• 22 May 19
  

  JT Fournier

  ethics psychology

• 31 Aug 15
  

  roddaut
  • Research reveals that people find it much easier to make decisions that demonstrate self-control when they are thinking about events that are distant in time, for example how much exercise they will do next week or what they will eat tomorrow (Fujita, 2008).
• 29 Dec 12
  

  Daniel Kim
• 22 Dec 12
  

  Cecilia Zaya

  *********

• 22 Jul 12
  

  Ira Mollay

  psychology habits change coaching selfcontrol

• 22 Mar 12
  

  ellett711

  self

• 08 Mar 12
  

  respenschied1

  self-control self-improvement

  • One of humanity's most useful skills, without which advanced civilisations would not exist, is being able to engage our higher cognitive functions, our self-control, to resist these temptations. Psychologists have found that self-control is strongly associated with what we label success: higher self-esteem, better interpersonal skills, better emotional responses and, perhaps surprisingly, few drawbacks at even very high levels of self-control (Tangney et al., 2004).
  • • High-level construal condition: participants were asked to fill in a diagram which encouraged them to think about why they maintain good physical health. Participants tended to put answer such as: "To do well in school." This got them thinking about ends rather than means - the ultimate purpose of physical health.
     
    • Low-level construal condition: in contrast participants in this condition were asked to think about how they maintained their physical health. Naturally they responded with things like: "Go exercise". In other words they focused on means rather than ends, the actual process.
  • They showed that participants in the low-construal thinking condition (thinking about means rather than ends) held on to the handgrip for, on average, 4.9 seconds less than they had during the baseline measurement.
  • In contrast those in the high-construal condition held on for 11.1 seconds longer than their baseline measurement.

  • People in the high-level construal condition were consistently:

     
     
    • More likely to avoid the temptation of instant gratification.
     
    • Prepared to make a greater investment to learn more about their health status.
     
    • Less likely to evaluate temptations like beer and television positively.
  • Although a few people have very high (or very low) levels of self-control, two-thirds of us lie somewhere near the middle: sometimes finding it easy to resist temptation, other times not.
  • Research reveals that people find it much easier to make decisions that demonstrate self-control when they are thinking about events that are distant in time, for example how much exercise they will do next week or what they will eat tomorrow
  • Similarly they make much more disciplined decisions on behalf of other people than they do for themselves. People implicitly follow the maxim: do what I say, not what I do.
  • It's not hard to see the convergence between the idea of 'psychological distance' and high-level construal.
  • 3. How to improve your self-control
  • Global processing. This means trying to focus on the wood rather than the trees: seeing the big picture and our specific actions as just one part of a major plan or purpose. For example, someone trying to eat healthily should focus on the ultimate goal and how each individual decision about what to eat contributes (or detracts) from that goal.
  • Abstract reasoning. This means trying to avoid considering the specific details of the situation at hand in favour of thinking about how actions fit into an overall framework - being philosophical. Someone trying to add more self-control to their exercise regime might try to think less about the details of the exercise, and instead focus on an abstract vision of the ideal physical self, or how exercise provides a time to re-connect mind and body.
  • High-level categorisation. This means thinking about high-level concepts rather than specific instances. Any long-term project, whether in business, academia or elsewhere can easily get bogged down by focusing too much on the minutiae of everyday processes and forgetting the ultimate goal. Categorising tasks or project stages conceptually may help an individual or group maintain their focus and achieve greater self-discipline.
  • Ultimately these three ways of thinking are different ways of saying much the same thing: avoid thinking locally and specifically and practice thinking globally, objectively and abstractly, and increased self-control should follow.

  12 more annotations...

• 17 Feb 12
  

  daenerys 83
  • Psychologists have found that self-control is strongly associated with what we label success
  • recent experimental research
  • has explored ways of improving self-control, where it comes from and why it sometimes deserts us.
  • proposed that abstract thinking and psychological distance are particularly important in self-control.
  • simple manipulations of how we construe the world can have a direct effect on self-control. Their hunch was that thinking from a more abstract, high-level perspective increases self-control.
  • fill in a diagram which encouraged them to think about why they maintain good physical health
  • got them thinking about ends rather than means
  • think about how they maintained their physical health.
  • hey focused on means rather than ends,
  • how well could participants forget the temporary discomfort of holding the handgrip once they had been told about the desired goal of getting information about their own personalities?
  • participants in the low-construal thinking condition (thinking about means rather than ends) held on to the handgrip for, on average, 4.9 seconds less than they had during the baseline measurement.
  • In contrast those in the high-construal condition held on for 11.1 seconds longer than their baseline measurement.
  • Those participants who had been encouraged to think in high-level, abstract terms demonstrated greater self-control in enduring the discomfort of the handgrip in order to receive more accurate personality profiles.
  • Fujita et al. (2006) also carried out other studies

  • People in the high-level construal condition were consistently:

     
     
    • More likely to avoid the temptation of instant gratification.
     
    • Prepared to make a greater investment to learn more about their health status.
     
    • Less likely to evaluate temptations like beer and television positively.
  • Research reveals that people find it much easier to make decisions that demonstrate self-control when they are thinking about events that are distant in time,
  • Similarly they make much more disciplined decisions on behalf of other people than they do for themselves.
  • self-control can be increased by
  • seeing the big picture
  • the ultimate goal
  • trying to avoid considering the specific details of the situation at hand in favour of thinking about how actions fit into an overall framework - being philosophical.
  • thinking about high-level concepts rather than specific instances.
  • avoid thinking locally and specifically and practice thinking globally, objectively and abstractly, and increased self-control should follow.

  21 more annotations...

• 21 Dec 11
  

  Dale Kanzig

  Life Health Mental

• 28 Jul 11
  

  Brian Gibson

  psychology productivity self-control

• 

  natalie pont

  self-control

  • How to Improve Your Self-Control

     

     

     

    

     

    "It's all right letting yourself go, as long as you can get yourself back." ~Mick Jagger
  • Temptation comes in many forms, often so potent, so animal, that it seems impossible to resist. Eating too much, drinking too much, spending too much or letting the heart rule the head. We get instant messages from deep in the gut that resonate through the mind, trying to dictate our behaviour.
  • self-control is strongly associated with what we label success: higher self-esteem, better interpersonal skills, better emotional responses and, perhaps surprisingly, few drawbacks at even very high levels of self-control
  • the way in which we view people or events isn't just constrained by unchangeable patterns of thought that are set in stone.
  • simple manipulations of how we construe the world can have a direct effect on self-control.
  • Those participants who had been encouraged to think in high-level, abstract terms demonstrated greater self-control in enduring the discomfort of the handgrip in order to receive more accurate personality profiles.

  • People in the high-level construal condition were consistently:

     
     
    • More likely to avoid the temptation of instant gratification.
     
    • Prepared to make a greater investment to learn more about their health status.
     
    • Less likely to evaluate temptations like beer and television positively.
  • 2. How personality and the situation affect self-control
  • . We have each developed different amounts of self-control.

  • To a certain extent we have to accept our starting point on the self-control sliding scale and do the best we can with it.

     

    Although a few people have very high (or very low) levels of self-control, two-thirds of us lie somewhere near the middle: sometimes finding it easy to resist temptation, other times not.
  • One property of different situations central to self-control that psychologists have examined is 'psychological distance'.
  • people find it much easier to make decisions that demonstrate self-control when they are thinking about events that are distant in time
  • People implicitly follow the maxim: do what I say, not what I do.
  • It's not hard to see the convergence between the idea of 'psychological distance' and high-level construal. Both emphasise the idea that the more psychological or conceptual distance we can put between ourselves and the particular decision or event, the more we are able to think about it in an abstract way, and therefore the more self-control we can exert. It's all about developing a special type of objectivity.

  • self-control can be increased by these related ways of thinking:

     
     
    • Global processing.
  • seeing the big picture and our specific actions as just one part of a major plan or purpose.
  • • Abstract reasoning. This means trying to avoid considering the specific details of the situation at hand in favour of thinking about how actions fit into an overall framework - being philosophical. Someone trying to add more self-control to their exercise regime might try to think less about the details of the exercise, and instead focus on an abstract vision of the ideal physical self, or how exercise provides a time to re-connect mind and body.
     
    • High-level categorisation. This means thinking about high-level concepts rather than specific instances. Any long-term project, whether in business, academia or elsewhere can easily get bogged down by focusing too much on the minutiae of everyday processes and forgetting the ultimate goal. Categorising tasks or project stages conceptually may help an individual or group maintain their focus and achieve greater self-discipline.
  • with a little creativity the same principles can be applied to many situations in which self-control is required. Ultimately these three ways of thinking are different ways of saying much the same thing: avoid thinking locally and specifically and practice thinking globally, objectively and abstractly, and increased self-control should follow.

  16 more annotations...

• 24 Jun 11
  

  Katherine Morrison

  self-control impulse-control self impulse control high construal level

• 23 Jun 11
  

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  varie Importati Da Opera howto

• 21 Nov 10
  

  self-improvement

• 25 Jun 10
  

  Larry Ferlazzo

  book self control

• 19 Mar 10
  

  Elizabeth T

  People in the high-level construal condition were consistently:
  
  * More likely to avoid the temptation of instant gratification.
  * Prepared to make a greater investment to learn more about their health status.
  * Less likely to evaluate temptat

  psychology howto Self_help

• 18 Oct 09
  

  Maarten Hoekstra

  New research suggests self-control can be improved using abstract reasoning.\nTemptation comes in many forms, often so potent, so animal, that it seems impossible to resist. Eating too much, drinking too much, spending too much or letting the heart rule th

  psychology self-control control reasoning temptation

• 28 Sep 09
  

  alexeydemidov

  psychology productivity management

• 23 Jun 09
  

  Manoj Chandrasekharan

  HOw to improve self control

  psychology self improvement self-control mind brain

  • 3. How to improve your self-control

     

    Fujita et al.'s (2006) studies, along with other similar findings reported by Fujita (2008), suggest that self-control can be increased by these related ways of thinking: 

     
    • Global processing. This means trying to focus on the wood rather than the trees: seeing the big picture and our specific actions as just one part of a major plan or purpose. For example, someone trying to eat healthily should focus on the ultimate goal and how each individual decision about what to eat contributes (or detracts) from that goal.
     
    • Abstract reasoning. This means trying to avoid considering the specific details of the situation at hand in favour of thinking about how actions fit into an overall framework - being philosophical. Someone trying to add more self-control to their exercise regime might try to think less about the details of the exercise, and instead focus on an abstract vision of the ideal physical self, or how exercise provides a time to re-connect mind and body.
     
    • High-level categorisation. This means thinking about high-level concepts rather than specific instances. Any long-term project, whether in business, academia or elsewhere can easily get bogged down by focusing too much on the minutiae of everyday processes and forgetting the ultimate goal. Categorising tasks or project stages conceptually may help an individual or group maintain their focus and achieve greater self-discipline.
     
     

    These are just some examples of specific instances, but with a little creativity the same principles can be applied to many situations in which self-control is required. Ultimately these three ways of thinking are different ways of saying much the same thing: avoid thinking locally and specifically and practice thinking globally, objectively and abstractly, and increased self-control should follow.
• 

  Antonio Roman

  health mind science self control

• 24 May 09
  

  M M

  Productivity

• 08 Apr 09
  

  lbecker2
• 10 Mar 09
  

  Craig King
  • Global processing. This means trying to focus on the wood rather than the trees: seeing the big picture and our specific actions as just one part of a major plan or purpose. For example, someone trying to eat healthily should focus on the ultimate goal and how each individual decision about what to eat contributes (or detracts) from that goal.
  • Abstract reasoning. This means trying to avoid considering the specific details of the situation at hand in favour of thinking about how actions fit into an overall framework - being philosophical. Someone trying to add more self-control to their exercise regime might try to think less about the details of the exercise, and instead focus on an abstract vision of the ideal physical self, or how exercise provides a time to re-connect mind and body.
• 30 Jan 09
  

  Buthaina Al-Othman

  avoid thinking locally and specifically and practice thinking globally, objectively and abstractly, and increased self-control should follow.

  thinking selfcontrol psychology psyblog

• 04 Jan 09
  

  johnharris85

  psyblog self-control mind

• 28 Nov 08
  

  linda lopeke

  productivity

• 12 Oct 08
  

  Dan Schaeffler

  psychology selfcontrol actualization

• 08 Oct 08
  

  Ravimohan RAVIMOHAN

  psychology life self-improvement

• 07 Oct 08
  

  Brian J

  consciousness Reason

• 

  muhk

  psychology productivity science selfhelp

• 06 Oct 08
  

  Konrad .

  psychology health productivity

• 

  Leyla Bonilla

  interesante psychology selfcontrol

  • It never ceases to amaze just how different two people's views of exactly the same event can be: one person's freedom fighter is another's terrorist.
  • why they maintain good physical health
  • Participants tended to put answer such as: "To do well in school." This got them thinking about ends rather than means - the ultimate purpose of physical health.
  • how they maintained their physical health. Naturally they responded with things like: "Go exercise". In other words they focused on means rather than ends, the actual process.
  • low-construal thinking condition (thinking about means rather than ends
  • Those participants who had been encouraged to think in high-level, abstract terms demonstrated greater self-control in enduring the discomfort of the handgrip in order to receive more accurate personality profiles.
  • Research reveals that people find it much easier to make decisions that demonstrate self-control when they are thinking about events that are distant in time, for example how much exercise they will do next week or what they will eat tomorrow (Fujita, 2008). Similarly they make much more disciplined decisions on behalf of other people than they do for themselves. People implicitly follow the maxim: do what I say, not what I do.
  • Global processing. This means trying to focus on the wood rather than the trees: seeing the big picture and our specific actions as just one part of a major plan or purpose. For example, someone trying to eat healthily should focus on the ultimate goal and how each individual decision about what to eat contributes (or detracts) from that goal.
  • Abstract reasoning. This means trying to avoid considering the specific details of the situation at hand in favour of thinking about how actions fit into an overall framework
  • Someone trying to add more self-control to their exercise regime might try to think less about the details of the exercise, and instead focus on an abstract vision of the ideal physical self, or how exercise provides a time to re-connect mind and body.
  • Categorising tasks or project stages conceptually may help an individual or group maintain their focus and achieve greater self-discipline.
  • avoid thinking locally and specifically and practice thinking globally, objectively and abstractly, and increased self-control should follow.

  10 more annotations...

• 

  F H

  science psychology research

• 

  isaac Mao
  • 
  • Temptation comes in many forms, often so potent, so animal, that it seems impossible to resist. Eating too much, drinking too much, spending too much or letting the heart rule the head. We get instant messages from deep in the gut that resonate through the mind, trying to dictate our behaviour.
• 05 Oct 08
  

  Soumya Ray

  addiction self-control psychology personality health self-improvement

• 

  maxilprof

  blogs HowTo management life psychology logic personality self-control lifehacks

• 

  selfimprovement self-improvement self-control selfcontrol

• 

  Neil H

  A scientific study suggests that our self-control can be improved by thinking about things at a more abstract level

  science life self-control

• 

  equalstwelve

  psychology science

• 

  winneper

  self-management psychology

• 

  Herlene Ooi
• 

  sudhang
  • One of humanity's most useful skills, without which advanced civilisations would not exist, is being able to engage our higher cognitive functions, our self-control, to resist these temptations.
  • Psychologists have found that self-control is strongly associated with what we label success: higher self-esteem, better interpersonal skills, better emotional responses and, perhaps surprisingly, few drawbacks at even very high levels of self-control
  • Dr Fujita and colleagues have proposed that abstract thinking and psychological distance are particularly important in self-control
  • They needed participants to be thinking in either a high-level way (abstract - seeing the whole forest) or a low-level way (concrete - seeing individual trees).
  • psychological distance
  • people find it much easier to make decisions that demonstrate self-control when they are thinking about events that are distant in time
  • Global processing. This means trying to focus on the wood rather than the trees
  • Abstract reasoning. This means trying to avoid considering the specific details of the situation at hand in favour of thinking about how actions fit into an overall framework - being philosophical.
  • High-level categorisation. This means thinking about high-level concepts rather than specific instances.

  7 more annotations...

• 

  FruFru FourOne
• 

  gideon surus

  open hack mind

• 

  Kent Sin
• 04 Oct 08
  

  netsuke87

  toread selfimprovement selfhelp self-improvement psychology management productivity mind self-control reason selfcontrol

• 

  Angelo Salazar

  Bookmarks psychology mind behavior neuroscience

• 

  Andrey Petrov

  Improving self-control by exercising abstract reasoning.

  psychology productivity lifehacks self-control

• 

  jusran mawardi

  psycho

• 

  Wisdom's Hammer

  to-read... self-improvement discipline

• 03 Oct 08
  

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• 02 Oct 08
  

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  psychology toread

• 30 Sep 08
  

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  self intg

• 

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  delicious psychology logic reason

• 

  Rudy Garns

  New research suggests self-control can be improved using abstract reasoning.

  control psychology grue

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