Oops I Did it Again: Examining Self‐Licensing Effects in a Subsequent Self‐Regulation Dilemma

Prinsen, Sosja; Evers, Catharine; Ridder, Denise de

doi:10.1111/aphw.12064

Cited by 16 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 66 publications

(88 reference statements)

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“…Indeed, as a recent randomized controlled trial of a different alcohol reduction app suggests [13], care needs to be taken that content is used as intended, and not as a means to accurately quantify reductions in drinking at one point in time in order to give license to engage in different, yet equally damaging, drinking patterns at a later date [27]. …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using a mobile health application to reduce alcohol consumption: a mixed-methods evaluation of the drinkaware track & calculate units application

Attwood

Parke²,

Larsen³

et al. 2017

BMC Public Health

103

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BackgroundSmartphone applications (“apps”) offer promise as tools to help people monitor and reduce their alcohol consumption. To date, few evaluations of alcohol reduction apps exist, with even fewer considering apps already available to the public. The aim of this study was to evaluate an existing publically available app, designed by Drinkaware, a UK-based alcohol awareness charity.MethodsWe adopted a mixed-methods design, analysing routinely collected app usage data to explore user characteristics and patterns of usage. Following this, in-depth interviews were conducted with a sub-sample of app users to examine perceptions of acceptability, usability and perceived effectiveness, as well as to provide recommendations on how to improve the app.ResultsOne hundred nineteen thousand seven hundred thirteen people downloaded and entered data into the app over a 13-month period. High attrition was observed after 1 week. Users who engaged with the app tended to be “high risk” drinkers and to report being motivated “to reduce drinking” at the point of first download. In those who consistently engaged with the app over time, self-reported alcohol consumption levels reduced, with most change occurring in the first week of usage. Our qualitative findings indicate satisfaction with the usability of the app, but mixed feedback was given regarding individual features. Users expressed conflicting views concerning the type of feedback and notifications that the app currently provides. A common preference was expressed for more personalised content.ConclusionsThe Drinkaware app is a useful tool to support behaviour change in individuals who are already motivated and committed to reducing their alcohol consumption. The Drinkaware app would benefit from greater personalisation and tailoring to promote longer term use. This evaluation provides insight into the usability and acceptability of various app features and contains a number of recommendations for improving user satisfaction and the potential effectiveness of apps designed to encourage reductions in alcohol consumption.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-017-4358-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using a mobile health application to reduce alcohol consumption: a mixed-methods evaluation of the drinkaware track & calculate units application

Attwood

Parke²,

Larsen³

et al. 2017

BMC Public Health

103

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“…For example, recent reviews showed that stress impairs efforts to be physically active, and stress and negative emotions unfavorably in uences dietary behavior (26)(27)(28)(29); however, evidence for an association between negative emotions and physical activity remains inconclusive (30,31). Furthermore, indulgence has been associated with unhealthy eating behavior by multiple studies, especially when the indulgence is justi ed ("I worked so hard today, I deserve it") (32,33). Despite the indicated association between lifestyle imbalance and relapse according to the RPM, studies assessing this potential association are, to our knowledge, currently lacking.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perspectives of health practitioners and the key population on predictors of relapse in physical activity and dietary behavior: a concept mapping study

Roordink

Steenhuis

Kroeze

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background To prevent people from relapsing into unhealthy habits, insight into predictors of relapse in physical activity and dietary behavior is needed. Therefore, we aimed to explore predictors of relapse in physical activity and dietary behavior from the perspectives of health practitioners and the key population (i.e. adults who recently lost weight and experienced relapse). Methods We used concept mapping to collect data among five groups of health practitioners (N = 39) and three key population groups (N = 21). First participants’ ideas on potential predictors were collected. Subsequently, these ideas were individually sorted by relatedness and rated on importance. Concept maps were created for each group using principal component analysis and cluster analysis. Results In total 43 predictors were identified, of which the majority belonged to the individual domain compared to the environmental domain. Although the majority of perceived predictors were mentioned by both stakeholder groups, both groups had different opinions regarding the importance of predictors. Also, few predictors were mentioned by all practitioner groups, but not by the key population, and vice versa. Practitioners indicated change in daily structure, stress, lack of effective coping skills, habitual behavior, and lack of self-efficacy regarding losing weight as most important recurrent (i.e. mentioned in all practitioner groups) predictors. The key population indicated lifestyle imbalance or experiencing a life event, lack of perseverance, negative emotional state, abstinence violation effect, decrease in motivation and indulgence as most important recurrent predictors. Conclusions Both stakeholder groups predominantly rated individual factors as most important perceived predictors of relapse. The finding that both groups differed in opinion regarding importance of predictors or identified different predictors, may provide an opportunity to enhance lifestyle coaching by ensuring it is patient-centered and tailored.

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“…Importantly, this secondary effect pertaining to how goal violations are incorporated into one’s self-perceptions, may point to a positive side of self-licensing. Indeed, a recent vignette study showed that when participants imagined themselves in a situation where they violated their diet with a license, they subsequently reported higher feelings of self-efficacy than participants who did not have a license for this transgression ( Prinsen et al., 2016 ). This finding supports our proposition that self-licensing helps maintain or may even increase perceived self-regulatory ability because it determines how self-regulation “failure” is interpreted.…”

Section: Self-licensing and Perceived Self-regulatory Abilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, the observation that self-licensing leads to resolution of self-regulatory conflict, albeit to the advantage of the temptation, may imply that self-perceptions of being an effective self-regulator are protected. That is, through self-licensing, a goal violation is perceived as more justified ( Prinsen, Evers, & de Ridder, 2016 ), and presumably experienced less as failure. Importantly, this may in turn influence how subsequent temptations are handled.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Self-Licensing Benefit Self-Regulation Over Time? An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study of Food Temptations

Prinsen

Evers

Wijngaards

et al. 2018

Pers Soc Psychol Bull

Self Cite

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Self-licensing, employing reasons to justify indulgence, may help resolve the conflict between immediate temptations and long-term goals in favor of the former. It was hypothesized that this conflict-resolving potential of self-licensing may benefit self-regulation over time. With a momentary assessment design, we examined how self-licensing affects self-regulatory ability and the capacity to deal with subsequent self-regulatory conflicts. One hundred thirty-six female participants filled out surveys eight times per day for one week. Food temptation strength, conflict, resistance, and enactment were assessed, as well as license opportunity and perceived self-regulatory ability. When self-licensing opportunity was high (vs. low), a weaker association between temptation strength and conflict was observed. High license opportunity was associated with higher perceived self-regulatory ability for instances of low degrees of temptation enactment and predicted better handling of subsequent conflict after high degrees of prior temptation enactment. These results suggest that self-licensing can support self-regulation after initial failure.

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Oops I Did it Again: Examining Self‐Licensing Effects in a Subsequent Self‐Regulation Dilemma

Abstract: The results obtained suggest that self-licensing negatively affects goal re-engagement in the same situation, but not in a new situation. Whether self-licensing maintains or increases feelings of self-efficacy needs to be validated in future studies.

Cited by 16 publications

References 66 publications

Using a mobile health application to reduce alcohol consumption: a mixed-methods evaluation of the drinkaware track & calculate units application

Using a mobile health application to reduce alcohol consumption: a mixed-methods evaluation of the drinkaware track & calculate units application

Perspectives of health practitioners and the key population on predictors of relapse in physical activity and dietary behavior: a concept mapping study

Does Self-Licensing Benefit Self-Regulation Over Time? An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study of Food Temptations

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