Weakness of Will: Understanding Willpower and Strategies to Overcome It

1. Psych 201, Lecture 16: Weakness of Will

2. Reminders • Exam 2 is next Wednesday! • 3/30, bring maroon scantron and pencil • Review sessions (all optional) • In class, Monday 3/28, 4pm • With Allie and Suzanne, Tuesday 3/27, 12:30pm, location TBA • Topic review sheet sent last week

3. Outline • What is willpower? • How important is willpower? • Examples of weakness of the will • Temporal Discounting • Addiction • Components of willpower • Strategies to overcome weakness of the will

4. What is willpower? • Intentionally behaving in a way that is in line with one’s ultimategoals when tempted to do otherwise.

5. Cardiovascular disease Cancers Strokes Chronic lung disease Accidents Diabetes Pneumonia and influenza Alzheimer’s Disease Kidney disease Septicemia Suicide Chronic liver disease (cirrhosis) Behaviors associated with the most common causes of death (USA)

6. Importance of Willpower Weakness of the will (i.e., giving into temptation) can be very bad “…most major problems, personal and social, center on failure of self-control: compulsive spending and borrowing, impulsive violence, underachievement in school, procrastination at work, alcohol and drug abuse, unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, chronic anxiety, explosive anger…losing friends, being fired, getting divorced, winding up in prison...” Baumeister & Tierney (2011) Temptations are very common (smartphone study): ~25% of waking life spent resisting temptations Most common everyday desires: to eat, sleep, relax, sex Temptations getting more common

7. Importance of Willpower Happiness

8. What is the relationship between failures of self-control and happiness? • Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us. (Oscar Wilde) • Capacity for joy admits temptation. (Elizabeth Browning) • Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again. (Robert Heinlein)

9. What is the relationship between failures of self-control and happiness? • Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us. (Oscar Wilde) • Capacity for joy admits temptation. (Elizabeth Browning) • Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again. (Robert Heinlein) • You only live once. (Drake)

10. Importance of Willpower Willpower can be very good for happiness in the long term: Relationships -conscientiousness and long-term relationships -physical attractiveness -exercise/eat healthy Purpose -morality -wealth -academic -creativity (“Genius is patience;” 10,000 hour rule) Autonomy/Liberty -less likely to go to jail -less likely to have substance abuse problem -live unassisted for longer

11. Outline • What is willpower? • How important is willpower? • Examples of weakness of the will • Temporal Discounting • Addiction • Components of willpower • Strategies to overcome weakness of the will

12. Intertemporal Choice • The study of the relative value people assign to two or more rewards at different time points. $99 now or $100 in a year? Assume no change in your income or purchasing power of $100

13. Intertemporal Choice • The study of the relative value people assign to two or more rewards at different time points. $40 now or $100 in a year?

14. Intertemporal Choice • The study of the relative value people assign to two or more rewards at different time points. $40 now or $100 in ten years?

15. Temporal Discounting – The devaluation of anticipated outcomes as a function of their anticipated delay • $100 in a year worth about $40 today.

16. Intertemporal choice in a pigeon…

18. Immediate

19. Delay Immediate

20. 10 grains, After 2 sec 10 grains, immediately

21. 10 grains, After 2 sec 9 grains, immediately

22. 10 grains, After 2 sec 9 grains, immediately

23. 10 grains, After 2 sec 8 grains, immediately

24. 10 grains, After 2 sec 8 grains, immediately

25. 10 grains, After 2 sec 1 grain, immediately

26. 10 grains, After 2 sec 1 grain, immediately

27. 10 grains, After 2 sec 7 grains, immediately

28. 7 grains, immediately 10 grains, After 2 sec ≈ Not rationally calculated; evolved mechanism?

29. Outline • What is willpower/Importance of Willpower • How important is willpower? • Temporal Discounting • Addiction • Components of willpower • Strategies to overcome self-control problems

30. What is Addiction? DSM Criteria for substance dependence • Tolerance • Withdrawal • Taking more than intended • Unsuccessful efforts to cut down • A lot of time devoted to the substance • Giving up other things • Continued use despite adverse consequences

31. Opponent Process Theory and Addiction Recall… • Hedonic contrast: Experiencing hedonic change when stimulus presented (“A process”), followed by opposite change (“B process”). • Hedonic habituation: Over repeated exposure, reduced hedonic change to stimulus. • Hedonic withdrawal: Over time, emergence of a long-lasting, high-amplitude after-reaction that is opposite to the original hedonic change.

32. First few experiences After many Opponent Process Theory and Addiction Pos affect Neg affect Pos affect Neg affect

33. First few experiences After many Opponent Process Theory and Addiction Pos affect Neg affect Pos affect Neg affect

34. How prevalent is addiction?

37. How heritable is addiction? Smoking heritability Sullivan PF, Kendler KS. The genetic epidemiology of smoking. Nicotine Tobacco Res. 1999;1:S51-S57.

38. Addiction Problems Common in Collegehttp://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/Health_Center/cs.index.shtml

39. Outline • What is willpower/Importance of Willpower • How important is willpower? • Examples of weakness of will: • Temporal Discounting • Addiction • Components of willpower: • Delay of gratification • Motivation • Ability • Strategies to overcome self-control problems

40. We all start out demanding immediate gratification

41. Delay of Gratification: The Marshmallow Test • Place ONE marshmallow in front of four year old. Child can eat it any time. • If child waits long enough (~15 min) he or she gets TWO marshmallows. • Majority don’t wait. Walter Mischel

42. Video • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo4WF3cSd9Q&feature=related

43. Correlations between Delay Times and SAT Scores Traditional Marshmallow Test Exposed SAT verbal SAT quantitative

44. Correlations between Delay Times and SAT Scores Traditional Marshmallow Test Exposed SAT verbal .42* SAT quantitative .57** Stronger predictor than IQ

45. Components of Willpower • Licking marshmallow is clever, but bad idea. • Distraction is a better idea. • Why?

46. Components of Willpower • Licking marshmallow is clever, but bad idea. • Increases temptation/reduces motivation • But what would happen if option was one marshmallow now or Toys R’ Us shopping spree in 15 minutes? Component 1: Motivation

47. Component 1: Motivation • Is a function of immediate value of goal and expectancy of reaching goal. • Immediate value of getting two marshmallows in 15 minutes. • Ooh I’d love to have two of these! • Expectancy of getting two marshmallows in 15 minutes if you wait. • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsQMdECFnUQ/(0:03 – 2:41)

48. Components of Willpower • Distraction seems to be helpful. • Reduces temptation Component 2: Ability

49. Roy Baumeister Component 2: Ability • Capacity • Willpower as a limited resource (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Muraven, & Tice, 1998)

50. Roy Baumeister Component 2: Ability • Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Muraven, & Tice (1998) • Three conditions • Radish (over chocolates) eating condition (self-control) • Cookie eating condition (less self-control) • Control condition (no self-control)