attain the positive affective states they seek. One major impeding mechanism is the occurrence of intrusive thoughts-thoughts concerning long-term goals or values that conflict with the present hedonic activity (Bernecker & Becker, 2021). For example, individuals may think about their dietary goals while attempting to relish a tasty pizza, or think about everyday responsibilities during sexual activity (Dove & Wiederman, 2000). ...
Although pleasure is a primary motivator for sexual activity, research into the mechanisms facilitating pleasurable sexual experiences is limited. The present research adopts a self-regulatory perspective on sexual pleasure, investigating individuals’ capacity to shield hedonic activities from distracting thoughts (trait hedonic capacity) as a correlate of sexual pleasure and sexualized drug use. Study 1 (N = 247) demonstrates that young adults with higher trait hedonic capacity experience more sexual pleasure and are less prone to cognitive distraction during partnered sexual activities. Pre-registered Study 2 replicates these findings while accounting for demand effects (N = 182, n = 86). Expanding on these findings, pre-registered Study 3 (N = 903) shows that young adults with lower trait hedonic capacity are more inclined to use alcohol as a means of coping with cognitive distraction during sexual activity. Exploratory moderation analyses suggest that this is particularly true for women and individuals with higher levels of stress. In summary, low trait hedonic capacity is associated with lower sexual pleasure and a tendency to use alcohol with the motivation to cope with distracting thoughts during partnered sexual activity.
... Making room for and enjoying off-work or off-study time supports rather than hinders performance (Grund et al., 2014;Jia et al., 2019;Sonnentag, 2018). And finally, people who are generally more successful at pursuing hedonic goals (high trait hedonic capacity) report not only more positive affect in their daily lives but also higher life satisfaction and fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety (Bernecker & Becker, 2021). ...
... From a dual-process perspective (e.g., Strack & Deutsch, 2004), this may sound odd, given that the hedonic choice is usually portrayed as the easier choice, as it does not require the recruitment of control processes. However, recent research shows that people (i.e., especially those low in trait hedonic capacity) may have trouble actually enjoying a chosen hedonic activity (Bernecker & Becker, 2021). One of the factors undermining successful hedonic goal pursuit is the experience of intrusive thoughts about conflicting longterm goals (Bernecker & Becker, 2021;Grund et al., 2014;Shah & Kruglanski, 2002;Van der Wal & Van Dillen, 2013). ...
... However, recent research shows that people (i.e., especially those low in trait hedonic capacity) may have trouble actually enjoying a chosen hedonic activity (Bernecker & Becker, 2021). One of the factors undermining successful hedonic goal pursuit is the experience of intrusive thoughts about conflicting longterm goals (Bernecker & Becker, 2021;Grund et al., 2014;Shah & Kruglanski, 2002;Van der Wal & Van Dillen, 2013). Importantly, first evidence suggests that it is not so much about the successful inhibition of those intrusive thoughts, but more about whether they are spontaneously activated or not (Bernecker & Becker, 2021, Study 3). ...
This paper examines the role of hedonic goal pursuit in self-control and self-regulation. We argue that not all pursuit of immediate pleasure is problematic and that successful hedonic goal pursuit can be beneficial for long-term goal pursuit and for achieving positive self-regulatory outcomes, such as health and well-being. The following two key questions for future research are discussed: How can people’s positive affective experiences during hedonic goal pursuit be enhanced, and how exactly do those affective experiences contribute to self-regulatory outcomes? We also call for an intercultural perspective linking hedonic goal pursuit to self-regulatory outcomes at different levels. We suggest that understanding the cognitive, motivational, and affective mechanisms at play can help individuals reap the benefits of successful hedonic goal pursuit. Considering those potential benefits, hedonic goal pursuit should be studied more systematically. To achieve this, we argue for a stronger integration of affective science and self-control research.
... In line with the idea that successful self-control is not about the suppression of short-term motivations, the concept of hedonic goal pursuit was introduced, which describes the intended rather than unwanted pursuit of short-term pleasure (Bernecker & Becker, 2021;see Hofmann & Van Dillen 2012;Inzlicht & Schmeichel, 2012 for similar ideas). However, even though people sometimes intentionally seek short-term pleasure they also encounter motivational conflict in these situations. ...
... 2002) Accordingly, we found that hedonic goal pursuit can be undermined by intrusive thoughts about conflicting long-term goals (Bernecker & Becker, 2021). Further, some people are more prone to experience intrusive thoughts than others. ...
... Those differences in trait hedonic capacity were positively related to different indicators of well-being, such as positive affect, life satisfaction, and the absence of physical symptoms of somatization, depression, and anxiety. The effects were medium-to-large in size and independent of the effects of trait self-control on well-being (Bernecker & Becker, 2021). These findings mirror theoretical considerations and empirical work on people's orientation towards happiness, which suggest that people can achieve wellbeing through an eudaimonic (i.e., engagement, meaning) and/or hedonic (i.e., pleasure) route (e.g., Peterson et al., 2005;Schueller & Seligman, 2010). ...
Research suggests that people’s capacity to successfully pursue hedonic goals is at least as important for well-being as trait self-control. Extending this research, we tested whether trait hedonic capacity is related to more time spent with hedonic goal pursuit (i.e., hedonic quantity) and whether this explains its positive relationship with well-being. Second, we explored whether this may come at a cost for people’s performance. Results show that people with higher trait hedonic capacity do spend more time with hedonic goal pursuit (Study 1 and 2). However, hedonic quality not hedonic quantity accounts for its positive relationship with well-being. Further, people higher vs. lower in trait hedonic capacity perform equally well in their studies (Study 2) and their jobs (Study 3 and 4). Thus, trait hedonic capacity seems to allow people to invest more time into their hedonic goals in a way that does not jeopardize their academic and job performance.
... That is, High-GPA students make more room for those activities during low pressure times and proactively plan their study activities such that they can afford going to the sports event, and they enjoy those events more [13,44]. Likewise, people with a higher capacity to pursue and experience pleasure during hedonic goal pursuit (trait hedonic capacity [14]) engage in hedonic activities more often but this does not come at a cost of reduced job or study performance [11]. ...
... Individuals with low hedonic capacity struggle to enjoy experiences due to intrusive thoughts about long-term goals (e.g. thoughts about work spoil the pleasure of relaxing [14]). People may therefore be motivated to compensate for this lack of pleasure by, for example, using substances. ...
... This competence extends to their adept regulation of their emotions, enabling them to effectively deal with negative emotions associated with social exclusion (King & Gaerlan, 2014). Individuals characterized by high self-control can recover quickly from negative emotional states and are less susceptible to emotional distress (Bernecker & Becker, 2021). This ability helps them mitigate the adverse consequences of exclusion. ...
... Scholars have proven that people with high self-control possess a strong capacity or motivation to overcome social exclusion threats, such as, through rebuttal or self-affirmation (Bernecker & Becker, 2021). Although certain studies have determined the influence of various individual traits on new product adoption, such as consumer innovativeness (Seyed Esfahani & Reynolds, 2021), selfconstrual (Ma et al., 2014), regulatory orientation (Herzenstein et al., 2007;Luo et al., 2016), and entrenched knowledge structures (Moreau et al., 2001). ...
Scholars have explored the factors influencing new product adoption from various perspectives, such as product characteristics, personality traits, and marketing communication strategies. However, these studies lack the consideration of consumer social relationships. Thus, this study examined how social exclusion influences new product adoption. Three experiments involving 1372 participants indicated that social exclusion leads to a higher really new products adoption compared to social inclusion. The mediating factor in this relationship is the need for uniqueness. In contrast, no significant difference in incrementally new product adoption was found between socially excluded and included individuals. The above effects only exist in individuals with low self‐control. Individuals with high self‐control exhibit no significant difference in RNP adoption intention, whether they experience social exclusion or inclusion. These findings not only significantly increase the body of knowledge on social exclusion and new products, but also advise marketers on how to promote new products.
... Previous work suggests that the inability to resist a desire is often followed by guilt and reduced pride (Becker et al., 2019;Hofmann et al., 2013). At the same time, the pursuit of hedonic short-term goals seems to be as relevant for subjective well-being as the pursuit of long-term goals (Bernecker & Becker, 2021). The present studies explore differences in the emotional consequences of 'real' self-control failures (which are attributed to inability) and deliberate decisions to violate one's goals. ...
... Additionally, while the positive effects of self-controlled goal-congruent behavior are widely recognized (De Ridder et al., 2012), recent evidence indicates the importance of goal-violating hedonic behavior for long-term well-being (Bernecker & Becker, 2021). The ability to balance the pursuit of different goals and needs, to take a rest from longterm goals, and to know when to rest may be adaptive and an important aspect of what can be considered good selfcontrol. ...
Several theoretical models describe two pathways linking self-control demands with subsequent goal violations. The volitional pathway suggests that these goal violations should be interpreted as failures, while the motivational pathway suggests an interpretation as decisions. In this article, we examined (a) which psychological processes may explain the relationship between self-control demands and subsequent intention violations and (b) to what extent these violations reflect self-control failures rather than deliberate decisions. Results of two experience sampling studies showed that facing demands can trigger two opposing processes: fatigue, which leads to more subsequent violations of intentions, and the feeling that one deserves a reward, which leads to fewer subsequent violations of intentions due to boosts in self-efficacy. The actor may attribute intention violations to either an inability to act otherwise (indicating an actual failure) or a deliberate decision (indicating no failure). The different attributions have marked implications for the cognitive and affective downstream consequences of violating one’s goals, pointing to the importance of distinguishing between actual and apparent failures in self-control.
... Finally, individuals are known to differ in the extent to which pleasure and hedonism are important in their lives (Bernecker & Becker, 2021). Hedonic goals are driven by the desire for pleasure and the fulfillment of desires (Hofmann & Van Dillen, 2012;Stroebe et al., 2008). ...
... Likely, the instrument we selected to measure self-control was too broad in scope to translate into the preference of specific food temptations with the sample we had. More specific constructs such as hedonic capacity, that is ability to successfully pursue a hedonic goal, might be better predictors of preference for hedonic foods (Bernecker & Becker, 2021). Specifically, the subscale of hedonic success should be related to the preference for aesthetic hedonic dishes, as it captures ability to relax and go astray from focal goal pursuit. ...
Grounded in the symbolic self-completion theory, the present research expands previous findings by testing the self-regulatory processes behind self-(in)completeness states. We hypothesized that the experience of incompleteness in the identity goal of being an eco-friendly vegan leads to refraining from temptations allowing us to realize a hedonic goal. The experience of completeness, in contrast, was expected to prompt succumbing to temptations. We examined these effects for multiple decisions on a number of temptations following sequentially. Study 1 demonstrated that eco-friendly vegans who experienced incompleteness were less likely to choose nonecological, attractive food products than vegans who experienced completeness and those who were in the control group. This effect was strongest for the first dish presented in a series of choices. In Study 2, we confirmed the findings of Study 1, showing that the effect was observed regardless of what dish was first presented. Additionally, we found that the effect of self-(in)completeness states held when controlling for relevant individual differences, that is, trait self-control and the pursuit of pleasure. We propose new avenues for research on self-completion theory in the contexts of self-regulation, temptations, and individual differences.
... People have a natural tendency to maintain positive emotions [70,71] and favourable self-identity [72,73]. Counterfactual information can play a role in maintaining positive emotions in a number of ways. ...
... 'the ostrich problem' [81]). In decision-making research, there are many models that attempted to address how people manage conflicting goals [70,82]. Here we have presented many candidate processes for explaining when and why counterfactual information is appealing. ...
