The
Cure to Most of Our Problems?
What do
you think is the cause to most of our problems?
If you say, “A lack of willpower,” then there might be a
solution.
Common intuition and experimental psychology suggest
that the ability to self-regulate, willpower, is a depletable resource. We
investigate the behavior of an agent who optimally consumes a cake (or
paycheck or workload) over time and who recognizes that restraining his
consumption too much would exhaust his willpower and leave him unable to
manage his consumption. Unlike prior models of self-control, a model with
willpower depletion can explain the increasing consumption sequences
observable in high frequency data (and corresponding laboratory findings),
the apparent links between unrelated self-control behaviors, and the altered
economic behavior following imposition of cognitive loads. At the same time,
willpower depletion provides an alternative explanation for a taste for
commitment, intertemporal preference reversals, and procrastination.
Accounting for willpower depletion thus provides a more unified theory of
time preference. It also provides an explanation for anomalous intratemporal
behaviors such as low correlations between health-related activities. http://www.nber.org/papers/w12278
Yes, those
are researchers using their jargon, but we get the gist of their research:
willpower can be exhausted. Note
this sentence:
...and the altered economic behavior following
imposition of cognitive loads.
In plain English, when we are stressed, we cannot
refrain from spending money. And
that is just one example of what happens when we lose willpower.
From a different source:
…So
if willpower is like a muscle, can it be strengthened? Yes, says Dr.
Baumeister and others. One psychologist, Howard Rankin of the Carolina
Wellness Center, even runs a willpower-training program.
Baumeister
says that to strengthen your willpower, you must exercise it.
But don't set yourself up for failure.
Start with stuff your out-of-shape will can handle.
Hold your breath. Stand
on one leg. Write with your left hand, if you're right-handed.
Skip a meal. Look for ways to pit willpower against want-power.
It's like a weightlifter doing reps. …
http://encarta.msn.com/column_willpower_tamimhome/
Can_You_Increase_Your_willpower_tamimhome.html
If
you answer the multiple-choice questions below and e-mail to lessonanswers@mymontebello.com
with “Lesson answers” in the subject field, you will be credited toward
a “certificate of recognition in community affairs” to be awarded in
2007 by a local nonprofit organization.
1. How might the lack of willpower be explained?
(a) A condition, like
stress, depletes it.
(b) If parents fail to
show willpower, their children, too, will fail.
2. Can willpower be
increased?
(a) Yes, through
pharmaceuticals.
(b) Yes, through
carefully planned exercises.
November 15, 2007