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Showing papers by "Roy F. Baumeister published in 1999"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Compared with a no-exercise control group, the participants who performed the self-control exercises showed significant improvement in self-regulatory capacity as measured by quitting faster on a hand-grip exercise task following a thought-suppression exercise.
Abstract: This study examined the results of repeated exercises of self-control in relation to self-regulatory strength over time. A sample of 69 U.S. college students spent 2 weeks doing 1 of 3 self-control exercises: monitoring and improving posture, regulating mood, or monitoring and recording eating. Compared with a no-exercise control group, the participants who performed the self-control exercises showed significant improvement in self-regulatory capacity as measured by quitting faster on a hand-grip exercise task following a thought-suppression exercise.

711 citations


Book
01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: In this paper, Baumeister et al. discuss the nature and structure of the self and its relationship with self-awareness, self-reflection, and self-knowledge.
Abstract: R. Baumeister, The Nature and Structure of the Self: An Overview. Part I: Self-Knowledge. J. Shrauger & T. Schoeneman, Symbolic Interactionist View of Self-Concept: Through the Looking Glass Darkly. S. Taylor & J. Brown, Illusion and Well-Being: A Social Psychological Perspective on Mental Health. Part II: Self-Conceptions. W. James, The Self. H. Turner, The Real Self: From Institution to Impulse. Part III: Motivational Roots. M. Leary, E. Tambor, S. Terdal, & D. Downs, Self-Esteem as an Interpersonal Monitor: The Sociometer Hypothesis. J. Greenberg, S. Solomon, T. Pyszczynski, A. Rosenblatt, J. Burling, D. Lyon, L. Simon, & E. Pinel, Why Do People Need Self-Esteem? Converging Evidence that Self-Esteem Serves an Anxiety-Buffering Function. Part IV: Self and Information Processing. H. Markus, Self-Schemata and Processing Information about the Self. T. Rogers, N. Kuiper, & W. Kirker, Self-Reference and the Encoding of Personal Information. E. T. Higgins, Self-Discrepancy: A Theory Relating Self and Affect. Part V: Self-Presentation. M. Leary, L. Tchividjian, & B. Kraxberger, Self-Presentation Can Be Hazardous to Your Health: Impression Management and Health Risk. D. Tice, Self-Concept Change and Self-Presentation: The Looking Glass Self is also a Magnifying Glass. Part VI: Self-Esteem. J. Campbell, Self-Esteem and Clarity of the Self-Concept. R. Baumeister, L. Smart, & J. Boden, Relation of Threatened Egotism to Violence and Aggression: The Dark Side of High Self-Esteem. Part VII: Self-Regulation. A. Bandura, Self-Efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavior Change. C. Carver & M. Scheier, Control Theory: A Useful Conceptual Framework for Personality-Social, Clinical and Health Psychology. R. Baumeister, E. Bratslavsky, M. Muraven, & D. Tice, Ego Depletion: Is the Active Self a Limited Resource? Part VIII: Self and Culture. H. Markus & S. Kitayama, Culture and the Self: Implications for Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation. Part IX: Motivation and Self-Knowledge. C. Steele, The Psychology of Self-Affirmation: Sustaining the Integrity of the Self. W. Swann, J. Griffin, S. Predmore, & B. Gaines, The Cognitive-Affective Crossfire: When Self-Consistency Confronts Self-Enhancement. C. Sedikides, Assessment, Enhancement, and Verification Determinants of the Self-Evaluation Process. Part X: Strategies. E. Jones, & S. Berglas, Control of the Attributions about the Self Through Self-Handicapping Strategies: The Appeal of Alcohol and the Role of Underachievement. R. Cialdini, R. Borden, A. Thorne, M. Walker, S. Freeman, and L. Sloan, Basking in Reflected Glory: Three (Football) Field Studies. A. Tesser, Toward a Self-Evaluation Maintenance Model of Social Behavior. Appendix: How to Read a Journal Article in Social Psychology.

500 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work analyzes vice, sin, and virtue from the perspective of self-control theory and suggests the analogy of a moral muscle as an appropriate way to conceptualize virtue in personality.
Abstract: Morality is a set of rules that enable people to live together in harmony, and virtue involves internalizing those rules. Insofar as virtue depends on overcoming selfish or antisocial impulses for the sake of what is best for the group or collective, self-control can be said to be the master virtue. We analyze vice, sin, and virtue from the perspective of self-control theory. Recent research findings indicate that self-control involves expenditure of some limited resource and suggest the analogy of a moral muscle as an appropriate way to conceptualize virtue in personality. Guilt fosters virtuous self-control by elevating interpersonal obligations over personal, selfish interests. Several features of modern Western society make virtue and self-control especially difficult to achieve.