Counterfactual information, information about what might have been, forms the content of counterfactual thoughts and emotions like regret and relief. Recent research suggests that human adults and children, as well as rhesus monkeys, demonstrate ‘counterfactual curiosity’: they are motivated to seek out counterfactual information after making decisions. Based on contemporary theories of curiosity and information seeking and a broad range of empirical literature, we suggest multiple heterogeneous psychological processes that contribute to people's motivation for counterfactual information. This includes processes that are identified in the curiosity literature more generally—the potential use of counterfactual information for adaptive decision making (its long-term instrumental value) and the drive to reduce uncertainty. Additionally, we suggest that counterfactual information may be particularly alluring because of its role in causal reasoning; its relationship with prediction and decision making; and its potential to fulfil emotion regulation and self-serving goals. Some future directions have been suggested, including investigating the role of individual differences in counterfactual curiosity on learning and wellbeing.
This article is part of the theme issue ‘Thinking about possibilities: mechanisms, ontogeny, functions and phylogeny’.
... In Africa, increased political participation will have a positive impact on the democratisation process (Green, 2018), as will better institutions (protection of civil liberties or property rights) (Acemoglu et al., 2005). In a developed country context, electoral support will facilitate experimentation and innovation policies (Bernecker and Becker, 2021). In all cases, these instruments are far from uniform, and the persistence of armed conflicts, flawed elections, and coups d'état in Africa demonstrate the difficulty of moving towards this democratic framing (Guèye, 2009). ...
National innovation systems (NISs) have been important in the literature since the 1990s for highlighting the institutional performance of economies and promoting economic development. Inclusion in systemic innovation activities is an emerging area of research. However, the definition of inclusion within innovative activities remains unclear and is associated with numerous forms and characteristics depending on the context visited. Our work highlights the conceptual gap that exists around the notion of inclusive innovation by characterising three forms of inclusion in relation to innovation activities. We thus set out, in the form of a typology, three distinct framings which enable us to identify three different levels associated with specific institutional mechanisms and forms of inclusion. This typology makes it possible to identify appropriate innovation policies, depending on how inclusive innovation is characterised (low, medium, and high). It also helps to clarify the inclusive nature of innovation in NIS approaches.
... Moreover, the theoretical background of well-being is derived from the paradox of happiness, which has been extensively explained in the literature with hedonic, satisfaction and positional theories (Bruni & Stance, 2006). The hedonic treadmill explanation is related to the role of personal traits in shaping well-being (Bernecker & Becker, 2021;Headey, 2024), while the satisfaction treadmill incorporates the role of aspiration (Nießen et al., 2023), whereas the positional treadmill emphasis the importance of own and relative consumption (Sartzetakis et al., 2023). ...
The present study examines the impact of individuals’ democratic aspirations on their subjective well-being. It includes conceptualizing a theoretical framework and estimating the effects of democracy aspirations. The empirical investigation utilised a sample from 64 countries, encompassing over 80,000 individuals. Data for this study were obtained from the World Values Survey. The empirical findings, derived from the ordinary least squares (OLS) model, exhibit robustness when subjected to alternative specifications. The regression model results suggest a positive relationship between perceived democracy and subjective well-being. The positive impact of perceived democracy on life satisfaction is more profound than financial satisfaction. However, it is crucial to highlight the negative impact of aspirations for democracy on subjective well-being. The findings provide empirical evidence that social media acts as a trigger for democracy aspirations. Social media usage creates a discrepancy between the current and desired levels of democracy, which makes people relatively less satisfied despite a positive trend toward higher levels of democracy in the country.
... In Study 3b, we included an autonomy scale adopted from Dahl and Moreau (2007), the same liberation scale (Goncalo et al., 2015) as in the previous studies, and we modified the trait hedonic capacity scale (Bernecker & Becker, 2021) into a state version and administered it on a scale from 1 (not at all like me) to 5 (very much like me). Sample items of the autonomy scale are as follows: "I have been able to express my own autonomy in completing the idea generation task" and "I did not feel controlled when completing the idea generation task." ...
Given that creative ideation has been widely characterized as involving disinhibition, we tested whether a brief creative ideation effort increased subsequent indulgence through the choice of real or imagined rewards. Across 10 experiments (and an additional four in the Supplemental Material) and 3,412 participants (including the ones in the Supplemental Material), we show that a short creative ideation (vs. control) task led to more indulgent eating, drinking, and exercise choices and behaviors. Participants who generated creative ideas subsequently assembled burgers with higher calorie content (Studies 1a, 3a, 3b, 4), proposed cocktails with higher alcohol content (Study 1b), planned workouts that burned fewer calories (Study 1c), chose candy more often (Study 1d), and ate more candy (Study 2) than participants who engaged in control tasks. In line with the perspective that creativity involves disinhibition, these effects were mediated by the behavioral activation system, which is thought to underlie the uninhibited pursuit of desires and rewards (Studies 2, 3a, 4). Furthermore, an experiment in which we manipulated the behavioral activation system showed a causal effect on indulgent eating choices (Study 5). We discuss the implications for future research on the consequences of creativity as well as the possibility that creative work might lead to indulgent, potentially unhealthy choices and behaviors.
... Empirical evidence suggests that while kindchenschema cuteness led to otherdirected focus and behavior, whimsical cuteness induced selfreward and indulgence (Nenkov & Scott, 2014). As such, the two types of cuteness can benefit people via different mechanisms, such as the other-serving tendency and self-indulgence, respectively contributing to one's pleasure and well-being (Bernecker & Becker, 2021). In the context of business research, Chou et al. (2022) provided evidence concerning the cuteness effect on healing and wellness such that both baby and whimsical cute products elicited stronger feelings of healing and subjective well-being than non-cute products; comparatively, baby (vs. ...
... Critically, persistently experiencing desires to use mobile phones also constitutes intrusive thoughts that distract users from other activities. Previous studies found that such intrusive thoughts likely impair attention (Nassif & Wells, 2014), goal pursuit (Bernecker & Becker, 2021), and psychological well-being (Lepore & Helgeson, 1998;Petersen & Twohig, 2023). For instance, desired-MPU thoughts intruding during class, which require focused external concentration, could feasibly undermine study performance. ...
Mobile devices have become deeply embedded in adolescents’ social worlds. While prior research linked mobile phone use (MPU) and mental health outcomes among adolescents, few studies distinguished between actual-MPU and desired-MPU. This study aimed to address this gap by examining the impact of incongruence between actual-MPU and desired-MPU on psychological distress. A total of 678 Chinese adolescents (Mage = 14.62 years, SD = 1.61) participated in the study. The cubic Response Surface Analysis (RSA) revealed that adolescents with greater incongruence between actual-MPU and desired-MPU experienced more psychological distress. Even amidst congruence, higher mean levels of actual-MPU and desired-MPU were associated with more distress. Notably, adolescents experienced more distress when the actual-MPU surpassed the desired-MPU than when the desired-MPU was higher than the actual-MPU. The present study conceptualized and distinguished between actual-MPU and desired-MPU. Integrating the actual-MPU and desired-MPU provides a new direction for intervening in psychological distress.
... Another view is that self-control could improve individual wellbeing (32). Studies have found that people with strong selfcontrol experience closer relationships (33). People with high selfcontrol report higher levels of wellbeing (34), including better psychological adjustment, higher levels of wellbeing (35) and higher life satisfaction (34), are more likely to achieve wellbeing (36). ...
Introduction
The use of fitness apps is becoming more and more widespread, and its impact on people's well-being has received more and more attention.
Methods
The relationship between fitness app use and users' well-being and the influence mechanism was explored using structural equation modeling with upward social comparison as the mediating variable and self-control as the moderating variable.
Results
The questionnaire survey of 1,452 fitness app users over 18 years old shows that: (1) fitness app use is associated with users' well-being; (2) upward social comparison plays a mediating role in the relationship between fitness app use and users' well-being; (3) self-control has a moderating effect on the relationship between fitness app use and users' well-being.
Discussion
Self-control plays a significant moderating role between social comparison and well-being, upward social comparison can improve the well-being of high self-control users but reduce the well-being of low self-control users.
... In advancing self-control research, our own research also suggests that a more balanced view of desires is necessary. Inspired by EI, we began to study people's hedonic goal pursuit (i.e., the intentional pursuit of desires) and how intrusive thoughts about conflicting long-term goals undermine the experience of pleasure (Bernecker & Becker, 2021). For instance, people think about work when trying to relax or about their diet when trying to enjoy a meal. ...
... In daily life, individuals frequently struggle with competing goals and temptations, like craving for junk food while making a diet (e.g., Bernecker & Becker, 2021). Such situations are conflicts-i.e., settings in which two incompatible response tendencies occur simultaneously (Lewin, 1935;Miller, 1944). ...
This article presents a quasi-experiment (N = 79 university students) testing whether individual differences in action-state orientation moderate primed cognitive conflict's effects on sympathetically mediated cardiac response during task performance reflecting effort. Action control theory posits that action-oriented individuals are less receptive to distracting affective stimuli during goal pursuit than state-oriented individuals because action-orientation is related to higher volitional skills. Therefore, we expected that action-oriented individuals should be shielded against conflict primes' effect on effort-related responses in the cardiovascular system. By contrast, state-oriented individuals should be more sensitive to irrelevant negative affective stimulation and therefore mobilize higher resources under such conditions. Responses of the cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) during a moderately difficult short-term memory task corroborated these predictions. The present findings provide the first evidence that individual differences in action-state orientation indeed moderate previously demonstrated cognitive conflict priming effects on effort-related cardiac response and extend recent findings on action shielding.
... As people build up caches of unfulfilled goals, they can start to feel discouraged by all that they have not accomplished (Cochran & Tesser, 1996;Klug & Maier, 2015;Soman & Cheema, 2004;Weingarten et al., 2019). Their memory and attention will be taxed by the cognitive load (Masicampo & Baumeister, 2011a, 2011bMcDaniel & Einstein, 2007) and they mayenter into cycles of rumination that disrupt sleep (Scullin et al., 2018;Syrek et al., 2017) and interfere with leisure (Bernecker & Becker, 2021). Completing tasks, then, is desirable in part because it promises to mitigate the negative affect, to release some of the cognitive burden, and/or to provide a sense of closure Kool et al., 2010;Patterson & Kahan, 2020;A. ...
The positivity of goal completion is reinforced through everyday experiences of social praise and instrumental reward. Here we investigated whether, in line with this self-regulatory emphasis, people value completion opportunities in and of themselves. Across six experiments we found that adding an arbitrary completion opportunity to a lower-reward task increased the likelihood that participants would choose to work on that task over a higher-reward alternative that did not offer a completion opportunity. This occurred for extrinsic reward tradeoffs (Experiments 1, 3, 4, and 5) and intrinsic reward tradeoffs (Experiments 2 and 6), and it persisted even when participants explicitly noted the rewards of each task (Experiment 3). We sought but did not find evidence that the tendency is moderated by participants’ stable or momentary level of concern with monitoring multiple responsibilities (Experiments 4 and 5, respectively). We did find that the opportunity to complete the final step in a sequence was particularly attractive: Setting the lower-reward task closer to completion (but with completion still out of reach) did increase its choice share, but setting the lower-reward task with completion distinctly in reach increased its choice share even more (Experiment 6). Together, the experiments imply that people sometimes behave as if they value completion itself. In everyday life, the allure of mere completion may influence the tradeoffs people make when prioritizing their goals.
