부산대학교 도서관

Summary: Self-control is critical for success in a wide variety of domains. Therefore understanding when people fail at self-control and how to prevent such failure could have broad implications. However, much recent research has begun to challenge the current understanding of self-control failure as the consumption of a finite resource (Baumeister et al., 1994) and has highlighted the importance of people's beliefs about and motivations to exert self-control. Thus, whereas previous interventions to improve self-control have focused on ways to conserve or increase one's finite capacity of self-control, effective interventions may require further consideration of these emerging motivational and perceptual mechanisms. Accordingly, this line of research investigates how self-control may be augmented by instilling an adaptive mindset that can sustain motivation to exert self-control. Three laboratory studies explored how creating a growth mindset of self-control, which involves the belief that one's ability to exert control is malleable and can be developed, can change (a) perceptions of self-control that catalyze engagement with opportunities to practice self-control, and (b) the amount of self-control people exert. A fourth six-week intervention study additionally examined whether creating this mindset can lead to greater success at a variety of broader self-control-relevant outcomes in people's daily lives. Altogether, the current research demonstrated that growth mindsets consistently altered the beliefs individuals had regarding self-control such as (a) feeling more confident in their own self-control abilities, and (b) construing mental fatigue as a sign of developing such abilities. Results revealed mixed evidence that a growth mindset may influence self-control behavior, but when this behavioral change was observed, it was mediated by underlying beliefs about the nature of self-control.