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Going beyond the individual level in self-control research

Nature Reviews Psychology volume 3, pages 56–66 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Self-control research has primarily focused on self-control as an individual struggle, viewing it as either an intrapersonal mechanism, personality trait, temperament, or cognitive ability. However, this individual focus is challenged by the growing recognition of person–environment transactions, in which individuals engage in the selection and shaping of stimulus and social environments, and in which stimulus and social environments shape individual self-control success. In this Perspective, I argue that self-control’s intricate connection to environmental factors calls for a more holistic multilevel approach. This approach considers not only how individuals may actively shape some of their microenvironments, but also how their microenvironments are themselves shaped by other agents at the micro, meso and macro (system) level of analysis, influencing the availability, salience, proximity, affordability and normativeness of choice options. Using obesity and unsustainable consumption as primary examples, I show how a multilevel approach to self-control can help to identify structural barriers to behaviour change and corresponding levers for public policy-making. Furthermore, a multilevel approach raises unexplored issues of agency, power and the awareness of behaviour being shaped, and elucidates the potentially important role of public policy support and collective action on changing systems that capitalize on self-control ‘failures’.

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Fig. 1: The effect of high versus low trait self-control on choice environments.
Fig. 2: The effect of strong versus weak regulation on choice options.

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    Wilhelm Hofmann

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Hofmann, W. Going beyond the individual level in self-control research. Nat Rev Psychol 3, 56–66 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-023-00256-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-023-00256-y

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