title: Action orientation overcomes the ego depletion effect.
abstract: It has been consistently demonstrated that initial exertion of self-control had negative influence on people's performance on subsequent self-control tasks. This phenomenon is referred to as the ego depletion effect. Based on action control theory, the current research investigated whether the ego depletion effect could be moderated by individuals' action versus state orientation. Our results showed that only state-oriented individuals exhibited ego depletion. For individuals with action orientation, however, their performance was not influenced by initial exertion of self-control. The beneficial effect of action orientation against ego depletion in our experiment results from its facilitation for adapting to the depleting task.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Lund University, Sweden.
authors.forename: Junhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dang
authors.forename: Shanshan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Yucai
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Lihua
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mao
mesh_terms: D004532:Ego; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010551:Personality; D011582:Psychological Theory; D000068356:Self-Control; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Self-control; action versus state orientation; adaptation; ego depletion