357 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is proposed that passion is a function of change in intimacy (i.e., the first derivative of intimacy overtime), which is able to account for a broad range of evidence, including frequency of sex in long-term relationships, intimate and sexual behavior of extraverts, gender differences in intimate behavior, gain and loss effects of communicated attraction.
Abstract: To build on existing theories about love, we propose that passion is a function of change in intimacy (i.e., the first derivative of intimacy overtime). Hence, passion will be low when intimacy is stable (either high or low), but rising intimacy will create a strong sense of passion. This view is able to account for a broad range of evidence, including frequency of sex in long-term relationships, intimate and sexual behavior of extraverts, gender differences in intimate behavior, gain and loss effects of communicated attraction, the biologically atypical human preference for face-to-face coitus, and patterns of distress in romantic breakups. Although this view may provide a good fit to available evidence, the totality of evidence is not yet adequate for a definitive conclusion, and suggestions for further research are offered.

246 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Contrary to the catharsis hypothesis and to the self-fulfilling prophecy prediction, people who read the procatharsis message and then hit the punching bag were subsequently more aggressive than were people who reading the anticatharsi message.
Abstract: Does media endorsement for catharsis produce a self-fulfilling or a self-defeating prophecy? In Study 1, participants who read a procatharsis message (claiming that aggressive action is a good way to relax and reduce anger) subsequently expressed a greater desire to hit a punching bag than did participants who read an anticatharsis message. In Study 2, participants read the same messages and then actually did hit a punching bag. This exercise was followed by an opportunity to engage in laboratory aggression. Contrary to the catharsis hypothesis and to the self-fulfilling prophecy prediction, people who read the procatharsis message and then hit the punching bag were subsequently more aggressive than were people who read the anticatharsis message.

243 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Three main sources of intrinsic appeal and satisfaction from performing violent acts are described, and an opponent-process model is suggested.
Abstract: Three main sources of intrinsic appeal and satisfaction from performing violent acts are described. First, sadism involves deriving pleasure directly from the suffering of the victim. An opponent-process model is suggested. Second, the quest for thrilling sensations to escape from boredom can produce violent acts, including many in which the harmful consequences were not intended. Third, threatened egotism entails that one's favorable view of self (orpub1ic image) has been attacked, and violent responses are directed toward the source of this attack. Relevant individual differences (respectively, low guilt, high sensation seeking, and narcissism) moderate these patterns. Analyzing the intrinsic appeal of evil acts is a useful complement to analyzing situational determinants of violence.

160 citations



Journal Article
TL;DR: In this paper, both simple self-esteem and narcissism were measured, and then individual participants were given an opportunity to aggress against someone who had insulted them or praised them or against an innocent third person.
Abstract: It has been widely asserted that low self-esteem causes violence, but laboratory evidence is lacking, and some contrary observations have characterized aggressors as having favorable self-opinions. In 2 studies, both simple self-esteem and narcissism were measured, and then individual participants were given an opportunity to aggress against someone who had insulted them or praised them or against an innocent third person. Self-esteem proved irrelevant to aggression. The combination of narcissism and insult led to exceptionally high levels of aggression toward the source of the insult. Neither form of self-regard affected displaced aggression, which was low in general. These findings contradict the popular view that low self-esteem causes aggression and point instead toward threatened egotism as an important cause.

72 citations





Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors compared narratives of personal transgressions (about hurting someone) against a set of narratives about making someone happy, and found that transgression narratives were more likely to describe actions occurring without deliberate guidance or intention.
Abstract: To investigate how defensive motivations would affect patterns of language use, the authors compared narratives of personal transgressions (about hurting someone) against a set of narratives about making someone happy. Compared to the happy stories, transgression narratives were more likely to describe actions occurring without deliberate guidance or intention. Length in word count did not vary, but transgression narratives had shorter sentences, especially in the sections describing the transgression and its consequences. They had longer introductions, presumably to explain background and mitigating circumstances. Transgression narratives featured the emotions and thoughts of the narrator significantly more than did narratives of making someone happy (which focused heavily on the target’s feelings), and they used more adverbs and similar words to emphasize the narrator’s emotions. Transgression narratives had fewer specific details but more (ostensibly) exact quotations.