title: Action versus state orientation and self-control performance after depletion.
abstract: Three studies investigated the role of action versus state orientation in how people deal with depletion of self-control resources. Action-oriented persons were expected to continue allocating resources and hence to perform better than state-oriented persons who were expected to conserve strength. Consistent with this, action-oriented persons performed better on the d2 test of attention than state-oriented persons after a strenuous physical exercise (Study 1), showed higher acuity on the critical fusion frequency test after a test of vigilance (Study 2), and performed better on the Stroop test after a depleting sensorimotor task (Study 3). No differences emerged between action- and state-oriented persons in their initial performance and in a non-depleting context. The impact of depletion on subsequent performance is thus not fixed, but moderated by personality.
authors: 1Technische Universität München, Germany.
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: Gröpel
authors: Roy F
authors: RF
authors: Baumeister
authors: Jürgen
authors: J
authors: Beckmann
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D004532:Ego; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D005082:Physical Exertion; D057190:Stroop Test; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: action orientation; ego depletion; self-control; self-regulation