Unpacking Self-Control

Self-controlled behavior refers to actions aligned with valued, longer term goals in the face of conflicting impulses to seek immediate gratification. In this article, we argue that the psychological processes that contribute to self-controlled behavior can be grouped into two functionally distinct categories: Volitional processes facilitate self-controlled behavior and include executive functions as well as learned metacognitive strategies like planning, attention deployment, and psychological distancing. In contrast, impulsigenic processes undermine self-controlled behavior and include reward sensitivity, sensation seeking, and domain-specific cravings. A disproportionate amount of research has addressed the former at the expense of understanding individual and developmental differences in the latter. This imbalance is now being rectified. Distinguishing between self-controlled behavior and its antecedent psychological processes helps illuminate normative developmental changes in self-control and points to directions for measurement and intervention.