Social Psychology - Willpower

Job et al. (relationship between people's beliefs about willpower and ego depletion) this study supports both models of willpower

belief about willpower reflects if they are depleted or not this is all in your head - people who believe willpower is unlimited, behave like it is people who believe willpower is limited, behave like it is

Delay of gratification (Moffitt et al. 2011 study)

children will try to delay gratification to get bigger satisfaction

The motivation Model

control feels costly it is applied when benefits outweigh costs feels costly because of limited bandwidth the more you work, the more costly it feels

people that wait

dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex - system 2 thinking

Danziger, Levav, Avaim-pesso 2011 study

ego depletion and parole decisions use willpower throughout the day, take a break eat some glucose, and then willpower will bounce back

prudents - under cognitive load

it didn't matter, did a pretty good job of resisting temptation

impulsives - under cognitive role

much more likely to give into temptation

Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Muraven &Tice

participants who had to eat the radishes used a lot of their willpower then had participants try to unscramble words that cannot make words ------ show that willpower is a muscle that can used up

Galliott et al. study in 2007 (relationship between glucose and willpower)

self-control relies on glucose

life outcomes

some kids had health problems and financial problems - the individuals who was bad at delaying gratification good - successful in life

What is temporal discounting?

something becomes less to us as they move further into the future

Ego Depletion

the idea that self-control and willpower draws upon a limited pool of mental resources that can be used up

choose a reward.....this part of the brain is activated (early)

ventral striatum

Impulsive vs. prudents

weak willpower is people who are impulsive and prudents are people with strong willpower

Resource Model of Will Power

willpower is a limited resource it gets exhausted like a muscle can be strengthened like a muscle glucose is the resource