Nipping Temptation in the Bud: Examining Strategic Self-Control in Daily Life

Abstract

Self-control is often thought to be reactive and focused solely on the inhibition of responses elicited by temptations. In two studies, we assessed whether self-control can instead (a) be planned and (b) target the antecedents of the response to temptation. We assessed self-control planning, four antecedent-focused self-control strategies (i.e., situation-selection, situation-modification, distraction, and reappraisal) and one response-focused strategy (i.e., response-inhibition). In both studies, we found that self-control planning predicted the initiation of self-control independently of temptation. Each antecedent-focused self-control strategy uniquely predicted goal-progress. Response-inhibition did not produce consistent effects on goal-progress. These studies provide evidence that people proactively initiate self-control by targeting the antecedents of temptation and that doing so supports goal-progress.

Associations between use of self-regulatory strategies and daily eating patterns: An experience sampling study in college-aged women

“…Taken together, the present study adds to growing body empirical work on the ecological validity of self-regulatory strategies (Blanke et al, 2020;Burr & Samanez-Larkin, 2020;Southward & Cheavens, 2020;Williamson & Wilkowski, 2020) and demonstrates the efficacy of self-regulatory strategies when applied to daily food desires that at times conflict with people's goal pursuit. Indeed, the current findings shed light on the domain specificity of these strategies as they are applied to desires to eat in particular, versus desires that people experience across domains (Milyavskaya et al, 2020).…”

“…To conclude, the present study builds on prior work to further establish the ecological validity of models of selfcontrol (e.g. Hennecke et al, 2019;Williamson & Wilkowski, 2020), that focus on how people exert control, uninstructed, in naturalistic contexts versus laboratory settings. Here, we tested predictions about eating behavior derived from the process model of self-control in a sample of college-aged women.…”

“…suppressing your desire for the cookies; for a similar argument, see Hofmann & Kotabe, 2012). This supposition is supported by a recent experience sampling study (Williamson & Wilkowski, 2020), which found that proactive strategies were more reliably associated with goal progress than more reactive strategies (e.g. inhibition or suppression).…”

Flexibility in Using Self-Regulatory Strategies to Manage Self-Control Conflicts: The Role of Metacognitive Knowledge, Strategy Repertoire, and Feedback Monitoring

“…Self-regulatory strategies differ on various dimensions. They can be either proactive or reactive (Williamson & Wilkowski, 2019); they can target cognitive, motivational, affective, or behavioral processes (Hennecke et al, 2019); and though some strategies are effortless, automatized, and habitual (Gillebaart & de Ridder, 2015), others can require conscious effort. It is likely that many different situational factors moderate the efficacy of any given strategy, whereas the same situational variables might not influence the efficacy of another strategy.…”

A meta-analysis of financial self-control strategies: Comparing empirical findings with online media and lay person perspectives on what helps individuals curb spending and start saving

“…Self-control strategies can be conceptually organized by the focus of the strategy (i.e., self-control versus willpower strategies; [ 10 ]), the process of the strategy (i.e., situational versus intrapsychic strategies; [ 5 ]), and the timing of the strategy (i.e., preventative versus interventive strategies; [ 25 ]). A major distinction is the organization of strategies into those that are employed proactively before encountering a spending temptation (e.g., ‘proactive strategies’ [ 26 ], ‘preventive strategies’[ 25 ], ‘situational strategies’[ 5 ]), and those used reactively after encountering a spending temptation (e.g., ‘reactive strategies’ [ 26 ], ‘interventive strategies’ [ 25 ], ‘intrapsychic strategies’[ 5 ]). For example, proactive self-control strategies focus on behaviors and cognitions people can do in anticipation of a tempting situation (e.g., avoid walking by a cake shop when on a diet), and reactive self-control strategies focus on the behaviors and cognitions people can do once they are experiencing the tempting situation (e.g., distract yourself by drinking water when tempted by doughnuts at the office).…”