Most individuals believe that they have the ability to improve their lives if they could be provided with the strange thing known as willpower. Possessing great self-control would enable individuals to eat right, avoid alcohol and drugs, save for retirement, avoid procrastination and attain every sort of noble objective. For instance, the findings of the American Psychological Association’s yearly stress in America survey established that willpower largely influenced our decision. Among other questions, the survey inquired about participants ability to live a healthy lifestyle. According to participants who were surveyed, they cited poor willpower as the major reason that prevents them from adhering to such changes.
Willpower is defined as the command exerted to perform an action or prevent impulses. Individuals tend to have a varying definition to describe willpower. Often, willpower is defined as self-discipline, effortful control, drive, self-control, and self-regulation. At the center of willpower is its capability to oppose short-term temptation for the sake of long-term objectives (Tice, Dianne, Bratslavsky and Baumeister 280). The process seeks to succeed long-term satisfaction above instant gratification. Most psychology researchers define willpower differently.
1. A limited resource which can be exhausted.
2. The function to override an unwanted impulse, thoughts, and emotions.
3. The ability to slow gratification, opposing short-term temptations.
The basic idea present in all the above definitions involves controlling the self. Studies proved that individuals scoring high when tested on self-control, tend to be appropriate at controlling behavioral, attention and emotional impulse, which assists them to attain longer-term objectives in comparison to individuals who were impulsive.
Importance of Willpower
For humans to survive more than 100,000 years, it was necessary for them to reproduce, avoid predators and find food. Existing within a tribe largely increased the probability of survival. Therefore, stealing another person’s food or item might jeopardize not just the lives of the involved but that of the entire tribe. Self-control was a basic requirement for survival during those periods (Tice, Dianne, Bratslavsky and Baumeister 280). A survey conducted in 2011 by Stress in America survey showed that 27 of the respondents admit that lack of willpower was the major obstacles towards them achieving their goals (Tice, Dianne, Bratslavsky and Baumeister 280). Despite that individuals place blame on willpower as the cause of their imperfect decision, it is evident that they never give up.
Most individuals who were surveyed believe it is possible to learn willpower through various activities. Actually, the participants’ ideology is partially correct. According to research, it is possible to reinforce willpower through various practices. The majority of the participants surveyed agreed that being provided with adequate personal time would assist them to overcome their lack or inefficient willpower (Job et al.). This was questionable since research is yet to prove that having extra time automatically makes willpower to increase or grow. Therefore, how can an individual resist from doing something they do not want whenever tempted? Modern researches have resulted in massive discoveries concerning how willpower operates.
The inability of willpower is not the only cause for failure towards attaining objectives. According to Roy Baumeister who is a psychologist at Florida States University, there are three core components necessary to attain objectives (Vohs, Kathleen, and Roy). First, an individual is required to establish the desire for change and establish reasonable goals. Second, an individual should assess personal behavior towards their set goals. The final element is willpower. Regardless of the objectives of an individual, this tends to be an important element towards attaining the set goal (Vohs, Kathleen, and Roy). According to the researchers, prefrontal cortex displayed more activeness among individuals who had self-control.
On the other hand, ventral striatum- which is part of the brain believed to control rewards and desire displayed an increased activity among those with lower self-control (Vohs, Kathleen, and Roy). The downside of the research was failing to expound on the reason why certain individuals happen to be more sensitive to temptations and emotional triggers as well as if they could be corrected. On the contrary, currently, findings provide an intriguing neurobiological as the foundation for pull and push temptation.
Is Willpower Limited?
Despite that Walter Mischel’s concept of hot-cool can illustrate our ability to slow gratification, another theory identified as willpower depletion has sprouted to explain what transpires after an individual successfully resist temptation concurrently. Every individual exercise willpower daily in one way or another. One resists the urge of scrolling through social media to focus on their academics or even when an individual bite their tongue to prevent them from making snide remarks.
What Strengthens Willpower?
Self-Awareness
When carefully traced, the average number of times an individual makes a decision in a single day is 227. The number signifies that most people are not aware of the decisions they make hence it can be complicated to manage behavior, which one does not know (Gailliot and Roy 140). Numerous scientist have proved that a majority of our choice is developed on autopilot, with lack of awareness on what exactly drives them or the consequences they are bound to have later in life. Therefore, the initial step to altering behavior is self-awareness. Self-awareness is the ability to identify our activities and engage them in the most suitable way possible.
Mediation
Whenever an individual exercise a specific behavior, they are reinforcing the neural connection for that specific character. The process makes the behavior more likely to take place, be accessible, and increases its ability of reoccurring (Gailliot and Roy 140). Based on the above, whenever an individual exercise a specific action, their minds make it easy to convince and increase the probability of the action occurring (Gailliot and Roy 156). Similarly, an individual has the ability to become better at the activities, which they are practicing more. Individuals may teach their brain self-control through actions such as meditation. The action is possible because mediation possess significant effect on various skills, which have always been associated with self-control such as attention, management of stress, self-awareness and focus.
Whenever an individual meditates, they teach their mind to focus on a precise point such as one’s breathing. Meditation process involves focusing and monitoring thoughts, impulses, and emotions without pinpointing or acting upon them (Gailliot and Roy 152). As a result, an individual is basically training several major skills at a go. Mediators who engage in the practice regularly tend to possess more grey matter in the parts of the mind associated with self-awareness. Surprisingly, it may take years of practice for one to view the changes in the brain. According to research, only three hours of meditation led to improved self-control and awareness.
