The Strength Model of Self-Control

By Roy F. Baumeister, Kathleen D. Vohs, D. Tice. Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine, 2007

3,185 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Self-control is a central function of the self and an important key to success in life. The exertion of self-control appears to depend on a limited resource. Just as a muscle gets tired from exertion, acts of self-control cause short-term impairments (ego depletion) in subsequent self-control, even on unrelated tasks. Research has supported the strength model in the domains of eating, drinking, spending, sexuality, intelligent thought, making choices, and interpersonal behavior. Motivational or framing factors can temporarily block the deleterious effects of being in a state of ego depletion. Blood glucose is an important component of the energy.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5c1ab7fd0629dfedfac331557309484ab4f18bd4

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Citations in the corpus

Being “in Control” May Make You Lose Control: The Role of Self-Regulation in Unethical Leadership Behavior (2013, background): “Just as muscles get tired from exertion, self-control performance also deteriorates after repeated use (Baumeister et al. 2007).”
A qualitative study of user perceptions of mobile health apps (2016, background): “…Model [31] c Theory of Reasoned Action [32] d Theory of Planned Behavior [33] e Innovation Diffusion Theory [34] f Social Cognitive Theory [21] g Tailoring [28, 29] h Self-Regulation Theory [35] i Goal Setting Theory [36] j Health Belief Model [37] and effort put in by the users, is crucial.”
‘The Ostrich Problem’: motivated avoidance or rejection of information about goal progress (2013, background): “The strength model of self-control (Baumeister et al., 2007) suggests that self-control is a limited resource, with the consequence that exerting self-control leads to a temporary depletion in subsequent self-control performance, a phenomenon termed ego depletion (for reviews, see Baumeister et al.”
How entrepreneurs acquire the capacity to excel: insights from research on expert performance (2010, background): “Self-control is one important self-regulatory mechanism (Baumeister, Vohs, and Tice, 2007), and a growing body of research has examined its effects in a wide range of contexts (Tice et al., 2007).”
Lunch Breaks Unpacked: The Role of Autonomy as a Moderator of Recovery during Lunch (2014, background): “According to this “strength” model, resource depletion continues or worsens if there are no opportunities for replenishment (Baumeister et al., 2007; Muraven & Baumeister, 2000).”
Work–Family Boundary Dynamics (2014, background): “The strength model of self-control explains the way in which effortful selfregulation draws on finite resources and impacts subsequent performance of behaviors necessitating self-regulation (Baumeister et al. 2007).”
Ego depletion and its paradoxical effects on ethical decision making (2014, background): “Although prior self-control tasks can undoubtedly impair subsequent self-control resources derived from a limited pool of mental resources (Baumeister et al., 2007), our research suggests that the enactment of some behaviors depends on the same limited pool of mental resources.”