Applied Psychology at Dinner Time

I spent all afternoon making myself do reading in the self-regulation literature, so of course, when I stopped a bit ago to have dinner, I let myself eat half a pan of chocolate brownies.

OK, actually, I would have eaten brownies but I do not have any. I ate a normal dinner instead. Eating the normal dinner did not cost me anything in terms of self-regulation, so it's back to the articles as soon as I finish this post.

There is an important but oft-forgotten aspect of self-regulation: yes, it's a limited resource, and exerting self-discipline / willpower for one thing can wimp you out for the next thing you do or decision that you make, but the muscle / strength metaphor extends as well to the possibility of developing a larger capacity over time. So if a person finds herself too frequently running out of willpower, it's probably time to start building it up. One interesting finding briefly mentioned in a paper I'm reading now is that people who regularly practiced yoga (which they call a kind of "mental control practice") were less affected or "depleted" following a self-regulation task than other participants were. Now whether this means that people who have a high level of self-regulation are more likely to be attracted to yoga or that practicing yoga helps build self-control or something else entirely, this study can't say. But it's an interesting correlation.