... One can wonder whether conflicts that are not inherent in given tasks can also influence ongoing behavior and resource mobilization in everyday life. This calls for studies on the impact of higher-order conflict on effort-for example in the context of individual's long term versus momentary hedonic goals (e.g., Bernecker & Becker, 2021), motivational study-leisure conflicts (see Brassler et al., 2016;Duckworth et al., 2019;Fries & Dietz, 2007), or action crises (see Brandstätter & Schüler, 2013;Herrmann & Brandstätter, 2015). From this perspective, our present two studies may be the starting point for research addressing if and how cognitive conflict can influence resource mobilization in everyday life. ...
... Not all hedonic behaviours, however, relate to low self-control and involve instant gratification. For many people, enjoying a hedonic lifestyle is important for overall wellbeing (Bernecker and Becker 2021). A utility maximiser may prefer a lump sum to an annuity to enjoy an active and enjoyable lifestyle in early retirement when s/he is still healthy (Hagen 2022, p. 392). ...
This paper employs data from an original survey to analyse the annuity preferences of
members of the Slovak-funded private pension pillar. The focus is on the impact of socioeconomic
variables as well as various behavioural attitudes upon annuitisation decisions. The research first
considers some well-known behavioural factors (framing, mental accounting) and then turns to
some underresearched traits (indulgence, self-control) and behaviours (compulsive shopping, saving
habits) and links them to annuity choices. Moreover, the research studies alternative allocations
of a lump sum and relates them to annuitisation decisions. Indulgence emerged as a significant
negative predictor of annuitisation. This result likely refers to preferences towards hedonic lifestyles
in early retirement. Interestingly, low self-discipline was also significant but positively related to
an intention towards annuity purchases. People who are aware of their low financial discipline
may introduce internal self-protection mechanisms and resort to tried and tested financial products
to avoid anticipated feelings of regret and desperation. Annuitisation, in this case, is a regret
avoidance behaviour.
... Supplemental analyses based on crowdsourced coding (available in the study code files) indicate that self-indulgence is seen as more pleasant/positive than recalled behaviors in any other condition, but that it is not seen as particularly self-therapeutic or aimed at self-improvement. Rather, we suspect that respondents saw self-indulgence as positive because indulging oneself is a form of hedonic goal pursuit, which scholars have shown predicts emotional well-being [69]. ...
Prosocial acts can increase positive emotions and contribute to emotional well-being, but it is unclear whether other types of moral behavior have similar effects. Respondents from a large online sample (N = 1783) were randomly assigned to recall recent instances when they had performed moral, self-indulgent, or routine acts. Those who recalled self-indulgent behaviors or acts associated with care, fairness, loyalty, authority, and sanctity-based morality increased in positive emotions relative to routine acts controls. Initial evidence suggests that effects for recalling moral acts occurred in part because individuals who recalled these behaviors generated positive moral self-appraisals and satisfied a basic psychological need for relatedness. Study results are consistent with the recent claim that morality is a basic psychological need.
... One can wonder whether conflicts that are not inherent in given tasks can also influence ongoing behavior and resource mobilization in everyday life. This calls for studies on the impact of higher-order conflict on effort-for example in the context of individual's long term versus momentary hedonic goals (e.g., Bernecker & Becker, 2021), motivational study-leisure conflicts (see Brassler et al., 2016;Duckworth et al., 2019;Fries & Dietz, 2007), or action crises (see Brandstätter & Schüler, 2013;Herrmann & Brandstätter, 2015). From this perspective, our present two studies may be the starting point for research addressing if and how cognitive conflict can influence resource mobilization in everyday life. ...
Two experiments with N = 221 university students investigated the impact of primed cognitive conflict on effort assessed as cardiac response in tasks that were not conflict‐related themselves. Manifest cognitive conflict in cognitive control tasks is confounded with objective response difficulty (e.g., in incongruent Stroop task trials). This makes conclusions about the effortfulness of cognitive conflict itself difficult. We bypassed this problem by administrating pictures of congruent versus incongruent Stroop task stimuli as conflict primes. As predicted, primed cognitive conflict increased cardiac pre‐ejection period (PEP) responses in an easy attention task in Experiment 1. Accordingly, cognitive conflict itself is indeed effortful. This effect was replicated in an easy short‐term memory task in Experiment 2. Moreover, as further predicted, the primed cognitive conflict effect on PEP reactivity disappeared when participants could personally choose task characteristics. This latter effect corresponds to other recent evidence showing that personal action choice shields against incidental affective influences on action execution and especially on effort‐related cardiovascular response. Cognitive conflict is said to be effortful, but conclusive evidence is lacking. One problem is that conflict in cognitive control tasks is confounded with response difficulty. We bypassed this problem by administrating pictures of congruent vs incongruent Stroop task stimuli as conflict primes. Primed conflict indeed increased responses of cardiac pre‐ejection period in tasks that were neither difficult nor conflict‐related themselves. Furthermore, participants’ personal choice of task characteristics could eliminate the conflict effect on effort.
... Doing something that promises pleasure in the moment (e.g., eating a tasty chocolate cake) but conflicts with those long-term goals triggers feelings of guilt and is experienced as self-control failure (Becker et al., 2019). Interestingly, it has also been shown that being able to enjoy rather than feel guilty about those "guilty pleasures" is a strong predictor of wellbeing and life satisfaction (Bernecker & Becker, 2021). Based on these broader findings, it seems appropriate that campaigns and media reports inform about parental phone use in a more differentiated manner, which includes an acknowledgment of positive as well as negative effects on parental and child wellbeing. ...
Being a parent of young children is associated with both joy and stress. High parental stress was shown to be associated with decreased parental wellbeing and negative child outcomes. Thus, it is important that parents successfully cope with stress. Research has shown that becoming a parent often results in constraints on time allocation and a perceived state of isolation, making it harder to cope with stress. Smartphones might be a useful tool for parental stress management. For most parents, smartphones are always and easily accessible. Moreover, smartphones can provide many resources such as social support and information and can be used for short periods. Accordingly, first studies show that parents often use their smartphones to cope with stress. However, parental smartphone use has been widely problematized in academic and public discussions because smartphones are said to distract parents from interacting with their children. Research on how parents use smartphones to their benefit is still limited. Moreover, we do not know yet whether and under what circumstances coping using smartphones effectively reduces parental stress. To fill this knowledge gap, I examined in my dissertation how mothers of young children use their smartphones for coping with stress and under what circumstances coping using smartphones is effective. As mothers are still the primary caregivers, my dissertation mainly focuses on mothers. In a first theoretical step, I conducted a systematic scoping review summarizing and integrating the previous literature on media use for coping. Many studies assessed how media are used for coping. However, the literature had not clearly identified where media have their place in stress management models. In the scoping review, I suggested placing media in the transactional model of stress and coping by differentiating between coping strategies, such as social support or distraction and coping tools, such as talking to a friend or using a smartphone. When confronted with a stressful encounter, individuals choose a combination of coping tools and coping strategies to cope with stress. The fit of this combination with the situational circumstances determines whether the coping efforts are successful. Based on this conceptualization, I conducted a qualitative focus groups study and a quantitative experience sampling study (ESS). In the focus group study, building on a synthesis of the literature on digital media use for parenting and smartphone use while parenting, I interviewed parents in a medium-sized city and a parent-child health retreat clinic about how they use their smartphones for stress management. In the ESS, I additionally drew on theoretical conceptualizations from mobile communication and digital wellbeing research. Over 200 mothers filled in four questionnaires a day for one week and answered questions about a stressful situation that had happened in the last two hours. Both studies showed that when mothers are in stressful situations with their children, they mainly use their phones to distract themselves from the stressful encounter and to find information and support. In the focus groups study, parents reported many instances in which they successfully used their phones for stress coping. In the ESS, mothers, however, experienced a smaller stress decrease in stressful situations in which they used their phone than in situations involving no phone use. Using positive phone content, though, was related to increased coping effectiveness. My dissertation also demonstrated that social norms around maternal smartphone use play an important role when mothers use their phones for coping with stress. To explore this, I suggested a social constructivist viewpoint on media use and media effects. This viewpoint posits that the perception of and feelings around ones own media use are just as important for media effects as characteristics of objectively measurable media use, such as usage time. Further, I argue that these media use perceptions are influenced by what others say about media use and are, thus, socially constructed. Confirming the value of this viewpoint, I show in the ESS that mothers who perceived stronger injunctive norms against parental phone use experienced increased guilt when they used their phone for stress coping. Feelings of guilt around phone use in turn were related to a diminished coping effectiveness. Overall, my dissertation shows that by using positive content, mothers can use their smartphones to their benefit when they are confronted with stressful situations. Negative social norms against parental smartphone use can, by inducing guilt, be associated with diminished coping effectiveness when mothers use their phone to cope with stress. Therefore, academic and public discussions around smartphone use should consider the benefits of smartphone use for parents so that a more nuanced debate does not lead to social pressure and feelings of guilt among parents.
... Self-control, or resisting the appeal of temptations and short-term goals to fulfill the long-term goals, plays a pivotal role in goal pursuits and well-being (Daly et al., 2015;Bernecker and Becker, 2020). It is thus important to study the psychological experiences that sustain the exertion of selfcontrol in everyday contexts. ...
Past research suggested that when individuals feel that it is their free choice to perform a task, they are more likely to succeed. However, little has been known about the effect of perceived choice of self-control and the psychological processes underlying the benefits of this perception in everyday contexts. To fill this gap, a 7-day experience sampling study (115 college students and 1,725 reported episodes of self-control) was conducted to test whether confidence in sustaining the current self-control activity (expectancy) and perceived value of current self-control (value) could mediate the link between perceived choice and success in the current self-control activity. The results of multilevel analysis suggested that the perceived choice can boost self-control success by increasing expectancy and value of self-control. These findings add mechanistic understanding of the effect of perceived choice on self-control success.
... Consider, for example, a goal to perform well in school: feeling disappointed in one's school grade does not directly interfere with the goal and can even motivate someone to achieve their goal. However, in the unique case of a positive emotional goal like happiness, a negative meta-emotion actually interferes with the possibility of reaching the goal [50]. Supporting this theory, previous research has found that people induced to value happiness (versus a control condition) experienced more disappointment about their feelings when watching a positive film clip, which in turn accounted for experiencing lower overall positive emotion [5 ]. ...
Most people want to feel happy; however, some evidence suggests that the more people value happiness, the less happy they are. To make sense of this paradox, we leverage existing models of goal pursuit to identify core components of the process of pursuing happiness, highlighting how each of these components may go awry. Then, we introduce two fundamental traits that put pressure on the core components of the process and in turn further influence the outcome of pursuing happiness. Together, this nuanced approach to the pursuit of happiness across levels of analysis helps us organize existing literature and make better predictions about when, why, and for whom the pursuit of happiness may backfire and when it is likely to succeed.
... Given the intertwined meaning of these differences, there is a strong relationship between EWB and HWB (Waterman, 1993). Bernecker and Becker (2020) emphasized the role of hedonic experiences contribute to the well-being and reduce negative psychological outcomes. According to their study, it was found that people's hedonic capacities are positively associated with well-being. ...
Self-discipline pervasively impacts most aspects of human life. It also promotes numerous human behaviors with positive psychological outcomes. Two studies were conducted within the scope of this research. The aim of the first study was to develop and test the psychometric properties of the self-discipline scale (SDS) for adults. Validity and reliability analyses were conducted on two different samples attending different universities in Turkey. As a result of the analyses, a valid and reliable scale was developed consisting of the two-dimensional construct and 13 items. The aim of the second study was to test the sequential mediating roles of grit and life-satisfaction in the relationship between self-discipline and peace among college students. The results revealed that self-discipline is positively related to grit, life-satisfaction, and peace. Path analysis showed that the sequential mediating effect is significant for grit and life satisfaction on the relationship between self-discipline and peace. Overall, these results demonstrated that self-discipline makes a significant contribution to a peaceful life, also grit and life-satisfaction have a remarkable role in this contribution.
... However, it should always be remembered that taking breaks, as a motivational strategy in the sense of a self-reward and not as cause of depleted resources, is a highly recommended selfregulatory strategy (Wolters, 2003). In a recent study, Bernecker and Becker (2020) emphasize that a balance between long-term goals (i.e., learning to read) and hedonic goals (i.e., pleasure) is paramount to adaptive self-regulation. It makes a difference whether children struggling with a task take a break because they believe their resources are depleted ("I'm exhausted") or take a break as a reward for a job well done ("I've earned a break!"). ...
Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht Selbstkonzepte über die Höhe und Veränderbarkeit von Fähigkeiten und deren Zusammenhänge mit behavioraler Selbstregulation bei 147 Kindergartenkindern (M = 6.47 Jahre, SD = 0.39 Jahre). Behaviorale Selbstregulation als Fähigkeit, die Aufmerksamkeit zu lenken, Impulse zu hemmen und kognitiv flexibel zu bleiben, wird als einer der zentralen Prädiktoren für eine erfolgreiche Anpassung an Schule und Leben beschrieben (McClelland et al., 2019; Moffitt et al., 2011). Durch adaptierte und neu entwickelte Messinstrumente für die Altersgruppe der fünf- bis siebenjährigen
Kindergartenkinder wird der theoretisch angenommene Zusammenhang zwischen der Wahrnehmung eigener Fähigkeiten und der Regulation des Verhaltens anhand dreier zentraler Selbstkonzepte erforscht: implizite Intelligenztheorien in Artikel 1, ähigkeitsselbstkonzepte in Artikel 2 und implizite Willenstheorien in Artikel 3. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass schon bei Kindergartenkindern Selbstkonzepte über die Veränderbarkeit von Intelligenz und Willenskraft messbar und von verwandten Konstrukten wie der Lernzielorientierung abgrenzbar sind. Eine Sicht auf Intelligenz als veränderbar (vs. stabil) wie auch eine Sicht auf Willenskraft als nicht limitiert (vs. limitiert) ist bereits im Kindergartenalter mit besserer behavioraler Selbstregulation assoziiert. Der Zusammenhang wird teilweise durch eine stärkere Lernzielorientierung vermittelt. Eine nicht limitierte Willenstheorie ist zudem vor allem für Kinder mit tiefen und mittleren akademischen Fähigkeiten mit besserer behavioraler
Selbstregulation verbunden. Zur Klärung der Zusammenhänge zwischen Selbstkonzepten über die Höhe von Fähigkeiten und behavioraler Selbstregulation muss die Interaktion mit
akademischen Fähigkeiten miteinbezogen werden. Je nach Fähigkeitsniveau der Kinder zeigen sich unterschiedliche nichtlineare Zusammenhänge mit behaviorale Selbstregulation. So ist eine Passung zwischen Fähigkeitsselbstkonzept und akademischen Fähigkeiten für Kinder auf mittlerem Fähigkeitsniveau am optimalsten, bei Kindern auf tiefem Fähigkeitsniveau ist dagegen eine leicht positive Abweichung günstiger und für Kinder auf hohem Fähigkeitsniveau ist eine leicht negative Abweichung am optimalsten für behaviorale Selbstregulation. Zusammenfassend zeigt die vorliegende Arbeit die Relevanz von Selbstkonzepten im Kindergartenalter für die Regulation des Verhaltens auf und eröffnet
durch die neu entwickelten Instrumente sowie die Verbindung unterschiedlicher Forschungsfelder in den Bereichen Metakognition, Motivation, Selbstregulation und Pädagogik neue Wege für Forschung und Praxis.
Purpose
Family cues are widely used in interactive marketing because they appeal to a broad demographic, engaging consumers across different ages and life stages. This research aims to investigate whether and how family motivation, induced by exposure to family-related cues in marketing, influences consumers’ self-control behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
Seven studies – including one field experiment, five online experiments and one study analyzing secondary data – robustly support the hypothesis that family motivation enhances self-control by fostering a stronger future orientation. The main effect was tested through both field and online experiments. The mediating role of future orientation was explored using measured mediation as well as a process-manipulation approach. Additionally, we identified a boundary condition for this effect. Finally, real-world evidence for the proposed relationship was demonstrated through an analysis of secondary data from a large-scale, nationwide general social survey.
Findings
This research shows that family motivation enhances future orientation, which in turn promotes self-control. Furthermore, this relationship is moderated by a live-in-the-moment belief.
Practical implications
Marketing appeals emphasizing family should be directed toward services and products that are not seen as indulgent. Furthermore, we provide policymakers with a simpler alternative to traditional long-term self-control training by promoting self-control behavior through the activation of family motivation.
Originality/value
To the best of our knowledge, this research is the first to examine the impact of family motivation on consumer behavior. We also contribute to the self-control literature by identifying a new antecedent to self-control.
This experimental study aimed to determine the effect of psycho-pedagogical intervention on spiritual intelligence, happiness, and spiritual well-being of primary school students in Latvia. Three measurements (pre-intervention, post-intervention, and three month follow up) were administered for 83 children (n = 41 experimental group; n = 42 control group). The experimental group participated in intervention sessions that met once per week for 10 weeks. The results indicated that participation in the intervention programme led to a statistically significant increase in spiritual intelligence, happiness, and spiritual well-being in the experimental group compared to the control group. The intervention had the most significant effect on spiritual intelligence and spiritual well-being. Gender differences in spiritual intelligence, spiritual well-being, and happiness were softened after the intervention. The effectiveness of the intervention was consistent between all participants in the experimental group, regardless of the frequency of church attendance. Children who occasionally attended church showed slightly higher improvements in both groups, although not statistically significant. The given study not only validated the effect of the designed programme for primary school students, but also showed that the given intervention can improve spiritual intelligence, happiness and spiritual well-being irrespective of gender or church attendance. Integrating spiritual development into the primary school curriculum nurtures a harmonious and mentally healthy personality, which is one of the main goals of education.
Although the focus of research for decades, there is a surprising lack of consensus on what is (and what is not) self-control. We review some of the most prominent theoretical models of self-control, including those that highlight conflicts between smaller-sooner versus larger-later rewards, “hot” emotions versus “cool” cognitions, and efficient automatic versus resource-intensive controlled processes. After discussing some of their shortcomings, we propose an alternative approach based on tenets of construal level theory (Trope et al., 2021) that integrates these disparate models while also providing novel insights. Specifically, we model self-control as a problem of regulatory scope—the range of considerations one accounts for in any decision or behavior. Self-control conflicts occur when the pursuit of specific local opportunities threatens the ability to address motivational priorities that span a broader array of time, places, individuals, and possibilities. Whereas a more contractive consideration of relevant concerns may prompt indulgence in temptation, a more expansive consideration of concerns should not only help people identify the self-control conflict but also successfully resolve it. We review empirical evidence that supports this new framework and discuss implications and new directions. This regulatory framework not only clarifies what is and what is not self-control but also provides new insights that can be leveraged to enhance self-control in all its various forms.
i>Activities that bring short-term pleasure, such as video gaming, have an ambiguous effect on long-term goal attainment. From one perspective, they are a source of positive affect, which helps people to overcome procrastination and finally initiate the planned task. However, these short-term pleasure activities may become the source of procrastination themselves, tempting people to engage in them beyond the intended timeframe. The present study attempts to resolve this conflict. It implies a novel “qualitative experiment” methodology in order to test a behavioral strategy; taking 10-minute breaks after each game round, which is aimed to help gamers control their desire to play beyond the self-imposed limit. Over the course of two weeks, participants who used this strategy (Strategy group) reported a similar decrease in procrastination tendencies compared to participants who totally abstained from video gaming (Abstinence group) and a larger decrease in procrastination compared to participants who played in their regular routine (Control group). In addition, the Strategy group reported a higher sense of emotional well-being than both the Abstinence and the Control ones. These results corroborate the effectiveness of the self-control model, oriented on the productive coexistence of hedonic pleasures and long-term goals.</i
People regularly encounter various types of conflict. Here, we ask if, and, if so, how, different types of conflict, from lab-based Stroop conflicts to everyday-life self-control or moral conflicts, are related to one other. We present a framework that assumes that action–goal representations are hierarchically organized, ranging from concrete actions to abstract goals. The framework’s key assumption is that conflicts involving more abstract goals (e.g., self-control/moral conflict) are embedded in a more complex action space; thus, to resolve such conflicts, people need to consider more associated goals and actions. We discuss how differences in complexity impact conflict resolution mechanisms and the costs/benefits of resolving conflicts. Altogether, we offer a new way to conceptualize and analyze conflict regulation across different domains.
Consuming media entertainment often challenges recipients’ self-control. While past research related self-control almost exclusively to whether individuals engage in media use, it might be equally relevant for the disengagement from media use. Testing core assumptions of the Appraisal of Media Use, Self-Control, and Entertainment (AMUSE) model, the present study investigates the situational interplay of self-control and affective appraisals in predicting disengagement from Netflix use. Preregistered hypotheses were tested based on an event-contingent experience sampling design, in which 205 adult Netflix users in the Netherlands and Germany were tracked and surveyed for two weeks. Results demonstrate that disengagement is contingent upon enjoyment and appreciation and that enjoyment, in turn, can be “spoiled” by feeling guilty. Self-control influenced goal conflict and enjoyment throughout the reception process. We discuss opportunities for modeling disengagement from media use with situational research approaches.
Hedonic overconsumption (e.g., overconsumption of gratifying behaviors, e.g., eating, gaming) is common in daily life and often problematic, pointing to the need for adequate behavioral models. In this article, we develop a self-regulatory framework proposing that when an actual consumption experience falls short of hedonic expectations—such as when being distracted—people will want to consume more to compensate for the shortfall. In a preliminary meta-analysis, a small-scale field experiment on distraction during lunch and subsequent afternoon snacking (Study 1), and a preregistered experience sampling study (Study 2) involving more than 6,000 consumption episodes in everyday life across multiple consumption domains, we investigated the predictions from our hedonic compensation model. There was clear and consistent evidence across studies and analyses for the prediction that distraction during consumption compromises the actual enjoyment of a given consumption experience. Both empirical studies yielded consistent evidence for a positive association between actual enjoyment and consumption satisfaction but inconsistent and weaker evidence for the expected role of actual-expected enjoyment discrepancies for this part of the model. There was also consistent evidence for the expected negative association between consumption satisfaction and the need for further gratification. Finally, there was moderate and inconsistent support linking the need for further gratification to subsequent consumption across Study 1 (amount and frequency of snacking in the afternoon) and Study 2 (shorter duration to subsequent consumption). Taken together, the present framework provides initial support for the proposed link among compromising consumption contexts, consumption enjoyment, and subsequent hedonic compensation.
