Baumeister - 2007 - Self-Regulation, Ego Depletion, And Motivation.pdf

Social and Personality pass 1 (2007): -
Self-Regulation, Ego Depletion, and Motivation
Roy F. Baumeister1 and Kathleen D. Vohs2*
1Florida State University
2University of Minnesota
Abstract
Motivation is underappreciated in self-regulation theories (as is true in social
personality psychology at large). This paper reviews the role of motivation in the
context of the strength, or limited-resource, model of self-control in several domains.
Sacrificing one desire in order to pursue another is more difficult when the incipient
response is strongly motivated, a notion that highlights the struggle between urges
and restraints. A reduction in ego resources can be temporarily e by strong
motivation – nevertheless, ego depletion is not solely a loss of motivation: Recent
experiments indicate that regulatory resources are rooted in physical energy stores.
Motivational conflicts, especially the clash between selfish motives and behaviors
that promote social acceptance, set the stage for the necessity of self-regulation and
the circumstances in which ego depletion is most likely.
Self-regulation is the self ’s capacity for altering its behaviors. It greatly
increases the flexibility and adaptability of human behavior, enabling people
to adjust their actions to a remarkably broad range of social and situational
demands. It is an important basis for the popular conception of free will and
for socially desirable behavior. It provides benefits to the individual and to
society, and indeed good self-control seems to contribute to a great many
desirable es, including task performance, school and work ess,
popularity, mental health and adjustment, and good interpersonal relation-
ships (Baumeister, Heatherton, & Tice, 1994; Duckworth & Seligman, 2005;
Mischel, Shoda, & Peake, 1988; Shoda, Mischel, & Peake, 1990; Tangney,
Baumeister, & Boone, 2004;Wolfe & Johnson, 1995).
Motivation is underappreciated in psychology generally, no