Preschoolers find ways to resist temptation after learning that willpower can be energizing

Haimovitz, Kyla; Dweck, Carol S.; Walton, Gregory M.

doi:10.1111/desc.12905

Cited by 28 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…Over the last decades, Dweck and colleagues (Dweck and Leggett, 1988;Mueller and Dweck, 1998;Gunderson et al, 2013;Haimovitz et al, 2019) have shown that children develop implicit theories about their abilities as being either fixed (fixed mindset) or capable of growing (growth mindset) based on experiences such as praise and feedback for success and failure. Children with a growth mindset show better behavioral self-regulation, as they embrace challenges as learning opportunities to grow and improve their abilities (Molden and Dweck, 2006;Burnette et al, 2013;Compagnoni et al, 2019).…”

Section: Self-regulation In Childrenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since only one study has examined the correlates of willpower theories in young children (Haimovitz et al, 2019), there is a paucity of research examining the role that willpower theories play in explaining early selfregulation. Haimovitz et al (2019) found that children with experimentally induced non-limited theories (through a model in a storybook who experiences exerting willpower as energizing) showed more self-control strategies in the face of temptation, spent more time on the strategies, and showed longer delay of gratification than the group of children with a experimentally induced limited theory. The results imply that diverse behavioral self-regulation may develop not just as a set of skills learned through repeated practice on challenging tasks, as examined in past research (Diamond and Lee, 2011).…”

Section: Willpower Theories As Predictor Of Behavioral Self-regulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Haimovitz et al (2019), in early childhood children may not yet have well-formed beliefs about their willpower. They found that in children aged 4-5 years, the exposure to a storybook model that experiences exerting willpower as energizing leads to improved behavioral selfregulation.…”

Section: Willpower Theories As Predictor Of Behavioral Self-regulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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My Brain Needs a Break: Kindergarteners’ Willpower Theories Are Related to Behavioral Self-Regulation

2020

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Is the way that kindergarteners view their willpower – as a limited or as a non-limited resource – related to their motivation and behavioral self-regulation? This study is the first to examine the structure of beliefs about willpower in relation to behavioral self-regulation by interviewing 147 kindergarteners (52% girls) aged 5 to 7 years (M = 6.47, SD = 0.39). A new instrument was developed to assess implicit theories about willpower for this specific age group. Results indicated that kindergarteners who think of their willpower as a non-limited resource showed better behavioral self-regulation than children who adopted a more limited theory, even when controlling for age and gender. This relation was especially pronounced in low achieving children. Mediation and moderation analyses showed that this relation was partly mediated through the children’s willingness to invest effort to reach a learning goal. Findings suggest that fostering metacognitive beliefs in children, such as the belief that willpower is a non-limited resource, may increase behavioral self-regulation for successful adjustment to the demands of kindergarten and school.

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Section: Self-regulation In Childrenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Willpower Theories As Predictor Of Behavioral Self-regulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Willpower Theories As Predictor Of Behavioral Self-regulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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My Brain Needs a Break: Kindergarteners’ Willpower Theories Are Related to Behavioral Self-Regulation

2020

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“…This is an under-explored but common feature of self-control exertions admitting of individual variation (Ford et al, 2019) . During marshmallow studies, children attempt strategy switches in varying degrees, and those who make more distinct attempts and try more diverse strategies tend to have greater success at delaying gratification (Carlson & Beck, 2008;Haimovitz et al, 2019) . The job of agentive guidance thus continues while self-control exertion lasts, and often requires attempting multiple strategies in a single episode.…”

Section: Skillful Guidance During Self-control Exertionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The skill of self-control

Bermúdez¹

2020

Preprint

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Researchers often claim that self-control is a skill, an ability that threads cognitive and motivational processes together to achieve commitment-concordant action in the face of contrary motivations. It is also often stated that self-control exertions are intentional actions. However, no account has yet been proposed of the skillful agency that makes self-control exertion possible, and thus our understanding of self-control remains incomplete. Here I propose the skill model of self-control. This model accounts for skillful agency by tackling the guidance problem: how can agents transform their abstract and coarse-grained intentions into the highly context-sensitive, fine-grained control processes required to select, revise and correct strategies during self-control exertion? The skill model borrows conceptual tools from ‘hierarchical models’ recently developed in the context of motor skills, and asserts that self-control crucially involves the ability to manage the implementation and monitoring of regulatory strategies as the self-control exercise unfolds. Skilled agents are able do this by means of flexible practical reasoning: a fast, context-sensitive type of deliberation that incorporates non-propositional representations (including feedback signals about strategy implementation, such as the feeling of mental effort) into the formation of the practical intentions that structure self-control exertion. The literatures on implementation intentions and motivation framing offer corroborating evidence for the theory. The skill model has a surprising result: while cognitive control may be necessary for self-control exertions, expert agents will tend to rely much less on cognitive control than less skilled agents.

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“…These findings have been robust across studies in the laboratory and classroom (Ramani and Siegler, 2008;Siegler and Ramani, 2009;Ramani et al, 2012), supporting the use of board games in interventions with preschool children. While no study has used a board game to promote DG specifically, more traditional approaches promoting this and related selfregulation skills have highlighted key facets of successful interventions, including that these skills are more likely to be improved when: (1) they are modeled by others (Corriveau et al, 2016;Haimovitz et al, 2019;Munakata et al, 2020);…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating a Board Game Designed to Promote Young Children’s Delay of Gratification

et al. 2020

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Objective Delay of gratification, or the extent to which one can resist the temptation of an immediate reward and wait for a larger reward later, is a self-regulatory skill that predicts positive outcomes. The aim of this research was to conduct initial tests of the effects of a board game designed to increase children’s delay of gratification via two experimental studies. Methods Preschool children were randomized to play the study game or a control game. In Study 1, there were 48 children in the analytic sample, with a mean age of 4.81 ± 0.55 years; Study 2 included 50 children ( M = 4.02 ± 0.76 years). Delay of gratification was assessed during the study game, as well as before and after game play sessions using the Marshmallow Test. Results In both studies, the intervention group’s likelihood of delaying gratification during the study game increased across game-play sessions ( p < 0.05). In Study 1, the intervention group also increased wait times during the Marshmallow Test versus controls ( p = 0.047). In Study 2, there was no effect on Marshmallow Test wait times. Conclusion Results provide some initial evidence supporting potential efficacy of a board game designed to increase delay of gratification. Future research can clarify: (1) which components of game play (if any) are linked with broader changes in delay of gratification, (2) impacts of this intervention in more diverse samples, and (3) whether experimental manipulation of delay of gratification affects outcomes like achievement and weight, which have been linked to this skill in observational studies.

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Preschoolers find ways to resist temptation after learning that willpower can be energizing

Cited by 28 publications

References 76 publications

My Brain Needs a Break: Kindergarteners’ Willpower Theories Are Related to Behavioral Self-Regulation

My Brain Needs a Break: Kindergarteners’ Willpower Theories Are Related to Behavioral Self-Regulation

The skill of self-control

Evaluating a Board Game Designed to Promote Young Children’s Delay of Gratification

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