This article presents an experiment ( N = 127 university students) testing whether the previously found impact of conflict primes on effort‐related cardiac response is moderated by objective task difficulty. Recently, it has been shown that primed cognitive conflict increases cardiac pre‐ejection period (PEP) reactivity—an index of effort intensity—during the performance of relatively easy tasks. This effect could be attributed to conflict‐related negative affect. Consequently, as it has been shown for other types of negative affect, we expected conflict primes' effect to be task‐context dependent and thus to be moderated by objective task difficulty. In a between‐persons design, we manipulated conflict via embedded pictures of conflict‐related vs. non‐conflict‐related Stroop items in a memory task. We expected primed conflict to increase effort in a relatively easy version of the task but to lead to disengagement when task difficulty was objectively high. PEP reactivity corroborated our predictions. Rather than always increasing effort, cognitive conflict's effect on resource mobilization was context‐dependent and resulted in weak responses in a difficult task.
The (over)consumption of alcohol and other addictive substances is often conceptualized as a problem of low self-control (i.e., people’s inability to inhibit unwanted impulses). According to that view, people drink because they cannot resist. In the present studies, we approached this from a different perspective and tested whether alcohol consumption might also be a problem of low hedonic capacity (i.e., people’s inability to experience pleasure and relaxation, often due to intrusive thoughts). According to that view, people drink because it helps them enjoy or cope with negative thoughts or emotions. In two studies among individuals at low risk of harmful alcohol use (e.g., AUDIT < 7) we consistently found that trait hedonic capacity was unrelated to alcohol consumption but negatively related to coping motivation (drinking alcohol to cope with negative thoughts and feelings; Study 1: N = 348; Study 2: N = 302, preregistered). Exploratory analyses in study 2 (conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic) also showed that people with low, but not high, trait hedonic capacity drank more alcohol in response to stress. Our findings are in line with the notion that people’s drinking motivation and behavior might not only be a problem of poor self-control but also of low trait hedonic capacity. They align with a new direction in addiction prevention and treatment research, which explores ways to help people to seek out and savor hedonic experiences from non-drug related reinforcers (e.g., engaging in leisure activities).
In this commentary we challenge Fitouchi et al.'s puritanical morality account by presenting evidence showing (1) that pursuing harmless pleasures can actually support self-regulation, and (2) that sharing pleasurable experiences can foster cooperation. We conclude that puritanical morality is not as adaptive as presented, and may even suppress the potential benefits pleasure can have for the individual and society.
When people are asked to locate the self, they frequently choose the head and heart regions of the body. These bodily regions, in turn, are linked to an extensive set of metaphors, including those that conceptualize the heart as the locus of authenticity, love, and passion. Based on such considerations as well as frameworks within the self and well-being literatures, four samples of participants in three studies (total N = 527) were asked whether, on particular days, they perceived themselves to be located in their head regions of their bodies or their heart regions. When the self was perceived to be in the heart to a greater extent, participants reported higher levels of affective and eudaimonic well-being, as mediated by processes related to reward perception (Study 1), savoring (Study 2), and social activity (Study 3). In terms of daily experiences, the heart-located self is a happier self.
In the past decades, affective science has overwhelmingly demonstrated the unique properties of affective information to bias our attention, memory, and decisions. At the same time, accumulating evidence suggests that neutral and affective representations rely on the same working memory substrates for the selection and computation of information and that they are therefore restricted by the same capacity limitations that these substrates impose. Here, we integrate these insights into a working memory model of affective processing (WMAP). Drawing on competitive access models of working memory, we discuss its role in the various stages of affective processing, from attentional selection to maintenance and memory storage, and resulting feelings and actions. We end our overview with some open questions and future directions.
Trait self-control reflects an individual's frequently demonstrated ability to control impulses, resist temptations, or form good behavioral habits to conform to higher-order goals. It is thought to be associated with many positive gains, such as better physical fitness, higher achievement and subjective well-being, and fewer psychological and behavioral problems. Researchers agree that there are differences in levels of trait self-control across individuals, and that these differences are demonstrated in early childhood and remain relatively stable in adulthood. To investigate whether there is a specific neural basis for individual differences in trait self-control, 227 undergraduate and graduate students were recruited in this study to explore the structural brain basis of trait self-control using structural imaging for the first time. The results revealed that the gray matter volumes in the right dorsomedial prefrontal lobe, left inferior frontal gyrus, and left middle cingulate gyrus were larger in high self-control individuals compared to low self-control individuals. These results have contributed to our understanding of the formation process and underlying mechanisms of trait self-control and provide a theoretical basis for the cultivation of trait self-control in children.
Facing multiple conflicting goals, consumers may attempt to simultaneously pursue multiple goals by choosing mixed vice–virtue bundles in each consumption episode (mixed approach). Alternatively, they may maximize their pursuit of one goal at a time and sequentially manage multiple goals by alternating between pure‐virtue and pure‐vice bundles across consumption episodes (extreme approach). The current research proposes that consumer preferences between the two approaches depend on mindset abstraction. Across four experimental studies in the domains of food and financial decision‐making, we demonstrate that, relative to an abstract mindset, a concrete mindset increases preference for the extreme approach over the mixed approach. Furthermore, by observing actual food choices over a seven‐day period, this research provides a comprehensive picture of how a chronic mindset relates to multi‐goal management in long‐term consumption patterns. The findings have both theoretical implications for the goal literature and managerial implications for marketers and policymakers.
This article synthesizes recent findings on antecedents of healthy eating. We discuss consumer-related and environment-related forces that influence consumers’ healthy food choices and emphasize the duality of these forces so that they can facilitate but also prevent healthy eating. Specifically, our review documents how consumer lay beliefs, goals, and habits shape eating patterns. We further document the impact of environment-related forces on healthy consumption—focusing on intervention strategies and environmental changes (i.e., the trend towards online retail channels). Finally, we discuss three salient tensions (i.e., an innate craving for unhealthy food, a focus on single decisions, and a selective focus on self-control dilemmas) that emerge when taking a holistic view on existing research.
Flow is thought to occur when both task difficulty and individual ability are high. Flow experiences are highly rewarding and are associated with well-being. Importantly, media use can be a source of flow. Communication scholars have a long history of theoretical inquiry into how flow biases media selection, how different media content results in flow, and how flow influences media processing and effects. However, the neurobiological basis of flow during media use is not well understood, limiting our explanatory capacity to specify how media contribute to flow or well-being. Here, we show that flow is associated with a flexible and modular brain-network topology, which may offer an explanation for why flow is simultaneously perceived as high-control and effortless, even when the task difficulty is high. Our study tests core predictions derived from synchronization theory, and our results provide qualified support for the theory while also suggesting important theoretical updates.
Das große Mysterium des Schlankbleibens lautet noch immer: Was macht eine erfolgreiche nachhaltige Gewichtsreduktion aus, wie hält man sein reduziertes Körpergewicht? Was machen die dauerhaft „Neo-Erschlankten“ anders als „JoJo-isten“? Abnehmen kann jeder, aber das reduzierte Gewicht auch jahrelang auf gewünscht niedrigem Niveau zu halten und sich dabei wohl zu fühlen – das schaffen die Wenigsten. In diesem Kapitel werden die fundamentalen „Erfolgsfaktoren“ erläutert, die im Kern einfach, plausibel und leicht verständlich sind.
Guilt and shame, two negative self-conscious emotions, have drawn theoretical and empirical attention in studying self-control. Although a functionalist view suggests that their reparative tendencies would help combat self-control failures, the evidence is equivocal. In this review, we begin with a systematic analysis of how the context of self-control conflicts allows mood management to dominate reparative control as the primary means of regulating guilt and shame and, subsequently, sours the potential benefits of mood management. Then, inspired by the emerging literature of strategic indulgence and a multilevel perspective on self-control, we propose that people should adopt a tolerant view of indulgence at the behavioral level while channeling the reparative tendencies of guilt and shame at the strategy (behavioral plans) and the system (goal balance) levels. When appraising and regulating self-control, thus, focusing on the forest rather than the trees may help capitalize on the benefits of guilt and shame.
Previous research on chronic depression has focused on its link with other mood disorders and Axis II personality disorders. However, there are few data examining whether the cognitive perspective applies to this condition. In this cross-sectional study, 42 outpatients with chronic depression were compared with 27 outpatients with nonchronic major depressive disorder and 24 never psychiatrically ill controls on cognitive variables thought to be related to vulnerability to depression (e.g., dysfunctional attitudes, attributional style, a ruminative response style, and maladaptive core beliefs). Both depressed groups were more elevated than a never-ill comparison group. However, chronically depressed individuals were generally more elevated on measures of cognitive variables than those with major depressive disorders even after controlling for mood state and personality disorder symptoms.
Urban Legends, Reality Testing and Paranormal Belief
Why do certain tasks and activities feel effortful, and, ultimately, result in task disengagement? To answer this question, we connected and extended prior work on labor/leisure tradeoffs, autonomy, opportunity costs, effort, and task utility into an integrative model of the antecedents and consequences of perceived opportunity costs, defined as the perceived costs of missing out on a tempting alternative action. Using both an experimental causal chain approach (Experiments 1–3) as well as a large experience sampling study (Nobs = 9,994), we found that activities that were low in autonomy predicted opportunity costs, and that opportunity costs, in turn, positively predicted feelings of effort and negatively predicted task utility. Mediation analyses supported the process model. Finally, using a novel dropout-paradigm, Experiment 5 provided evidence that opportunity costs are causally related to task disengagement. Our findings suggest that opportunity costs may play a non-negligible role in creating the subjective sensation of effort and in guiding task choice. Moreover, they provide a conceptual bridge to autonomous motivation, which may shield the individual from the perception that he or she may have better things to do.
People often experience self-control conflicts (i.e., feel tempted to indulge while motivated to resist). But, how do people feel after making such conflicted self-control choices? Whereas previous research has focused almost exclusively on the influence of choice outcomes (healthy vs. unhealthy) on emotional reactions (e.g., pride vs. guilt), we propose that the experience of conflict during decision making could have a unique influence, possibly fueling negative emotions (i.e., regret) regardless of people’s choice outcomes. To test this, we studied immediate consequences of people’s experience of conflict during self-control decision making (healthy vs. unhealthy food choice) on self-conscious emotions (i.e., guilt, regret, or pride), choice satisfaction and future behavior. Across 5 studies (vignette, field, and experience sampling), we found a link between self-control conflict and negativity: the more difficulty (proxy of conflict, Studies 1 and 2) or conflict (Studies 3 and 5) participants experienced during self-control decision making, the more negative they felt about their choice afterward. This was the case for unhealthy as well as healthy choices. Specifically, self-control conflict strength was associated with increased levels of guilt and regret (but not pride), with lower satisfaction and with lowered odds of making a similar choice in the future (Studies 1 to 3). Studies 4 and 5 suggested that conflict strength can boost pride after healthy choices, but only if participants first appraised their choice as acts of self-control. Our findings, therefore, highlight the costs as well as the potential benefits of experiencing conflict during self-control decision making.
Objective:
Functional Imagery Training (FIT) is a new brief motivational intervention based on the Elaborated Intrusion theory of desire. FIT trains the habitual use of personalised, affective, goal-directed mental imagery to plan behaviours, anticipate obstacles, and mentally try out solutions from previous successes. It is delivered in the client-centred style of Motivational Interviewing (MI). We tested the impact of FIT on weight loss, compared with time- and contact-matched MI.
Design:
We recruited 141 adults with BMI (kg/m²) ≥25, via a community newspaper, to a single-centre randomised controlled trial. Participants were allocated to one of two active interventions: FIT or MI. Primary data collection and analyses were conducted by researchers blind to interventions. All participants received two sessions of their allocated intervention; the first face-to-face (1 h), the second by phone (maximum 45 min). Booster calls of up to 15 min were provided every 2 weeks for 3 months, then once-monthly until 6 months. Maximum contact time was 4 h of individual consultation. Participants were assessed at Baseline, at the end of the intervention phase (6 months), and again 12 months post-baseline.
