An Examination of the Role of Self-Control and Impact of Ego Depletion on Integrity Testing

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua D. Bazzy ◽  
David J. Woehr ◽  
Jared Borns
2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guojun Zhao ◽  
Fusen Xie ◽  
Yuchen Luo ◽  
Yixuan Liu ◽  
Yuan Chong ◽  
...  

It is well documented that self-control has a positive effect on individuals’ subjective well-being. However, little research has focused on the moderators underlying this relationship. The present research used two studies to examine the moderating role of both trait and state motivation on the relationship between self-control and subjective well-being using psychometric and experimental models, respectively. In Study 1, we explored whether trait motivation (including promotion vs. prevention motivation) moderated the relationship between trait self-control and subjective well-being using a psychometric model. In Study 2, we examined the moderating effects of both trait and state motivation on the effect of state self-control (measured via ego depletion) on subjective well-being using an experimental model. Our results indicated that self-control had a positive effect on subjective well-being, with this relationship being primarily moderated by prevention motivation. When state and trait prevention motivations were congruent, self-control had the most obvious impact on subjective well-being. This study suggests that current understandings around the association between self-control and happiness is limited, implying that motivation should be the focus of future research.


2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 384-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liad Uziel ◽  
Roy F. Baumeister

The present study explores the role of personality in moderating the effect of public social context on self-control. The authors predicted that in public settings neuroticism would be associated with ego-depletion effects and individual differences in impression management (IM) would be associated with restoration effects. Three experiments supported the hypothesis. In Study 1 neuroticism was associated with impaired self-control and IM was associated with enhanced self-control following an initial phase of working on a simple task in public (vs. in private). Study 2 replicated and extended these results to other domains of self-control. Study 3 explored whether public social context can cancel out early depletion effects. In this study, depleted participants engaged in a task that required self-control either alone or in public. As expected, the public settings were associated with restored self-control resources mostly among high IM individuals. Implications for self-control, neuroticism, and IM are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 782-790
Author(s):  
Mario Wenzel ◽  
Zarah Rowland ◽  
Wilhelm Hofmann ◽  
Thomas Kubiak

Research on ego depletion has often relied on the dual-task setting employing short tasks with low ecological validity. The comparatively few studies on ego depletion in daily life so far used diverging operationalization and yielded ambiguous results. We argue that fundamental research on short-term self-control limitations can benefit from research on the limit violation effect, which highlights the danger to self-control when setbacks are attributed to internal causes. To test the role of setbacks and compare different ego depletion operationalizations in daily life, we used data from two ambulatory assessment studies ( N = 125 and 205). No consistent ego depletion effects were observed in Study 1; instead, momentary self-control success was only impaired after setbacks (prior self-control efforts failed). The role of prior setbacks was replicated in Study 2, highlighting the importance of setbacks in subsequent self-control efforts beyond mere resisting, which should be incorporated in interventions targeting self-control improvements.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassandra Baldwin ◽  
Katie Garrison ◽  
Brandon Schmeichel

The current research tested the effects of active choice on memory (i.e., the self-choice effect). Across 14 experiments (N = 1100) we found that memory for choice alternatives was improved by choosing versus being assigned information to remember. A subset of 3 experiments found a bigger self-choice effect for more difficult choices. And a subset of 6 experiments found that prior acts of self-control reduce the self-choice effect. These findings represent unbiased estimates of the self-choice effect (d = 0. 62), the magnitude of the self-choice effect for easy (d = 0.35) versus more difficult (d = 0.87) choices, and the effect of ego depletion on choice memory (d = 0.39). Discussion centers on the role of cognitive control.


2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 580-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Englert ◽  
Alex Bertrams

In the present article, we analyzed the role of self-control strength and state anxiety in sports performance. We tested the hypothesis that self-control strength and state anxiety interact in predicting sports performance on the basis of two studies, each using a different sports task (Study 1: performance in a basketball free throw task, N = 64; Study 2: performance in a dart task, N = 79). The patterns of results were as expected in both studies: Participants with depleted self-control strength performed worse in the specific tasks as their anxiety increased, whereas there was no significant relation for participants with fully available self-control strength. Furthermore, different degrees of available self-control strength did not predict performance in participants who were low in state anxiety, but did in participants who were high in state anxiety. Thus increasing self-control strength could reduce the negative anxiety effects in sports and improve athletes’ performance under pressure.


