Why Motivation is Critical for Your Willpower
You have to want it to get it.
Willpower is an essential skill; the ability to control our immediate desires ensures a viable future. Failure to do so can lead to issues that are personal and lasting. Research links criminality, poor health, and debt to fervent shortsightedness. This post will explore the causes and relationships of self-control, specifically those outlined by the process model.
Because of the impact of poor impulse control on society, researchers have a keen interest in its development, especially on how fatigue affects subsequent self-control. There’s plenty of research stating that earlier self-control will hinder later attempts. But the underlying reason(s) remain a mystery.
Initially, scientists assumed self-control had a direct effect on fatigue. As you exerted control earlier in the day, you’d be unable to do so again later. They call this effect ego-depletion or the strength model of self-control.
Basically, self-control acts as a resource. Once you use it up, you’ve got to replenish your stores. If you fail, you’ll have more difficulty exerting self-control when necessary. It’s relatively intuitive, as you work, it feels like you’re running out of energy. To counteract this, you need to lower your effort, take a break, or increase motivation.
Unfortunately, few experiments test this hypothesis. Instead, research tends to measure the effect of the strength model in various environments. They take the theory for granted and attribute any changes in later control to ego depletion. In reality, observed effects can be explained in ways other than the strength model.
That’s where the process model comes in. It’s a mechanistic view of self-control. Characteristics of self-regulation shift in response to strenuous work and stress, thus mitigating the effectiveness of self-control.
The process model assumes shifts in attention and motivation explain later self-control failure. Each of these fluctuates with our mood, fatigue level, and perception of self-control.
How Motivation Affects Self-control
In the process model, motivation seriously impacts our ability to exert control. Initial attempts at self-control shift our motives from further work to feelings of gratification.
Desire to Indulge
Initial effort makes it easy for us to justify a little self-indulgence. We think that hard work deserves a reward.
But research into ego depletion doesn’t account for these effects. Participants rarely receive a break between experiments. And this presents an alternative explanation for the bevy of results associated with ego depletion. It’s fair to assume we would put less effort into a second difficult task if we’ve already put our all into the first. Participants of such experiments might view less effort as a well-earned break. The process model posits this shift in motivation towards gratification as a driver for weakened effort.
Focusing on immediate gratification changes our behaviors and actions. Instead of losing self-control, we’re applying a different weight to our immediate options. Completing a stressful task without another reason or incentive is less appealing. These experiments often recruit college students as participants. In return, they earn a small reward or extra credit for participation. They might believe their work on the first task was enough to justify the reward. After which, they put less effort into the second.
Research from 2003 supports this explanation. The study led by Muraven explored the relationship between motivators and self-control. Like our other experiments, participants started with a strenuous self-control exercise. But this time, participants were told their extra effort would help them or others. The researchers theorized this tiny change would act as an extrinsic motivator and diminish the effects of ego depletion.
Conserving Energy
Our schedule may be enough to discourage self-control. If we plan complex tasks for the end of the day, we’re less likely to give our all earlier. We can attribute this to a strategic need to conserve energy.
To test this theory, experimenters constructed a test around future expectations. Subjects worked on either two or three self-control tasks. The goal was to learn how participants would adjust their effort with more.
The strength model assumes they’d struggle more with each extra task. Yet, when participants engaged in the three tasks they put less effort into the second. It seems they were conserving energy on the second task to finish the third.
This effect could have acted as a confounding variable in prior research on ego depletion. The majority of studies cull participants from within their associated colleges. These students have assignments or jobs to focus on after participating in a study. Typical strength model research only assigns two tasks to participants. So, they could put less effort into the study to better prepare themselves for the rest of their work. Subconscious planning could explain their relaxed effort rather than lack of control.
Going with our gut
Ego depletion assumes individuals fail to exert self-control because they lack mental resources. After initial attempts, our ability to do so again falters, but desire-gratification stays constant. In reality, the opposite phenomena can also explain each of these experiments’ results. Self-control holds steady, but desire-gratification increases. The outcome is the same, but the cause is fundamentally different.
In one influential study, researchers studied the effects of gambling and approach behaviors. Usually, we’d assume someone with strong self-control would resist high-stakes gambling. The payoff is uncertain, and losses can turn into an unmitigated disaster. Yet we know if a person is addicted to gambling, they do so with little regard for outcomes.
However, low-stakes gambling has a muted downside to the point that we don’t need to worry about controlling our impulses.
During the experiment, individuals placed low-stakes bets with similar frequency. Their levels of self-control didn’t seem to matter. Importantly, participants were more inclined to place low-stakes bets after exerting control. The strain caused by self-control led to greater feelings of desire-gratification. This is a crucial behavioral change. Even when willpower isn’t essential, prior attempts may make us more likely to seek gratification.
How Attention Affects Self-control
Motivation and attention are reciprocal actors in self-control. As motivation wanes we fail to notice control cues and pay greater attention to desire. As Michael Inzlicht, creator of the process model, puts it,
“Ego depletion may be less a result of people being unable to exert control and more about changes in attention so that people fail to notice when control is actually required.”
Do I need to Control Myself now?
Initial self-control can cause willpower failure due to a shift in attention. As motivation wanes, we focus less on our goals and more on fulfilling our desires. Feedback loops moderate and drive this iterative process.
Three components make up the interactions of effortful willpower; goals, monitors, and operators. Failure at any point can cause a loss of self-control.
Poorly constructed goals cause a breakdown in effort and poor resource allocation — failure to monitor disengages willpower because we no longer notice when it’s necessary. Operators are behaviors that help us adjust when our actions don’t align with our goals. Of these, Inzlicht believes monitoring is the most important.
Individuals become more aware of cues signaling gratification as they focus on indulgence. In turn, the cues prompting self-control fall out of focus. In essence, exerting effort dulls the senses to control triggers, causing goal neglect.
Research seems to confirm this effect. When individuals receive feedback, they focus on cues that improve performance. The feedback acts as a way to bring focus back to the task at hand. They exhibit greater goal-aligned behavior as they track cues and hear the researchers’ feedback.
Take the Stroop test, where you say the color of a word, not the word itself. Traditionally, researchers use this to measure self-control failure. But, when participants monitor their progress, they do better on later attempts. The strength model can’t account for these behavioral shifts.
I see Rewards
As fatigue sets in, our mental processes for regulation stutter. Typically we’re focused on goal-aligned behavior. But, stress can cause our attention to shift toward gratification.
The system that regulates behavioral inhibition, the BIS, is sensitive to shifts in attention and motivation. As these factors degrade, the BIS weakens. In turn, attention systems veer towards pleasure and gratification.
In one experiment, participants faced strenuous systems then researchers monitored what they focused on. The symbols were dollar (reward) or percent (non-reward) signs. Taxed individuals had an easier time recognizing the reward symbol than the non-reward. As their fatigue built up, they were more likely to notice cues for reward and gratification.
The Process Model of Self-Control
Research on subsequent self-control is clear; exertion earlier in the day hurts later attempts. The process model provides an expanded definition of self-control. One that stands up to scrutiny ego depletion falls to.
As fatigue sets in, motivation and attention mitigate the effectiveness of self-control. In turn, these modifiers play on each other to change our perceptions of rewards and goals. When our motivation to exert self-control decreases, we attend to cues of gratification. And our motivation to indulge increases when our attention shifts to pleasure. This is altogether different from a loss of self-control. Instead, our attempts are stymied by related factors, resulting in poor decisions and willpower.
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