Main outcome measures:
Weight (kg) and waist circumference (WC, cm) reductions at 6 and 12 months.
Results:
FIT participants (N = 62) lost 4.11 kg and 7.02 cm of WC, compared to .74 kg and 2.72 cm in the MI group (N = 58) at 6 months (weight mean difference (WMD) = 3.37 kg, p < .001, 95% CI [-5.2, -2.1], waist-circumference mean difference (WCMD) = 4.3 cm, p < .001, 95% CI [-6.3,-2.6]). Between-group differences were maintained and increased at month 12: FIT participants lost 6.44 kg (W) and 9.1 cm (WC) compared to the MI who lost .67 kg and 2.46 cm (WMD = 5.77 kg, p < .001, 95% CI [-7.5, -4.4], WCMD = 6.64 cm, p < .001, 95% CI [-7.5, -4.4]).
Conclusion:
FIT is a theoretically informed motivational intervention which offers substantial benefits for weight loss and maintenance of weight reduction, compared with MI alone, despite including no lifestyle education or advice.
A new theory of eating regulation is presented to account for the over-responsiveness of restrained eaters to external food-relevant cues. According to this theory, the food intake of restrained eaters is characterized by a conflict between two chronically accessible incentives or goals: eating enjoyment and weight control. Their difficulty in weight control is due to their behavioral sensitivity to eating enjoyment and its incompatibility with the eating control goal. Accordingly, exposure to food-relevant stimuli primes the goal of eating enjoyment in restrained (but not unrestrained) eaters, resulting in an inhibition of weight control thoughts. Three studies are reported that support these assumptions. Study 1 demonstrates a substantial relation between Eating Restraint and measures of ambivalence towards eating. Studies 2 and 3 show that priming eating enjoyment decreases the accessibility of eating control concepts. The results are discussed in the context of current research on the psychology of obesity and restrained eating.
Fantasy realization theory states that when people contrast their fantasies about a desired future with reflections on present reality, a necessity to act is induced that leads to the activation and use of relevant expectations. Strong goal commitment arises in light of favorable expectations, and weak goal commitment arises in light of unfavorable expectations. To the contrary, when people only fantasize about a desired future or only reflect on present reality, expectancy-independent moderate goal commitment emerges. Four experiments pertaining to various life domains supported these hypotheses. Strength of goal commitment was assessed in cognitive (e.g., making plans), affective (e.g., felt attachment), and behavioral terms (e.g., effort expenditure, quality of performance). Implications for theories on goal setting and goal striving are discussed.
Based on optimal foraging theory, we propose a metric that allows evaluating the goodness of goal systems, that is, systems comprising multiple goals with facilitative and conflicting interrelations. This optimal foraging theory takes into account expectancy and value, as well as opportunity costs, of foraging. Applying this approach to goal systems provides a single index of goodness of a goal system for goal striving. Three quasi-experimental studies (N = 277, N = 145, and N = 210) provide evidence for the usefulness of this approach for goal systems comprising between 3 to 10 goals. Results indicate that persons with a more optimized goal-system are more conscientious and open to new experience, are more likely to represent their goals in terms of means (i.e., adopt a process focus), and are more satisfied and engaged with their goals. Persons with a suboptimal goal system tend to switch their goals more often and thereby optimize their goal system. We discuss limitations as well as possible future directions of this approach. (PsycINFO Database Record
Background
The BSI-18 contains the three six-item scales somatization, depression, and anxiety as well as the Global Severity Index (GSI), including all 18 items. The BSI-18 is the latest and shortest of the multidimensional versions of the Symptom-Checklist 90-R, but its psychometric properties have not been sufficiently clarified yet. Methods
Based on a representative sample of N = 2516 participants (aged 14–94 years), detailed psychometric analyses were carried out. ResultsThe internal consistency was good: Somatization α = .82, Depression α = .87, Anxiety α = .84 and GSI α = .93. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the three scales as second-order and GSI as first-order factors. The model fit based on RMSEA is good but that model fit based on CFI and TLI are too low. Conclusions
Therefore, it is a very short, reliable instrument for the assessment of psychological distress. The BSI-18 can be used to reliably assess psychological distress in the general population. However, further studies need to evaluate the usefulness of standardization in clinical samples.
Detachment from work has been proposed as an important non-work experience helping employees to recover from work demands. This meta-analysis (86 publications, k = 91 independent study samples, N = 38,124 employees) examined core antecedents and outcomes of detachment in employee samples. With regard to outcomes, results indicated average positive correlations between detachment and self-reported mental (i.e., less exhaustion, higher life satisfaction, more well-being, better sleep) and physical (i.e., lower physical discomfort) health, state well-being (i.e., less fatigue, higher positive affect, more intensive state of recovery), and task performance (small to medium sized effects). However, average relationships between detachment and physiological stress indicators and work motivation were not significant while associations with contextual performance and creativity were significant, but negative. Concerning work characteristics, as expected, job demands were negatively related and job resources were positively related to detachment (small sized effects). Further, analyses revealed that person characteristics such as negative affectivity/neuroticism (small sized effect) and heavy work investment (medium sized effect) were negatively related to detachment whereas detachment and demographic variables (i.e., age and gender) were not related. Moreover, we found a medium sized average negative relationship between engagement in work-related activities during non-work time and detachment. For most of the examined relationships heterogeneity of effect sizes was moderate to high. We identified study design, samples' gender distribution, and affective valence of work-related thoughts as moderators for some of these aforementioned relationships. The results of this meta-analysis point to detachment as a non-work (recovery) experience that is influenced by work-related and personal characteristics which in turn is relevant for a range of employee outcomes.
Mindfulness is associated with a host of beneficial outcomes. Increasing evidence suggests
that mindfulness may support adaptive self-regulation. The present research investigates
fluctuations in state mindfulness in everyday life, and links these with desire experiences and
self-regulation. When high in state mindfulness, participants experienced less conflict
between desires and other goals, tried to resist desires less, and enacted desires to a greater
extent than when less mindful. This was accompanied with less use of self-regulatory
strategies including suppression, self-stopping, distraction, and avoidance. In addition, state
mindfulness was associated with greater happiness, less guilt, and less regret after enacting
desires. Importantly, when conflict between desires and other goals was high, participants
exerted as much restraint when reporting low as when reporting high state mindfulness.
These findings suggest that state mindfulness goes along with wise self-regulation as opposed
to strictly higher restraint: Enjoying the benefits of indulgence without risking important
long-term goals.
Previous research has demonstrated that an episodic specificity induction-brief training in recollecting details of a recent experience-enhances performance on various subsequent tasks thought to draw upon episodic memory processes. Existing work has also shown that mental simulation can be beneficial for emotion regulation and coping with stressors. Here we focus on understanding how episodic detail can affect problem solving, reappraisal, and psychological well-being regarding worrisome future events. In Experiment 1, an episodic specificity induction significantly improved participants' performance on a subsequent means-end problem solving task (i.e., more relevant steps) and an episodic reappraisal task (i.e., more episodic details) involving personally worrisome future events compared with a control induction not focused on episodic specificity. Imagining constructive behaviors with increased episodic detail via the specificity induction was also related to significantly larger decreases in anxiety, perceived likelihood of a bad outcome, and perceived difficulty to cope with a bad outcome, as well as larger increases in perceived likelihood of a good outcome and indicated use of active coping behaviors compared with the control. In Experiment 2, we extended these findings using a more stringent control induction, and found preliminary evidence that the specificity induction was related to an increase in positive affect and decrease in negative affect compared with the control. Our findings support the idea that episodic memory processes are involved in means-end problem solving and episodic reappraisal, and that increasing the episodic specificity of imagining constructive behaviors regarding worrisome events may be related to improved psychological well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record
This study extends previous research on respite from work and addresses the question of how individuals use their leisure time to recover from work. It is hypothesized that time spent on work-related and household activities has a negative effect on well-being, whereas low-effort, social, and physical activities are assumed to have a positive effect. One hundred Dutch teachers completed a diary on leisure time activities and situational well-being for 5 days, and work situation variables were assessed with a questionnaire. Multilevel analyses in which preleisure well-being and work situation variables were entered as control variables supported 4 of the 5 hypotheses. Moreover, a lagged effect of high time pressure on poor situational well-being was found. The study showed that leisure time activities and a low-stress work situation contribute independently to an individual's well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
As the science of self-control matures, the organization and integration of its key concepts becomes increasingly important. In response, we identified seven major components or "nodes" in current theories and research bearing on self-control: desire, higher order goal, desire-goal conflict, control motivation, control capacity, control effort, and enactment constraints. To unify these diverse and interdisciplinary areas of research, we formulated the interplay of these components in an integrative model of self-control. In this model, desire and an at least partly incompatible higher order goal generate desire-goal conflict, which activates control motivation. Control motivation and control capacity interactively determine potential control effort. The actual control effort invested is determined by several moderators, including desire strength, perceived skill, and competing goals. Actual control effort and desire strength compete to determine a prevailing force, which ultimately determines behavior, provided that enactment constraints do not impede it. The proposed theoretical framework is useful for highlighting several new directions for research on self-control and for classifying self-control failures and self-control interventions.
Interest in eudaimonia (e.g., growth, meaning, authenticity, excellence) and its distinction from hedonia (e.g., pleasure, enjoyment, comfort, absence of distress) is growing rapidly, as researchers recognize that both concepts are central to the study of well-being. Yet research on these concepts faces challenges as well: findings based on different operationalizations can be quite discrepant; definitions of eudaimonia and hedonia sometimes fall into different categories of analysis (e.g. when eudaimonia is described as a way of functioning, hedonia as an experience); and the terms eudaimonia and hedonia are sometimes defined vaguely or applied to concepts that may be mere correlates. To aid in addressing these challenges, we propose the following terminology and classification for discussing conceptual and operational definitions: (1) degree of centrality – differentiating concepts that are core (i.e., definitional), close-to-core (i.e., given some attention but not central), and major correlates; (2) category of analysis– identifying which of the following categories a definition represents: (a) orientations (orientations, values, motives, and goals), (b) behaviors (behavioral content, activity characteristics), (c) experiences (subjective experiences, emotions, cognitive appraisals), (d) functioning (indices of positive psychological functioning, mental health, flourishing); and (3) level of measurement – identifying whether a definition is used for trait and/or state comparisons. The work of scholars with a program of research on eudaimonia or the distinction between eudaimonia and hedonia is reviewed and discussed within the framework of the proposed classification; several points of convergence and divergence across definitions are highlighted; and important questions and directions for future research are identified.
Traditionally, self-control research has put a strong focus on the mechanisms that support the control of behavior in the face of temptation. This emphasis in the field has led to some neglect of desire as an impelling force that needs to be controlled. However, the focus appears to be shifting, as recent research has led to novel insights into the nature of desire. In this review, we integrate these insights into how desire emerges, how it operates, and how it may best be controlled. Drawing on competitive-access models of working memory and dynamical reprocessing models, we highlight, among other factors, the role of top-down attentional resources in preventing the early conscious processing and subsequent escalation of desire.
