Ego depletion

Ego depletion refers to the idea that self-control or willpower is an exhaustible resource that can be used up.[1] When that energy is low, mental activity that requires self-control is impaired. In other words, using one's self-control impairs the ability to control oneself later on. In this sense, the idea of limited willpower is accepted as correct. In an illustrative experiment on ego depletion, participants who controlled themselves by trying not to laugh while watching a comedian did worse on a later task that required self-control compared to participants who did not have to control their laughter while watching the video.

Much of the early research on ego depletion was performed by Roy Baumeister, Mark Muraven, and their colleagues. In a recent series of studies, they suggest that a positive mood stimulus could help restore the depleted energy. They report on four studies where the positive mood stimulus was a surprise gift from watching short clips of stand-up comedy by Robin Williams and Eddie Murphy. They do not claim a general benefit in positive affect, i.e, benefit to people who had not previously engaged in self-regulatory tasks, rather the positive stimulus restores the capacity to self-regulate. The work is experimental and does not consider in depth the mechanisms by which performance is restored. Whether it is because of an actual restoration of self-regulatory resources or provides an additional motivation to press on with a depleted self remains an open question.[2]

A 2010 study from Carol Dweck and other researchers from Stanford University, however, questions the ego depletion theory, and presents evidence that "a person's mindset and personal beliefs about willpower determine how long and how well they'll be able to work on a tough mental exercise".[3][4]

Contents

See also

References

  1. ^ Baumeister, R. F.; Bratslavsky, E.; Muraven, M.; Tice, D. M. (1998). "Ego Depletion: Is the Active Self a Limited Resource?". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74: 1252–1265. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.74.5.1252. http://www.psychologytoday.com/files/attachments/584/baumeisteretal1998.pdf. 
  2. ^ Tice, D.M.; Baumeister, R.F.; Shmueli, D.; Muraven, M. (2007). "Restoring the self: Positive affect helps improve self-regulation following ego depletion" (PDF). Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 43 (3): 379–384. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2006.05.007. http://www.psy.fsu.edu/~baumeistertice/pdfmail.php 
  3. ^ Job, V.; Dweck, C. S.; Walton, G. M. (2010). "Ego Depletion--Is It All in Your Head?: Implicit Theories About Willpower Affect Self-Regulation". Psychological Science 21 (11): 1686–1693. doi:10.1177/0956797610384745. PMID 20876879.  edit
  4. ^ Gorlick, Adam (14 October 2010). "Need a study break to refresh? Maybe not, say Stanford researchers". http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/october/willpower-resource-study-101410.html. Retrieved 10 August 2011. 

Further reading

Also social neurology reports the phenomenon:

External links