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Contents
- Abstract
- Effortful Inhibition and Its Limitations
- Habit and Goal Adherence
- Might Beneficial Habits Mediate the Relationship Between Self-Control and Positive Life Outcomes?
- Overview of the Current Investigation
- Study 1: Short-Term Outcomes—Habits and Less Effortful Inhibition
- Method
- Participants and procedure
- Measures
- Habit strength
- Exercise automaticity
- Self-control
- Effortful inhibition
- Results and Discussion
- Analytic plan
- Self-control is associated with beneficial habits and behavioral automaticity
- Self-control and habit are associated with less effortful inhibition
- Strong habits mediate the effect of self-control on both effortful inhibition and behavioral automaticity
- Study 2: Short-Term Outcomes—Habits and Reduced Motivational Interference
- Method
- Participants and procedure
- Measures
- Motivational interference during study-leisure conflict
- Results and Discussion
- Study 3: Short-Term Outcomes—Studying During Challenging Circumstances
- Method
- Participants
- Measures and procedure
- Study during difficult circumstances
- Results and Discussion
- Study 4: Medium-Term Outcomes—Classroom Engagement and Homework Completion
- Method
- Participants and procedure
- Measures
- Self-report measure of self-control
- Behavioral measure of self-control
- Strength of homework habits
- Intelligence
- Classroom engagement
- Results and Discussion
- Study 5: Long-Term Outcomes—Accomplishing Meditation Practice Goals
- Method
- Participants and procedure
- Measures
- Preretreat survey
- Self-control
- Prior experience with meditation practice
- Immediate postretreat survey
- Commitment to meditation practice
- Three month follow-up survey
- Strength of mindfulness meditation practice habits
- Automaticity of meditation practice
- Accomplishing meditation goals
- Results and Discussion
- Study 6: Long-Term Outcomes—Earning Higher Grades and Persisting in College
- Method
- Participants and procedure
- Measures
- Self-report ratings of self-control and homework habits
- Homework completion
- Intelligence
- GPA
- College persistence
- Results and Discussion
- General Discussion
- Implications for Self-Control Research
- Potential Criticisms and Limitations
- Directions for Future Research
- Concluding Remark
Figures and Tables
Abstract
Why does self-control predict such a wide array of positive life outcomes? Conventional wisdom holds that self-control is used to effortfully inhibit maladaptive impulses, yet this view conflicts with emerging evidence that self-control is associated with less inhibition in daily life. We propose that one of the reasons individuals with better self-control use less effortful inhibition, yet make better progress on their goals is that they rely on beneficial habits. Across 6 studies (total N = 2,274), we found support for this hypothesis. In Study 1, habits for eating healthy snacks, exercising, and getting consistent sleep mediated the effect of...