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Ego depletion

Presented by Daniel Hoving

for Wageningen University

The foundation

Ego depletion:

"Ego depletion refers to the idea that self-control or willpower draws upon a limted pull of resources that can be used up"

When did the topic emerge?

Founders of ego depletion

Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Muraven, M., & Tice, D. M. (1998). Ego depletion: Is the active self a limited resource?. Journal of personality and social psychology, 74(5), 1252.

What was their research about?

They demonstrated some of the first evidence that ego depletion had effects in diverse contexts or situations.

They have showed in different experiments where people had to;

- resist temptations

- make meaningful personal choices

- supressing emotions

- tasks requiring high self-regulation

What did their research show?

These experiments showed that a person possesses a limited pool of mental resources, which can be drained during difficult cognitive tasks or constraining your emotion.

When the energy for mental activity is low, self-control is typically impaired, which would be considered as ego depletion.

Experiments of Baumeister et al. 1998

Experiment 1

Experiment 1

Participants resisting the temptation of chocolate vs. radishes ended up giving up their discipline of finishing a difficult task earlier due resistance of temptation..

Experiment 2

Experiment 2

To see if the same mental resources are depleted as in experiment 1, the researchers let participants prepare persuasive speeches in advance, some had to speech counterattitudinal to their own beleifs, wich resulted in a bigger depletion of mental resources and worse scoring on making important decisions.

`Less self-control leading to quicker development of frustration and giving up'

`Inner conflict´

Experiment 3

Experiment 3

In the third experiment, the researcher aksed the participants to watch an emotionally evocative videotape (positive or negative) and stifle any emotional reaction they might have to. The participants had to make an anagram to measure the task performance. The succes of the anagrams would partly require some degree of self-regulation.

As was predicted, the participants who had tried to control their emotional response to the videotape would suffer from ego depletion, and as a result would perform more poorly at anagrams because the depletion of mental resources.

Experiment 4

Experiment 4

Experiment 4 was designed to test the differences between active and passive response of ego-depleted peole and people that were not. They had to watch a boring movie where they were free to go at anytime. One group had to take a active action to continue the movie, the other group had to remain passive for continuing the movie.

As expected, the ego-depleted people in the 'passive group' would leave the movie earlier instead of the non ego-depleted people because the lack of mental resources. In the passive group, the ego-depleted people let movie play without interfering because of the ego-depletion. The passive attitude was reinforced. After the experiment, the ego-depleted people also feld more tiredness.

Further research about ego-depletion and the effects

Hagger, M. S., Wood, C., Stiff, C., & Chatzisarantis, N. L. D. (2010).

Hagger, M. S., Wood, C., Stiff, C., & Chatzisarantis, N. L. D. (2010).

Did a study where In this study, a meta-analysis of 83 studies tested the effect of ego depletion on task performance and related outcomes, alternative explanations and moderators of the effect of ego depletion on self-control task performance.

Significant effects sizes on ego depletion:

- amount of effort

- perceived difficulty

- negative affect

- subjective fatique

- blood glucose level

Effect size of ego depletion moderated by

- duration of depleting task

- task presentation of the experiment

- inter taks intermin periods

- task complexity

- the choice of volition and cognitive spheres in a certain task

Things that promoted better self-control

- Motivational incentives

- training on self-control tasks

- glucose supplementation

Conclusion

The findings in this research provide preliminary support for the ego-depletion effect and the strength model hypotheses. Support for motivation and fatigue as alternative explanations for ego depletion indicate a need to integrate the strength model with other theories

Conclusion

Arlen C. Moller, Edward L. Deci, Richard M. Ryan, (2006)

Arlen C. Moller, Edward L. Deci, Richard M. Ryan, (2006)

Choice and Ego-Depletion: The Moderating Role of Autonomy

Choice and Ego-Depletion: The Moderating Role of Autonomy

According to this paper, the model of ego depletion is too simple and that the effect of ego depletion doesn’t occur for every kind of activities.

According to the researchers, there is ego depletion for activities that have controlled motivation (extrinsic), but not for activities that have autonomous (intrinsic) motivation.

Job, Veronika,Walton, Gregory M.,Bernecker, Katharina,Dweck, Carol S. (2015)

Job, Veronika,Walton, Gregory M.,Bernecker, Katharina,Dwe...

"Implicit theories about willpower predict self-regulation and grades in everyday life"

Resulting in:

Availability of 'willpower'

Moreover, among students taking a heavy course lead, those with a nonlimited theory earned higher grades, which was mediated by less procrastination

Willpower in abundancy:

Availability of 'willpower'

Important discovery of this paper:

Willpower as seen by the participanting students as abundant (rather than highly limited) resource, caused better self regulation such as less:

Important is that these findings contradict the idea that a limited theory helps people allocate their resources more effectively; instead, it is people with the nonlimited theory who self-regulate well in the face of high demands

- less procrastination

- unhealthy eating

- impulsive spending

Dianne M. Tice, Roy F. Baumeister, Dikla Shmueli, Mark Muraven (2006)

Restoring the self: Positive affect helps improve self-regulation following ego depletion

Positive influencors

Four experiments using assorted manipulations and measures found that positive mood or emotion can counteract ego depletion.