Practice warring
At its importance, willpower is the capability to object short-term temptations for the sake of long-term objectives. There are several advantages associated with the action. According to research by Terrie Moffitt, at Duke University, a studied group of 1000 people who were monitored since childhood until they attained the age of 32 displayed the great correlation in willpower between when an individual is young and when the person grows up (Gailliot and Roy 160). According to Moffitt’s finding, a person possessing high self-control during childhood grew to become adults who had greater mental and physical health security, fewer substance abuses cases and zero to no criminal conviction.
Delayed Gratification
Over 40 years ago, Walter Mischel, a Ph.D. psychologist at the Columbia University analyzed self-control among children using a simple but reliable test. Walter’s tools identified as “marshmallow test” establish the basic foundation of the modern study of self-control (Gailliot and Roy 164). During the experiment, Mishcle and his team offered preschooler with a treat comprising of marshmallows. The children were then instructed by the researcher to exit the room for several minutes, but not before the children were given another choice (Gailliot and Roy 166). If the child could be able to remain at the venue until the researcher returned, they won themselves two marshmallows. On the other hand, if the child was unable to await the researcher’s return, the person was just required to ring the bell and allows the researcher to come back sooner than anticipated with only a single marshmallow.
Just like in adults, willpower within children can be perceived as the fundamental ability to postpone gratification. Preschoolers who had great self-control sacrificed the fulfillment of the chewy marshmallow for the sake of getting two marshmallows later (Schmidt 412). Ex-smokers surrender the fulfillment of a cigarette so as to attain good health and prevent an increased risk of being diagnosed with lung cancer.
The marshmallow study was the source of the framework elaborating on our ability to postpone. This made him suggest what he identifies as “hot-and-cold” systems to illustrate why willpower may fail or succeed (Schmidt 412). The cool system tends to be naturally cognitive. Basically, it is a thinking system, which comprises of knowledge concerning sensation, objectives, actions, and feelings (Schmidt 412). While the hot system tends to be emotional and impulsive, the cool system tends to be reflective. The hot system accounts for quick, reflexive feedback to various triggers like popping the marshmallow into one’s mouth without reasoning about the long-term effect.
Whenever willpower is unsuccessful, exposure to a stimulus, which is hot can overwhelm the cool system resulting in impulsive actions. Various individuals are prone to hot triggers. Vulnerability to emotional responses can affect the behavior for the entire life (Schmidt 412). The research established that teenagers who had spent extra time waiting for the marshmallows while in preschool had a higher likely hood of scoring high on the SAT. Additionally, their parent had a high probability of rating them as a great planner, react to reason, handle stress and exercise self-control in chaotic circumstances without getting diverted.
Surpassingly, the marshmallow study continued when the researchers opted to trace 59 subjects who had been involved in the study while they were young and were currently in their 40s. The researcher assessed the willpower of the former participants using the hot stimuli, signifying it could continue through an individual’s entire life. Furthermore, Casey assessed brain activity in various subjects utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging (Schmidt 412). Whenever a tempting stimulus was introduced, participants who had less self-control displayed brain patterns, which were different from those that had high self-control.
A huge section of the research has been created recently to explain the many dimensions of willpower. Majority of the researcher analyzing self-control perform so with a major objective in mind. First, how can willpower be reinforced? and whether willpower is indeed a limited resource as proclaimed by the research, and if it is possible to conserve it (Kerr). Being able to evade temptation is a significant way of attaining self-control. According to Walter Mischel’s marshmallow study, children who gazed at the treat had a lower probability of resisting it compared to children who opted to shut their eyes, distracted themselves or turned away their faces.
In conclusion, willpower is considered a major element in shaping the character of an individual. In fact, most individuals believe if they could have enough willpower, it would be easy to achieve an individual’s objective. Willpower is regarded as the main inbuilt element that acts as a driving force in humans’ lives. Every day, individually established the decision to oppose impulses in the desire for a healthier and happier life. Limited willpower is mostly identified as a major roadblock to a healthy lifestyle. Willpower is a basic component within an environment, which has numerous unhealthy food choices. Resisting the temptation is bound to exhaust willpower, cutting away the solution of even highly motivated dieters.
Works Cited
Gailliot, Matthew T., and Roy F. Baumeister. "The physiology of willpower: Linking blood glucose to self-control." Self-Regulation and Self-Control. Routledge, 2018. 137-180.
Job, Veronika, et al. "Implicit theories about willpower predict self-regulation and grades in everyday life." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 108.4 (2015): 637.
Kerr, Fiona. "How technology shapes us: Getting the best from technology and the human brain in the changing world of CRE." Corporate Real Estate Journal 7.2 (2017): 114-126.
Schmidt, Barbara. "I can't wait! Neural reward signals in impulsive individuals exaggerate the difference between immediate and future rewards." Psychophysiology 54.3 (2017): 409-415.
Tice, Dianne M., Ellen Bratslavsky, and Roy F. Baumeister. "Emotional distress regulation takes precedence over impulse control: If you feel bad, do it!." Self-Regulation and Self-Control. Routledge, 2018. 275-306.
Vohs, Kathleen D., and Roy F. Baumeister, eds. Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory, and applications. Guilford Publications, 2016.