According to the resource model of self-control, overriding one's predominant response tendencies consumes and temporarily depletes a limited inner resource. Over 100 experiments have lent support to this model of ego depletion by observing that acts of self-control at Time 1 reduce performance on subsequent, seemingly unrelated self-control tasks at Time 2. The time is now ripe, therefore, not only to broaden the scope of the model but to start gaining a precise, mechanistic account of it. Accordingly, in the current article, the authors probe the particular cognitive, affective, and motivational mechanics of self-control and its depletion, asking, "What is ego depletion?" This study proposes a process model of depletion, suggesting that exerting self-control at Time 1 causes temporary shifts in both motivation and attention that undermine self-control at Time 2. The article highlights evidence in support of this model but also highlights where evidence is lacking, thus providing a blueprint for future research. Though the process model of depletion may sacrifice the elegance of the resource metaphor, it paints a more precise picture of ego depletion and suggests several nuanced predictions for future research.
© The Author(s) 2012.
In this chapter, we propose a new theoretical model of alienation that we term the ego fixation hypothesis. Ego fixation refers to the involuntary persistence of self-control. One important consequence of ego fixation is that individuals can no longer access their negative reactions to distasteful stimuli. Although virtually everyone may be somewhat ego-fixated at from time to time, some individuals may be more vulnerable to this condition than others. In particular, individuals who become easily locked into motivational and emotional states, or so-called "state-oriented" individuals, may be especially prone to become ego-fixated. After discussing our ego fixation model, we review several lines of empirical research on state orientation and ego fixation.
The theory outlined in the present chapter adopts a cognitive approach to motivation. In the pages that follow we describe a research program premised on the notion that the cognitive treatment affords conceptual and methodological advantages enabling new insights into problems of motivated action, self-regulation and self-control. We begin by placing our work in the broader historical context of social psychological theorizing about motivation and cognition. We then present our theoretical notions and trace their implications for a variety of psychological issues including activity-experience, goal-commitment, choice, and substitution. The gist of the chapter that follows describes our empirical research concerning a broad range of phenomena informed by the goal-systemic analysis. Motivation Versus Cognition, or Motivation as Cognition Motivation versus cognition: the “separatist program. ” Social psychological theories have often treated motivation as separate from cognition, and have often approached it in a somewhat static manner. The separatism of the “motivation versus cognition ” approach was manifest in several major formulations and debates. Thus, for example, the dissonance versus self-perception debate (Bem, 1972) pitted against each other motivational (i.e., dissonance) versus cognitive (i.e., self-perception) explanations of attitude change phenomena. A similar subsequent controversy pertained to the question of whether a motivational explanation of biased causal attributions in terms of ego-defensive tendencies (cf. Kelley, 1972) is valid, given the alternative possibility of a purely cognitive explanation (Miller & Ross, 1975). The separatism of the “motivation versus cognition ” approach assigned distinct functions to motivational and cognitive variables. This is apparent in major social psychological notions of persuasion, judgment or impression formation. For instance, in the popular dual-mode theories of
In recent years, people have tended to pay less attention to their meals, often consuming them while engaging in other activities. At the same time, foods have become increasingly sweet and salty. We therefore investigated how performing concurrent activities affects taste perception and how this relates to actual consumption. Participants tasted sour, sweet, and salty substances in various concentrations under differing task loads. Our results demonstrated that under high task load (relative to low task load), participants rated the substances as less intense, consumed more of the substances, and preferred stronger tastants. Our findings suggest that increased task load reduces people's taste perception by limiting attentional capacity to assess taste intensity and that people adjust their consumption accordingly.
Aristotle's concept of eudaimonia and hedonic enjoyment constitute 2 philosophical conceptions of happiness. Two studies involving combined samples of undergraduate and graduate students (Study 1,
n = 209; Study 2,
n = 249) were undertaken to identify the convergent and divergent aspects of these constructs. As expected, there was a strong positive correlation between personal expressiveness (eudaimonia) and hedonic enjoyment. Analyses revealed significant differences between the 2 conceptions of happiness experienced in conjunction with activities for the variables of (1) opportunities for satisfaction, (2) strength of cognitive-affective components, (3) level of challenges, (4) level of skills, and (5) importance. It thus appears that the 2 conceptions of happiness are related but distinguishable and that personal expressiveness, but not hedonic enjoyment, is a signifier of success in the process of self-realization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Although previous research has uncovered various ways people can savor or dampen their positive emotional experiences, the unique impact of each of these strategies on well-being remains unknown. The present study examines the relative impact of the main positive emotion regulation strategies on two components of well-being: positive affect (PA) and life satisfaction (LS). A total of 282 participants completed measures of PA, LS, overall happiness, and the savoring and dampening strategies they typically used. Results show that when experiencing positive events, focusing attention on the present moment and engaging in positive rumination promoted PA, whereas telling others promoted LS. In contrast, being distracted diminished PA, while focusing on negative details and engaging in negative rumination reduced LS. As the strategies targeted different components of well-being, our results further show that regulatory diversity (i.e., typically using various strategies rather than a few specific ones), was beneficial to overall happiness. Our findings suggest that there are several independent ways to make the best (or the worst) out of our positive emotions, and that the cultivation of multiple savoring strategies might be required to achieve lasting happiness.
Background: Research has shown that beliefs about one's capacity to savour positive outcomes, a form of perceived control over positive emotions, are largely independent of beliefs about coping, a form of perceived control over negative emotions. Aim: To describe a new measure of savouring beliefs, the Savoring Beliefs Inventory (SBI). Method: Six studies validating the SBI that is designed to assess individuals' perceptions of their ability to derive pleasure through anticipating upcoming positive events, savouring positive moments, and reminiscing about past positive experiences. Results: SBI scores were found to be: (a) positively correlated with affect intensity, extraversion, optimism, internal locus of control, reported self-control behaviours, life satisfaction, value fulfilment, self-esteem, and intensity and frequency of happiness; (b) negatively correlated with neuroticism, guilt, physical and social anhedonia, hopelessness, depression, and the frequency of unhappy and neutral affect; and (c) uncorrelated with socially desirable responding. SBI was validated prospec-tively by first measuring college students' savouring beliefs and then later assessing their behaviours and affects in looking forward to, enjoying the actual experience of, and looking back on their Christmas vacation. Within each of the three time frames, the relevant SBI subscale generally predicted behaviours and affects more strongly than did the subscales associated with the other two temporal orientations. Finally, SBI was cross-validated in a sample of older adults. Conclusion: These results provide strong evidence that the SBI is a valid and reliable measure of individuals' beliefs about their capacity to savour positive experiences through anticipation, present enjoyment, and reminiscence.
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.
© 2009 Association for Psychological Science.
Self-control is a central function of the self and an important key to success in life. The exertion of self-control appears to depend on a limited resource. Just as a muscle gets tired from exertion, acts of self-control cause short-term impairments (ego depletion) in subsequent self-control, even on unrelated tasks. Research has supported the strength model in the domains of eating, drinking, spending, sexuality, intelligent thought, making choices, and interpersonal behavior. Motivational or framing factors can temporarily block the deleterious effects of being in a state of ego depletion. Blood glucose is an important component of the energy.
Hedonia (seeking pleasure and comfort) and eudaimonia (seeking to use and develop the best in oneself) are often seen as opposing
pursuits, yet each may contribute to well-being in different ways. We conducted four studies (two correlational, one experience-sampling,
and one intervention study) to determine outcomes associated with activities motivated by hedonic and eudaimonic aims. Overall,
results indicated that: between persons (at the trait level) and within persons (at the momentary state level), hedonic pursuits
related more to positive affect and carefreeness, while eudaimonic pursuits related more to meaning; between persons, eudaimonia
related more to elevating experience (awe, inspiration, and sense of connection with a greater whole); within persons, hedonia
related more negatively to negative affect; between and within persons, both pursuits related equally to vitality; and both
pursuits showed some links with life satisfaction, though hedonia’s links were more frequent. People whose lives were high
in both eudaimonia and hedonia had: higher degrees of most well-being variables than people whose lives were low in both pursuits
(but did not differ in negative affect or carefreeness); higher positive affect and carefreeness than predominantly eudaimonic
individuals; and higher meaning, elevating experience, and vitality than predominantly hedonic individuals. In the intervention
study, hedonia produced more well-being benefits at short-term follow-up, while eudaimonia produced more at 3-month follow-up.
The findings show that hedonia and eudaimonia occupy both overlapping and distinct niches within a complete picture of well-being,
and their combination may be associated with the greatest well-being.
KeywordsPleasure-Hedonism-Eudaimonia-Virtue-Well-being-Elevation
Why do certain tasks and activities feel effortful, and, ultimately, result in task disengagement? To answer this question, we connected and extended prior work on labor/leisure tradeoffs, autonomy, opportunity costs, effort, and task utility into an integrative model of the antecedents and consequences of perceived opportunity costs, defined as the perceived costs of missing out on a tempting alternative action. Using both an experimental causal chain approach (Experiments 1-3) as well as a large experience sampling study (Nobs = 9,994), we found that activities that were low in autonomy predicted opportunity costs, and that opportunity costs, in turn, positively predicted feelings of effort and negatively predicted task utility. Mediation analyses supported the process model. Finally, using a novel dropout-paradigm, Experiment 5 provided evidence that opportunity costs are causally related to task disengagement. Our findings suggest that opportunity costs may play a non-negligible role in creating the subjective sensation of effort and in guiding task choice. Moreover, they provide a conceptual bridge to autonomous motivation which may shield the individual from the perception that he/she may have better things to do.
Past research suggests that trait self-control, trait mindfulness, and implicit theories about willpower contribute to self-control, however, their incremental value for this adaptive capacity is unknown. Applying the four-step model of motivated behavior (Hofmann, Baumeister, Förster, & Vohs, 2012), we assessed the frequency of desire experience, resistance, and enactment in everyday life. Results of two highly-powered correlational studies (Study 1: n = 273, Study 2: n = 465) suggest that higher trait self-control is associated with a less frequent experience of desires, higher trait mindfulness with less frequent desire resistance, and a nonlimited theory about willpower is associated with a less frequent enactment of desires. These findings suggest that the traits studied contribute to successful self-control in different ways.
Episodic future thinking refers to the capacity to imagine or simulate experiences that might occur in one's personal future. Cognitive, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging research concerning episodic future thinking has accelerated during recent years. This article discusses research that has delineated cognitive and neural mechanisms that support episodic future thinking as well as the functions that episodic future thinking serves. Studies focused on mechanisms have identified a core brain network that underlies episodic future thinking and have begun to tease apart the relative contributions of particular regions in this network, and the specific cognitive processes that they support. Studies concerned with functions have identified several domains in which episodic future thinking produces performance benefits, including decision making, emotion regulation, prospective memory, and spatial navigation.
Despite the explosion of research on goal pursuit, relatively little is known about the shaping of goal progress by the simple experiences that characterize everyday life. Two literatures furnish competing predictions about the relationship between pleasant daily experiences (simple pleasures), unpleasant daily experiences (small annoyances), and day-to-day goal progress. A 6-day experience-sampling study revealed support for the favored integrative account. On a given day, a relatively high number of simple pleasures offset the negative relationship between the number of small annoyances and goal progress through a restoration of daily happiness rather than a reduction of daily stress. This study highlights the bright side of pleasurable experiences, indicating that goal progress can flourish in a life punctuated with frequent simple pleasures because they help offset daily irritations. As natural precursors to positive and negative affect, simple pleasures and small annoyances could be powerful predictors of important consumer outcomes.