After an initial act of self-regulation, participants who watched a comedy video or received a surprise gift self-regulated on various tasks as well as non-depleted participants and significantly better than participants who experienced a sad mood induction, a neutral mood stimulus, or a brief rest period.

A critical view

Are there any errors or limitations in the original paper of Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Muraven, M., & Tice, D. M. (1998)?

Publiciation Bias in the self-control model research

Carter, E. C., Kofler, L. M., Forster, D. E., & McCullough, M. E. (2015). Publication bias and the limited strength model of

self-control: has the evidence for ego depletion been overestimated published: 30 July 2014 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00823

Self-control does not seem to rely on a limited resource; A series of meta-analytic tests of the depletion effect

What did they do?

They evaluated the empirical evidence for this effect with a series of focused, meta-analytic tests that address the limitations in prior appraisals of the evidence.

We find very little evidence that the depletion effect is a real phenomenon, at least when assessed with the methods most frequently used in the laboratory.

Their results strongly challenge the idea that self-control functions as if it relies on a limited psychological or physical resource.

Statistical Improvements

They’ve also used more recently developed statistical techniques to assess the correct meta-analytic estimates for the influence of small-study effects, such as the publication bias (Duval & Tweedie, 2000; Ioannidis & Trikalinos, 2007; Stanley & Doucouliagos, 2014).

Statistical Improvements

Published + unpublished data

For this research they’ve used published as unpublished data, included both frequently used manipulation tasks and frequently used outcome tasks), because this approach follows the logic that researchers tend to select tasks that seem to be the most valid operationalizations of self-control and that provide the most interpretable results

A very interesting youtube video

This Youtube video gives an explanation why this ego-depletion effect is a very complex research, even if the concept sounds very clear. There is also explained that the research with the Meta-analyses by Hagger, M. S., Wood, C., Stiff, C., & Chatzisarantis, N. L. D. (2010). already named in this presentation, may be biased by the publication bias

As previously said in this presentation; your beleifs about willpower

critcial researches with later meta-anlysis

1. Job, V., Walton, G. M., Bernecker, K., & Dweck, C. S. (2015). Implicit theories about willpower predict self-regulation and grades in everyday life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(4), 637-647.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000014

critcial researches with later meta-anlysis

2. Carter, Evan & Kofler, Lilly & Forster, Daniel & Mccullough, Michael. (2015). A Series of Meta-Analytic Tests of the Depletion Effect: Self-Control Does Not Seem to Rely on a Limited Resource. Journal of experimental psychology. General. 144. 10.1037/xge0000083

4. Carter, E. C., Kofler, L. M., Forster, D. E., & McCullough, M. E. (2015). Publication bias and the limited strength model of

self-control: has the evidence for ego depletion been overestimated published: 30 July 2014 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00823

3. Tuk, M.A., Zhang K, and Sweldens S. The propagation of self-control: Self-control in one domain simultaneously improves self-control in other domains. Journal of experimental Psychology. General. Jun;144(3):639-54. doi: 10.1037/xge0000065

End discussion

In my honest opinion, I think there actually is a form of ego-depletion in certain contexts that can be created by the experimentors.

In the following subtopics I will explain why these findings could be important:

End discussion

Institutions

Governments, companies, schools and other institutions could really have an impact on creating a certain kind of setting where students may feel that they are confronted with a lot of constraints, burdens or other activities that consume will-power, which results that people could actually feel a level of exhaustion and give up earlier with bad results as result.

Institutions

With creating a favourable kind of setting or making people consciouss of having a lot of willpower pays off, people will be way more motivated with better results as result

Self fulfilling prophecy

As is showed in the previous studies that are cited; beleiving that you have unlimited will power or even being consciouss about your willpower, will result in better grades because you are more aware about situation and you mental tiredness.

Self fulfilling prophecy

People that are told or beleive that your willpower definitely is a ending source of energy, will have more self-pity and result in having more studybreaks and accepting your bad results as the way it is

Conclusion

Overall I think the initial research of ego-depletion in 1998 is a very interestic finding and that there certainly is a way to "deplete someones ego".

Conclusion

But..

It's not as simple as the clear example given in the Youtube video:

Therefore..

I think that we all can accept the fact that we are not constantly realizing this and that there actually could be talked about ego-depletion and people could fall in this trap if you're not consciously aware of the situation..

Therefore..

I think that there is no clear "ego-level" which can be completely depleted by an accumulation of: resisting temptations, doing things against your own beleifs, stifle your emotional reactions or doing difficult task before a certain cognitive demanding experiment.

What is more important is that the mindset of a person is even more important and which could totally rule out the called "ego-depletion effect" by the fact you're conscious of it and your beleives about it.

Examples..

Giving up to early for an exam..

Giving in to the temptations..

Unintended emotional reactions..

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