PsyBlog: How to Improve Your Self-Control - 0 views
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It never ceases to amaze just how different two people's views of exactly the same event can be: one person's freedom fighter is another's terrorist.
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why they maintain good physical health
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Research reveals that people find it much easier to make decisions that demonstrate self-control when they are thinking about events that are distant in time, for example how much exercise they will do next week or what they will eat tomorrow (Fujita, 2008). Similarly they make much more disciplined decisions on behalf of other people than they do for themselves. People implicitly follow the maxim: do what I say, not what I do.
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how they maintained their physical health. Naturally they responded with things like: "Go exercise". In other words they focused on means rather than ends, the actual process.
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low-construal thinking condition (thinking about means rather than ends
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Those participants who had been encouraged to think in high-level, abstract terms demonstrated greater self-control in enduring the discomfort of the handgrip in order to receive more accurate personality profiles.
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Participants tended to put answer such as: "To do well in school." This got them thinking about ends rather than means - the ultimate purpose of physical health.
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Global processing. This means trying to focus on the wood rather than the trees: seeing the big picture and our specific actions as just one part of a major plan or purpose. For example, someone trying to eat healthily should focus on the ultimate goal and how each individual decision about what to eat contributes (or detracts) from that goal.
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Abstract reasoning. This means trying to avoid considering the specific details of the situation at hand in favour of thinking about how actions fit into an overall framework
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Someone trying to add more self-control to their exercise regime might try to think less about the details of the exercise, and instead focus on an abstract vision of the ideal physical self, or how exercise provides a time to re-connect mind and body.
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Categorising tasks or project stages conceptually may help an individual or group maintain their focus and achieve greater self-discipline.
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avoid thinking locally and specifically and practice thinking globally, objectively and abstractly, and increased self-control should follow.
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avoid thinking locally and specifically and practice thinking globally, objectively and abstractly, and increased self-control should follow.
