A General Model of Preventive and Interventive Self-Control

Quit interest influences smoking cue-reactivity

Interest in quitting smoking is important to model in cue-reactivity studies, because the craving elicited by cue exposure likely requires different self-regulation efforts for smokers who are interested in quitting compared to those without any quit interest. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the role of quit interest in how cigarette cue exposure influences self-control efforts. Smokers interested in quitting (n=37) and smokers with no interest in quitting (n=53) were randomly assigned to a cigarette or neutral cue exposure task. Following the cue exposure, all participants completed two self-control tasks, a measure of risky gambling (the Iowa Gambling Task) and a cold pressor tolerance task. Results indicated that smokers interested in quitting had worse performance on the gambling task when exposed to a cigarette cue compared to neutral cue exposure. We also found that people interested in quitting tolerated the cold pressor task for a shorter amount of time than people not interested in quitting. Finally, we found that for people interested in quitting, exposure to a cigarette cue was associated with increased motivation to take steps toward decreasing use. Overall these results suggest that including quit interest in studies of cue reactivity is valuable, as quit interest influenced smoking cue-reactivity responses.

Eating Behaviors in Cuban Adults: Results from an Exploratory Transcultural Study

This study aims to investigate eating behaviors in Cuban adults and compare them with those of a developed Western country, Italy. The study also aimed to determine the overall accuracy of a predictive model intended to define variables which could be used to discriminate between nationalities. Participants were 283 normal weight individuals from Cuba (n = 158) and Italy (n = 125). Italians had higher scores for restrained eating on the questionnaire than Cubans with a considerable effect size. This trend was also found for emotional eating and binge eating, as well as number of current dieters, despite the fact that effect sizes were small. On the other hand, Cubans, when compared to Italians reported higher scores for food thought suppression with reward responsiveness and restrained eating emerging as significant predictors of between-country differences. To conclude, eating behaviors in Cubans could be different from those reported in European countries, perhaps as a consequence of Cuba's recent history.

Situational Strategies for Self-Control

Exercising self-control is often difficult, whether declining a drink in order to drive home safely, passing on the chocolate cake to stay on a diet, or ignoring text messages to finish reading an important paper. But enacting self-control is not always difficult, particularly when it takes the form of proactively choosing or changing situations in ways that weaken undesirable impulses or potentiate desirable ones. Examples of situational self-control include the partygoer who chooses a seat far from where drinks are being poured, the dieter who asks the waiter not to bring around the dessert cart, and the student who goes to the library without a cell phone. Using the process model of self-control, we argue that the full range of self-control strategies can be organized by considering the timeline of the developing tempting impulse. Because impulses tend to grow stronger over time, situational self-control strategies-which can nip a tempting impulse in the bud-may be especially effective in preventing undesirable action. Ironically, we may underappreciate situational self-control for the same reason it is so effective-namely, that by manipulating our circumstances to advantage, we are often able to minimize the in-the-moment experience of intrapsychic struggle typically associated with exercising self-control.

What makes us think? A three-stage dual-process model of analytic engagement

The distinction between intuitive and analytic thinking is common in psychology. However, while often being quite clear on the characteristics of the two processes ('Type 1' processes are fast, autonomous, intuitive, etc. and 'Type 2' processes are slow, deliberative, analytic, etc.), dual-process theorists have been heavily criticized for being unclear on the factors that determine when an individual will think analytically or rely on their intuition. We address this issue by introducing a three-stage model that elucidates the bottom-up factors that cause individuals to engage Type 2 processing. According to the model, multiple Type 1 processes may be cued by a stimulus (Stage 1), leading to the potential for conflict detection (Stage 2). If successful, conflict detection leads to Type 2 processing (Stage 3), which may take the form of rationalization (i.e., the Type 1 output is verified post hoc) or decoupling (i.e., the Type 1 output is falsified). We tested key aspects of the model using a novel base-rate task where stereotypes and base-rate probabilities cued the same (non-conflict problems) or different (conflict problems) responses about group membership. Our results support two key predictions derived from the model: (1) conflict detection and decoupling are dissociable sources of Type 2 processing and (2) conflict detection sometimes fails. We argue that considering the potential stages of reasoning allows us to distinguish early (conflict detection) and late (decoupling) sources of analytic thought. Errors may occur at both stages and, as a consequence, bias arises from both conflict monitoring and decoupling failures.

Will Not Want: Self-Control Rather than Motivation Explains the Female Advantage in Report Card Grades

Girls earn better grades than boys, but the mechanism explaining this gender difference is not well understood. We examined the relative importance of self-control and motivation in explaining the female advantage in grades. In Study 1, we surveyed middle school teachers and found they judged girls to be higher in both school motivation and self-control. In Studies 2 and 3-using self-reported motivation and teacher- and/or parent-reported self-control, and quarterly and final grades obtained from school records-we find that self-control, but not school motivation, helps to explain the gender gap in academic performance. In these studies, girls appeared to be more self-controlled than boys, but-contrary to teacher judgments in Study 1-did not appear to be more motivated to do well in school.