Six studies explore the role of goal shielding in self-regulation:by examining how the activation of focal goals to which the individual is committed inhibits the accessibility, of alternative goals. Consistent evidence was found for such goal shielding, and a number of its moderators were identified: Individuals' level of commitment to the focal goal, their degree of anxiety and depression, their need for cognitive closure, and differences in their goal-related tenacity. Moreover, inhibition of alternative goals was found to be, more pronounced when they serve the same overarching purpose as the focal goal, but lessened when the alternative goals facilitate focal goal attainment. Finally; goal shielding was shown to have beneficial consequences for goal pursuit and attainment.
The resurgence of interest in anhedonia within major depression has been fuelled by clinical trials demonstrating its utility in predicting antidepressant response as well as recent conceptualizations focused on the role and manifestation of anhedonia in depression. Historically, anhedonia has been conceptualized as a "loss of pleasure", yet neuropsychological and neurobiological studies reveal a multifaceted reconceptualization that emphasizes different facets of hedonic function, including desire, effort/motivation, anticipation and consummatory pleasure. To ensure generalizability across studies, evaluation of the available subjective and objective methods to assess anhedonia is necessary. The majority of research regarding anhedonia and its neurobiological underpinnings comes from preclinical research, which uses primary reward (e.g. food) to probe hedonic responding. In contrast, behavioural studies in humans primarily use secondary reward (e.g. money) to measure many aspects of reward responding, including delay discounting, response bias, prediction error, probabilistic reversal learning, effort, anticipation and consummatory pleasure. The development of subjective scales to measure anhedonia has also increased in the last decade. This review will assess the current methodology to measure anhedonia, with a focus on scales and behavioural tasks in humans. Limitations of current work and recommendations for future studies are discussed.
Though common sense suggests that positive thinking shelters people from depression, the four studies reported here showed that this intuition needs to be qualified: Positive thinking in the form of fantasies about the future did indeed relate to decreased symptoms of depression when measured concurrently; however, positive fantasies predicted more depressive symptoms when measured longitudinally. The pattern of results was observed for different indicators of fantasies and depression, in adults and in schoolchildren, and for periods of up to 7 months (Studies 1–4). In college students, low academic success partially mediated the predictive relation between positive fantasies and symptoms of depression (Study 4). Results add to existing research on the problematic effects of positive fantasies on performance by suggesting that indulging in positive fantasies predicts problems in mental health.
This study rested the idea of habits as a form of goal-directed automatic behavior. Expanding on the idea that habits are mentally represented as associations between goals and actions, it was proposed that goals are capable of activating the habitual action. More specific, when habits are established (e.g., frequent cycling to the university), the very activation of the goal to act (e.g., having to attend lectures at the university) automatically evokes the habitual response (e.g., bicycle). Indeed, it was tested and confirmed that, when behavior is habitual, behavioral responses are activated automatically. in addition, the results of 3 experiments indicated that (a) the automaticity in habits is conditional on the presence of an active goal (cf. goal-dependent automaticity; J. A. Bargh, 1989), supporting the idea that habits are mentally represented as goal-action links, and (b) the formation of implementation intentions (i.e., the creation of a strong mental link between a goal and action) may simulate goal-directed automaticity in habits.
Research on overeating assumes that pleasure must be sacrificed for the sake of good health. Contrary to this view, the authors show that focusing on sensory pleasure can make people happier and willing to spend more for less food, a triple win for public health, consumers and businesses alike. In five experiments, American and French adults and children were asked to imagine vividly the taste, smell and oro-haptic sensations of three hedonic foods prior to choosing a portion size of another hedonic food. Compared to a control condition, this “multisensory imagery” intervention led hungry and non-dieting people to choose smaller food portions, yet they anticipated greater eating enjoyment and were willing to pay more for them. This occurred because it prompted participants to evaluate portions based on expected sensory pleasure, which peaks with smaller portions, rather than on hunger. In contrast, health-based interventions led people to choose a smaller portion than the one they expected to enjoy most—a hedonic cost for them and an economic cost for food marketers.
This chapter explores the mechanisms underlying motivation and self-regulation from a functional-design perspective. Traditional approaches emphasize the mediating role of beliefs and other cognitive contents. An example of this approach is classical expectancy–value theory according to which a student's motivation to invest time and effort depends on his or her expectation of success and on the perceived value of good achievement. Learned helplessness is a practical example that illustrates the difference between content-based and functional explanations: After exposure to uncontrollable failure, many people lose their motivation and show impaired performance just as depressed patients do in response to adverse life conditions. According to traditional theorizing, those motivational and cognitive deficits are attributable to negative beliefs, such as pessimistic beliefs about one's own abilities. In contrast, according to a functional account, pessimistic beliefs and motivational deficits are consequences rather than causes of performance deficits that occur when people are confronted with uncontrollable failure: Experimental evidence shows that generalized pessimistic control beliefs typically occur after, not before, people develop symptoms of helplessness and depression. According to these findings, learned helplessness and depression cannot be remedied through making people believe in their abilities as attempted in cognitive therapy until one has established the necessary abilities. Specifying the mechanisms that underlie self-regulatory abilities is the target of functional approaches to self-regulation.
Self-control is of invaluable importance for well-being. While previous research has focused on self-control failure, we introduce a new perspective on self-control, including the notion of effortless self-control, and a focus on self-control success rather than failure. We propose that effortless strategies of dealing with response conflict (i.e., competing behavioral tendencies) are what distinguishes successful self-controllers from less successful ones. While people with high trait self-control may recognize the potential for response conflict in self-control dilemmas, they do not seem to subjectively experience this conflict as much as people with low self-control. Two strategies may underlie this difference: avoidance of response conflict through adaptive, habitual behaviors, and the efficient downregulating of response conflict. These strategies as well as the role of response conflict are elaborated upon and discussed in the light of existing literature on self-control.
This article reports the development and validation of a scale to measure global life satisfaction, the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). Among the various components of subjective well-being, the SWLS is narrowly focused to assess global life satisfaction and does not tap related constructs such as positive affect or loneliness. The SWLS is shown to have favorable psychometric properties, including high internal consistency and high temporal reliability. Scores on the SWLS correlate moderately to highly with other measures of subjective well-being, and correlate predictably with specific personality characteristics. It is noted that the SWLS is suited for use with different age groups, and other potential uses of the scale are discussed.
This article provides a quantitative review of the link between successful goal pursuit and subjective well-being (SWB). The meta-analysis integrates the findings of 108 independent samples derived from 85 studies. Results revealed a significant association between successful goal striving and SWB (ρ = .43). Moderator analyses showed that the association
was larger when (a) successful goal pursuit was defined as goal progress, instead of goal attainment, when (b) SWB was measured as SWB (positive indicators), instead of ill-being (negative indicators), when (c) the SWB measure matched the goal content, instead of lacked conceptual correspondence, and when (d) the data collection took place in an individualistic culture, instead of a collectivistic culture. Discussion centers on the interpretation of moderators, theoretical implications, and directions for future research.
Balance in life is an important predictor of well-being and health. The purpose of this pilot research was to investigate the relationships between self-regulation and life balance, that is, the appropriate proportion of time spent in major life domains. In Study 1, time management was investigated. In contrast to expectations, time management showed only an indirect relationship to life balance through the perceived control over time. In Study 2, self-motivation, self-relaxation, and self-determination were studied. As expected, self-determination predicted life balance. Self-motivation and self-relaxation were linked to self-determination and showed indirect relationship to life balance. In line with theory, persons skilled in self-motivation and self-relaxation scored higher on self-determination competence which, in turn, facilitated balance among life domains.
The present research explored the nature of automatic associations formed between short-term motives (temptations) and the overriding goals with which they interfere. Five experimental studies, encompassing several self-regulatory domains, found that temptations tend to activate such higher priority goals, whereas the latter tend to inhibit the temptations. These activation patterns occurred outside of participants' conscious awareness and did not appear to tax their mental resources. Moreover, they varied as a function of subjective goal importance and were more pronounced for successful versus unsuccessful self-regulators in a given domain. Finally, priming by temptation stimuli was found not only to influence the activation of overriding goals but also to affect goal-congruent behavioral choices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Zusammenfassung. Der Beitrag berichtet uber die teststatistische Prufung und Normierung der deutschen Versionen des EUROHIS-QOL 8 Item Index (EUROHIS-QOL) zur Erfassung der generischen Lebensqualitat und des Wohlbefindens-Index der WHO (WHO-5) zur Erfassung der Wohlbefindens aus Sicht der Befragten. Datengrundlage bildet eine reprasentative Stichprobe der bundesdeutschen Bevolkerung aus dem Jahr 2004. Die teststatistische Prufung verweist auf gute psychometrische Eigenschaften des EUROHIS-QOL Index. Obgleich Modifikationsmoglichkeiten bestehen, wird die Selektion von Items ausgeschlossen, weil dies den komzeptuellen Vorgaben der Indexkonstruktion widersprechen wurde. Die Ergebnisse der teststatistischen Prufung des WHO-5 sind hinsichtlich der psychometrischen Eigenschaften als ausgezeichnet einzuschatzen. Erstmals werden geschlechts- und altersgruppenspezifische Normwerte fur die deutschsprachigen Versionen der beiden Instrumente vorgelegt. Schlusselworter: EUROHIS, WHO-5, Lebensqualitat, Wohlbefinden, Index Testing and standardization of the German version of the EUROHIS-QOL and WHO-5 quality-of life-indices
Zusammenfassung. Selbstkontrolle ist definiert als die Überwindung oder Modifikation von Reaktionstendenzen. Die dispositionelle Selbstkontroll-Kapazität hängt positiv gerichtet mit einer Vielzahl von Maßen adaptiven Verhaltens zusammen. Zur ökonomischen Messung dispositioneller Selbstkontroll-Kapazität wurde in der vorliegenden Arbeit die vornehmlich eingesetzte Kurzform der Self-Control Scale von Tangney, Baumeister und Boone (2004) ins Deutsche adaptiert. Dazu wurde die übersetzte Gesamtskala bestehend aus 36 Items Studierenden (N = 316, Studie 1) und Schülern (N = 335, Studie 2) vorgelegt. Die in der Gesamtskala enthaltene Kurzskala aus 13 Items erwies sich in beiden Studien als eindimensional, reliabel und valide bezüglich erwarteter Zusammenhänge mit Kriteriumsvariablen. Der Vergleich zwischen Kurz- und Gesamtskala zeigte, dass die Kosten der ökonomischeren Messung hinsichtlich Reliabilität und Validität gering sind.
OBJECTIVE: Does trait self-control (TSC) predict affective well-being and life satisfaction -positively, negatively, or not? METHOD: We conducted three studies (Study 1: n=414; 64.0% female; Mage =35.0 years; Study 2: n=208; 66.0% female; Mage =25.24 years; Study 3: n=234; 61.0% female; Mage =34.53 years). The key predictor was TSC, with affective well-being and life satisfaction ratings as key outcomes. Potential explanatory constructs including goal conflict, goal balancing, and emotional distress also were investigated. RESULTS: TSC is positively related to affective well-being and life satisfaction, and managing goal conflict is a key as to why. All studies, moreover, showed that the effect of TSC on life satisfaction was at least partially mediated by affect. Study 1's correlational study established the effect. Study 2's experience sampling study demonstrated that compared to those low in TSC, those high in TSC experience higher levels of momentary affect even as they experience desire, an effect partially mediated through experiencing lower conflict and emotional distress. Study 3 found evidence for the proposed mechanism-that TSC may boost well-being by helping people to avoid frequent conflict and balance vice-virtue conflicts by favoring virtues. CONCLUSION: Self-control positively contributes to happiness through avoiding and dealing with motivational conflict.