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.