2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Xiaoling Sun ◽  
Mingzheng Wu ◽  
Qian Chen

The importance of self-control failure and employee outcomes in public sector organizations in China is increasing. In this study, drawing on ego depletion theory and public service motivation (PSM) literature, we proposed that PSM would serve as a buffer against the detrimental effect of ego depletion on self-control. We used an experimental design to manipulate ego depletion with 95 Chinese public servant participants. Results showed that self-persuasion intervention can increase state PSM, and this contributes to higher self-control performance after an act of self-control. Results also indicated that higher trait PSM significantly correlates with higher self-control performance after ego depletion. Implications for cultivating PSM of employees in public sector organizations in China are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (7) ◽  
pp. 1143-1156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Wenjing Lyu ◽  
Changqing Lai ◽  
Jin Liu

We conducted 2 experiments to explore whether or not ego depletion from exerting prior self-control lowers an individual's construal level and thus, in turn, affects the individual's goal preference. Experiment 1 (N = 132) involved a 2 (ego depletion: present vs. absent) × 2 (priming-focus feature: temporality vs. probability) between-subject design. The results showed that people whose ego was depleted from exerting prior self-control would be more motivated to pursue a temporally proximal uncertain goal than were those whose ego was not depleted. In Experiment 2 (N = 138) we used a 2 (ego depletion: present vs. absent) × 2 (social distance of the goal being pursued: for self vs. for others) between-subject design to test the generalizability of the finding in Experiment 1. The results showed that people whose ego was depleted would be motivated to pursue a goal that was certain with a lower end value, especially when setting a goal for others. Our finding that ego depletion lowered individuals' construal level and, thus, made them focus more on subordinate features of a goal supports both self-control theory and construal-level theory.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierpaolo Primoceri ◽  
Nicolas Ramer ◽  
Johannes Ullrich ◽  
Veronika Job

Ego depletion refers to decrements in self-control performance resulting from prior use of self-control. The ego depletion effect has received much research attention, but the more recent literature reports small or null effects. This registered report examined the moderating effect of task similarity on the ego depletion effect. We predicted a crossover interaction between type of primary and secondary task such that engaging in a demanding self-control task should lead to better performance in the secondary task when it is similar to the primary task (facilitation effect) but worse performance when it is dissimilar (ego depletion). In a preregistered pilot study, N = 80 participants first completed either a visual stop-signal task (SST) or a simple lexical categorization task. They proceeded with one of four tasks classified as increasingly dissimilar based on their underlying operations and executive functions: (1) auditory stop-signal task, (2) Stroop task, (3) Eriksen flanker task, and (4) unsolvable anagrams. Both the pilot study and a high-powered registered replication (N = 300) revealed the predicted interaction effect. However, evidence for facilitation from similar tasks was stronger than evidence for depletion from dissimilar tasks. Together, these findings highlight the important role of task similarity for the study of ego depletion and related phenomena.


2021 ◽  
pp. 097226292199986
Author(s):  
Astha Gupta ◽  
Kirti Sharma ◽  
Ritu Srivastava

This article aims to review research on the relationship between self-control and health-oriented behaviours (healthy eating, physical exercise, smoking and alcohol abstinence) using the strength or limited resource model. The present work also aims to discuss alternative explanations for why initial acts of self-control impair subsequent adherence to health-oriented behaviours. The authors adopted the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses guidelines to conduct a systematic review. Database searches were performed to identify 25 articles, published in English from 2000 to 2020, that empirically tested the theory in the health domain. The available evidence supported the relationship between self-control and health-oriented behaviours, and the performance of health-oriented behaviours was found to reduce self-control resources. Mixed findings exist regarding the impact of a number of mediators and moderators in strengthening the relationship, and few studies have attempted to explain the mechanisms behind the controversial concept of ego depletion or the factors that can facilitate the performance of health behaviours under depletion conditions. Gaps in the reviewed studies were identified and the review highlighted the role of mediators and moderators. A decision-making framework is proposed (which can be tested in the future) to explain the role of dispositional self-control in health behaviours and how health behaviours can be facilitated, even in a state of low self-control.


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