title: Mechanisms of self-control failure: motivation and limited resources.
abstract: Research has found that individuals who are lower in self-control strength because of previous self-control exertions perform more poorly on subsequent tests of self-control. The present studies suggest that this effect may be moderated by motivation. In particular, depletion and motivation jointly determine self-control performance. Individuals who were depleted and believed that the task would help others (Experiment 1) or believed that their efforts could benefit them (Experiment 2) performed better on a subsequent test of self-control than individuals who were depleted and lower in motivation. The results of Experiment 3 replicated these findings and suggested that depletion only affects performance on tasks that require self-control; tasks that are difficult but do not require self-control are immune to the effects of depletion. Hence, depleted individuals may compensate for their lack of self-control resources when sufficiently motivated. The results may help explain the nature of self-control strength.
authors.affiliation: University at Albany, Albany, NY 12222, USA. muraven@albany.edu
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muraven
authors.forename: Elisaveta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Slessareva
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000533:Altruism; D001288:Attention; D001290:Attitude; D005260:Female; D005639:Frustration; D006040:Goals; D006184:Habits; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009042:Motivation; D011340:Problem Solving; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology