Hot and Cool Dynamics of Self-Control - Article Example

?Hot/Cool Dynamics of Self-Control Willpower and self control basically rest on a foundation of Intellectual should and emotional want. This dynamic has been formally referred to as a cool system and a hot system. The cool system involves knowledge . It is flexible, relies on strategy, is non-emotional, reflective, and sensible. The hot system involves emotions, is impulsive and stimulus-reactive, fearful and passionate, and sabotages efforts toward self-control. There is a conflict relationship between the cool system of knowledge and rational thinking/self-control and the hot system of desire, indulgence and emotional thinking 1. When the balance tilts too much on the side of rational knowledge, the individual is admired as a self-disciplined, responsible person, socially adjusted and reliable. When the balance tilts too much on the side of desire and emotional reaction, the person is criticized as immature, impulsive, irresponsible, immoral, socially maladjusted, and unsafe. There is a high cost for being perfectly self-disciplined, rational, and responsible, in that there is something artificial about a life completely without impulse, spontaneity, passion, the delicious joy of being at least a bit self-indulgent. People who live lives that require idealized rational perfection sometimes lead a double life, in order to cope. On the other hand, people who live lives of spontaneous self-indulgence and passion may have trouble with socially-alienating moods, social cooperation challenges, exercising intrapersonal intelligence, and participating in consensual reality. Balance between knowledge and desire, between rationality and emotionality, is essential. Balance or imbalance between hot and cool systems is affected by stress, maturity level, and personal self-regulation characteristics 2. Naturally an immature person, a child, or a barely-coping, stressed out person, or one with a self-regulating disorder will have more difficulty. There are a variety of effective stress management resources. One that is especially good for maintaining self-regulation is meditation, because it effectively controls anxiety, 3 and successfully regulates attention and emotion4. One of the factors that promotes self-regulation is mood. If a person is happy, in a positive mood, they are likely to choose an attainable goal, whereas a person who is suffering from a more negative mood is less likely to choose the attainable goal. If a self-improvement goal is accessible (like eating healthier, for example), happy people perform better on self-control behavior aimed at furthering that goal (like reducing high cholesterol-inducing foods)5. Another factor important to self-regulation is making a goal-directed action plan. An action plan should state the action one is committing to, in positive and clear language. There should be a simple way to measure success. It should be specific enough to prevent creative self-deception. Duration should be specified. An appropriate reward should be identified, to recognize success . It is helpful to tell a couple of strangers about your plan. A properly stated action plan will be, Starting at 6pm this evening, for the next 3 weeks, I will eat one two-inch diameter cookie each day, and no more than that, and at the end of three weeks will reward myself with a new music CD from my favorite singer. Another factor promoting self-regulation is religion. Religion influences how goals are chosen, advanced toward, and prioritized, and religion encourages self monitoring 6. With both external and internal manifestations of sacred authority, a person who is influenced by religion has a holistic support system for adhering to principles and resisting temptation. In Christianity, for example, the church offers sermons, testimonies, discussion groups, prayer, healing services, scripture readings, parables and historical stories, missionary examples, and a rich mythological structure specifically aimed at encouraging the choice of righteousness over temptation. In going after goals, in spite of temptation, the individual has to recognize that there is a self-control conflict, and utilize self-control mechanisms to overcome the temptation in favor of the goal 7. Self-control mechanisms relied on by middle-aged female churchgoers in a spiritual-influenced weight-loss study were identified as being peer support, scripture reading and prayer 8 Perhaps one reason for this is that these resources serve to affirm core values, and they expose anything threatening those core values. Affirmation of core values has been shown, by research, to be a strong factor in refreshing self-control after ego-depletion 9. Self control is not an infinite resource, but is depleted by each act of self-control. The consequence is that future acts of self-control will be less successful, due to less self-control energy 10. Self-affirmation promotes higher levels of mental construal, and lowers the likelihood of control-failure 11. Four research studies, for example, looked at resistance to persuasion, something that eats up self-control resources. It was found that resisting a persuasive message lowered the individual’s ability to exercise self-control right afterward, and that this depletion increased vulnerability to persuasion 12. We all know seemingly reasonable people who buy more products than they can ever use, participate in dubious investments, and buy bizarre items from a television shopping channel. It is reasonable to suspect that one’s financial situation would have an impact on the strength of willpower. After all, if there is no money, impulsive purchases are blocked, as are heavy food indulgences, susceptibility to gambling and the purchase of drugs, as well as quantities of cigarettes and a number of other temptations which require financial support. A lack of discretionary income should inspire a straight and narrow path of resisting temptation. Personal experience and research suggests otherwise, however. Making a strict budget, to deal with a temporary economic impairment, seems to trigger a deep-seated passion for impulsive purchasing. Research shows that intention to reduce temptation consumption, based on a poor economic situation, and also a positive attitude toward risk-taking have been found to influence a decrease in willpower strengthening and desire-reducing strategies 13. Another factor important to self-regulation is glucose. As was earlier mentioned, self-control is a resource which is depleted by exercising self-control, and it depletes both physical and mental stamina 14. Actually at least some of that depletion is due to a depletion of glucose, which has been found to occur in conjunction with the exercising of self-control 15. In fact, exercising self-control uses up large quantities of glucose, and self-control is most subject to failure when glucose levels are low or not metabolized properly. Alcohol reduces glucose and consequently decreases self-control. How one construes an event or situation, whether at a higher level, focusing on more global and primary features, or at a lower level, more focused on local and secondary features, influences the amount of self-control one exercises. High-level construals favor delayed gratification over immediate, lead to more physical endurance, inspire stronger intentions for self-control and a more negative interpretation of potentially tempting alternatives that challenge self-control 16. For example, if a middle-aged woman is considering whether to return to college to complete a degree, and she considers mostly the long term improvements that will come to her family and career (rather than focusing on the expense involved, childcare issues, and how busy she will become), she will summon the physical strength required, discipline her mind and organize her life to make it happen. She will see the alternative of not completing her degree as a less worthy option. If she focuses primarily on short term difficulties, she will be too tired, too busy, too overwhelmed to return to school. Self construal is also a factor in self-regulation. Research indicates that those who see themselves as more independent are more impulsive with respect to alcohol in-take than are those people who construe themselves as interdependent. Independents show a more positive attitude toward impulsive drinking than do interdependent. Being present with a peer group resulted in increased consumption of alcohol for those whose self-construal was independent, while being in a peer group actually decreased alcohol consumption for interdependent 17. Decision Fatigue is another issue influencing self-regulation. Decision fatigue is when a person is overwhelmed by too many choices, requiring too many decisions, and feels paralyzed about taking any action or engages in reckless behavior choices due to mental depletion 18. Mental fortitude is finite. A factor that interferes with the self-control of individuals who are recovering from addiction, or trying to stay away from cigarettes or junk food, is having an over-reaction to relapse. It is a case of labeling. You identified as a recovering alcoholic and drinking makes you a non-recovering alcoholic. You became a non-smoker and, with one cigarette again became a smoker. You completed a 12 step program for gambling addiction and suddenly find yourself in a casino or at a racing track, placing a bet. The gravest danger is that you will lose sight of the new identity and return to the old label, convinced you are not cut out for success. A less dramatic response would simply be to acknowledge what has happened and return your behavior to compliance with your commitment. Keeping a journal or charting progress is a way to move the emphasis from a single incidence of behavior to an over-all pattern. It is easier to sustain self construal as a success if you see evidence in writing. Memory is far more biased, when a person feels discouraged. Charts and journals are also a good way to teach children both task and emotional self-regulation19. Perhaps the most basic influence on self-regulation, of all, is how we manage the terror of our own mortality. From the moment of birth, we are degenerating toward inevitable death. There is no escape. No one gets out alive. This fact is unnerving and we do everything possible to ignore it, circumvent it, or in some way to relieve the terror we feel in response to this unsettling realization. This terror can lead to inappropriate, defensive behavior. Self-regulation is made difficult in the face of our terror. Terror Management Theory suggests that we cope by using a cultural worldview, with a particular outlook on death, specific values, principles and instructions that, if adhered to, can provide some relief from this anxiety. Our self-esteem is based on how well we adhere to the values, principles and instructions of our cultural worldview. This acts as an anxiety buffer. Self-esteem protects against anxiety and anxiety-reactive behavior 20. It promotes self-regulation. Exercising the self-regulation necessary to make good decisions is not due to intelligence, education, experience and wisdom, only, but is heavily influenced by stress management, discretionary income, mood, goal planning and rewards, religious and social support, frequency of self-control demands, glucose levels, self and event construal, mental fortitude, dramatic responses to relapse, process documentation, and terror management. The dialogue among these self-regulation factors brings a level of balance or imbalance between knowledge and desire, between rational and emotional. This defines willpower. Understanding the science of self-regulation can be useful in strengthening self-control and reducing attachment to temptation. Works Cited Burkley, Edward. "The Role of Self-Control in Resistance to Persuasion." Peronality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol. 34(3) (2008): 419-431. Butler, Deborah L. and Philip H. Winne. "Feedback and Self-Regulated Learning: A Theoretical Synthesis." 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