Paper Title
Self-regulatory strength.
Keywords
- Self-Regulation
- Self-Regulatory Strength
- Executive Functions
- Limited Energy Supply
- Blood Glucose
- Psychological Resource
- Self-Control
- Depletion
- Volitional Acts
- Adaptive Behavior
- Personal Growth
- Cultural Advancement
- Resource Conservation
- Self-Regulation Practice
- Cognitive Performance
- Self-Regulation Failures
- Personal Development
- Societal Structure
- Self-Regulatory Skills
- Psychological Resilience
Publication Info
Volume: 2nd ed | Pages: 64–82
Published On
March, 2011
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Abstract
Self-regulation is a key ingredient that can facilitate individual and cultural success. The capacity for self-regulation is not unlimited. In support of the strength model, self-regulation and other executive functions that require the self's active intervention rely on the same limited energy supply. Blood glucose has been shown to constitute the physiological equivalent of this psychological resource. When this resource is depleted, there is less of it available for other volitional acts, and people become vulnerable to self-regulation failures. In line with this rationale, self-regulation and other executive functions that support adaptive personal and interpersonal behaviors have been shown to induce, and to suffer from, a state of depletion. Despite the finite nature of self-regulatory resources, research has not only begun to identify specific variables that can offset the effects of depletion, but it has also shown that self-regulatory strength can be increased by practicing self-regulation. We thus conclude that honing people's skills in the art of selectively allocating or conserving this limited resource, being sensitive to its reductions, and taking corrective actions to restore it could go a long way in alleviating the personal and societal ills associated with faulty self-regulation. In this light, the key to personal and cultural advancement may lie in how efficiently people hone these skills, and how well society structures itself to create opportunities for its members to develop the capacity for self-control. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
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