Emotional foundations of cognitive control

Often seen as the paragon of higher cognition, here we suggest that cognitive control is dependent on emotion. Rather than asking whether control is influenced by emotion, we ask whether control itself can be understood as an emotional process. Reviewing converging evidence from cybernetics, animal research, cognitive neuroscience, and social and personality psychology, we suggest that cognitive control is initiated when goal conflicts evoke phasic changes to emotional primitives that both focus attention on the presence of goal conflicts and energize conflict resolution to support goal-directed behavior. Critically, we propose that emotion is not an inert byproduct of conflict but is instrumental in recruiting control. Appreciating the emotional foundations of control leads to testable predictions that can spur future research.

Individual differences in situation awareness: validation of the situationism scale

ABSTRACT. This article concerns the construct of lay situationism-an individual's belief in the importance of a behavior's context. Study 1 identified a 13-item Situationism Scale, which demonstrated good reliability and validity. In particular, higher situationism was associated with greater situation-control (strategies to manipulate the environment in order to avoid temptation). Subsequent laboratory studies indicated that people higher on the situationism subscales used greater situation-control by sitting farther from junk food (Study 2) and choosing to drink non-alcoholic beverages before a cognitive task (Study 3). Overall, findings provide preliminary support for the psychometric validity and predictive utility of the Situationism Scale and offer this individual difference construct as a means to expand self-regulation theory.

Self-Control and Grit: Related but Separable Determinants of Success

Other than talent and opportunity, what makes some people more successful than others? One important determinant of success is self-control - the capacity to regulate attention, emotion, and behavior in the presence of temptation. A second important determinant of success is grit - the tenacious pursuit of a dominant superordinate goal despite setbacks. Self-control and grit are strongly correlated, but not perfectly so. This means that some people with high levels of self-control capably handle temptations but do not consistently pursue a dominant goal. Likewise, some exceptional achievers are prodigiously gritty but succumb to temptations in domains other than their chosen life passion. Understanding how goals are hierarchically organized clarifies how self-control and grit are related but distinct: Self-control entails aligning actions with any valued goal despite momentarily more-alluring alternatives; grit, in contrast, entails having and working assiduously toward a single challenging superordinate goal through thick and thin, on a timescale of years or even decades. Although both self-control and grit entail aligning actions with intentions, they operate in different ways and at different time scales. This hierarchical goal framework suggests novel directions for basic and applied research on success.

Exploring the factor structure of the Food Cravings Questionnaire-Trait in Cuban adults

Food cravings refer to an intense desire to eat specific foods. The Food Cravings Questionnaire-Trait (FCQ-T) is the most commonly used instrument to assess food cravings as a multidimensional construct. Its 39 items have an underlying nine-factor structure for both the original English and Spanish version; but subsequent studies yielded fewer factors. As a result, a 15-item version of the FCQ-T with one-factor structure has been proposed (FCQ-T-reduced; see this Research Topic). The current study aimed to explore the factor structure of the Spanish version for both the FCQ-T and FCQ-T-reduced in a sample of 1241 Cuban adults. Results showed a four-factor structure for the FCQ-T, which explained 55% of the variance. Factors were highly correlated. Using the items of the FCQ-T-reduced only showed a one-factor structure, which explained 52% of the variance. Both versions of the FCQ-T were positively correlated with body mass index (BMI), scores on the Food Thoughts Suppression Inventory and weight cycling. In addition, women had higher scores than men and restrained eaters had higher scores than unrestrained eaters. To summarize, results showed that (1) the FCQ-T factor structure was significantly reduced in Cuban adults and (2) the FCQ-T-reduced may represent a good alternative to efficiently assess food craving on a trait level.

Trait self-control predicts adolescents' exposure and reactivity to daily stressful events

The current study used an influence model of personality and stress processes to examine the association between individual differences in trait self-control and daily stress exposure and reactivity in adolescent youth. A total of 129 adolescents (Mage  = 14.7 years, 59% female) completed individual difference measures of self-control, neuroticism, and measures of responses to stress. Participants then reported on daily stressful events, stress severity, mood, coping, and mindlessness (a predictor of acting on impulse) for 14 consecutive days. Self-control predicted less exposure to daily stress, less reactivity to daily stress, and more adaptive responses to stress. Specifically, adolescents with higher self-control experienced fewer daily stressors and reported lower stress severity, particularly when daily mindlessness was high. Second, adolescents with higher self-control reported less mindlessness in response to daily stress relative to those with lower self-control, but they did not show differences in emotional reactivity to stress. Finally, results also offered evidence for an indirect effect of problem-focused coping strategies between self-control and emotional reactivity to stress. The current investigation illustrates the importance of trait self-control in daily stress processes among adolescents and suggests possible mechanisms through which self-control confers these positive effects.