What's inside is all that counts? The contours of everyday thinking about self-control.

ABSTRACT: Does self-control require willpower? The question cuts to the heart of a debate about whether self-control is identical with some psychological process internal to the agents or not. Noticeably absent from these debates is systematic evidence about the folk-psychological category of self-control. Here, we present the results of two behavioral studies (N = 296) that indicate the structure of everyday use of the concept. In Study 1, participants rated the degree to which different strategies to respond to motivational conflict exemplify self-control. Participants distinguished between intra-psychic and externally-scaffolded strategies and judged that the former exemplified self-control more than the latter. In Study 2, participants provided various solutions to manage motivational con

SUBMITTER: Bermudez JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10033625 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature