Showing papers by "Roy F. Baumeister published in 2005"

Social exclusion impairs self-regulation.

Abstract: Six experiments showed that being excluded or rejected caused decrements in self-regulation. In Experiment 1, participants who were led to anticipate a lonely future life were less able to make themselves consume a healthy but bad-tasting beverage. In Experiment 2, some participants were told that no one else in their group wanted to work with them, and these participants later ate more cookies than other participants. In Experiment 3, excluded participants quit sooner on a frustrating task. In Experiments 4-6, exclusion led to impairment of attention regulation as measured with a dichotic listening task. Experiments 5 and 6 further showed that decrements in self-regulation can be eliminated by offering a cash incentive or increasing self-awareness. Thus, rejected people are capable of self-regulation but are normally disinclined to make the effort.

Self-regulation and self-presentation: regulatory resource depletion impairs impression management and effortful self-presentation depletes regulatory resources.

Abstract: Self-presentation may require self-regulation, especially when familiar or dispositional tendencies must be overridden in service of the desired impression. Studies 1-4 showed that self-presentation under challenging conditions or according to counter-normative patterns (presenting oneself modestly to strangers, boastfully to friends, contrary to gender norms, to a skeptical audience, or while being a racial token) led to impaired self-regulation later, suggesting that those self-presentations depleted self-regulatory resources. When self-presentation conformed to familiar, normative, or dispositional patterns, self-regulation was less implicated. Studies 5-8 showed that when resources for self-regulation had been depleted by prior acts of self-control, self-presentation drifted toward less-effective patterns (talking too much, overly or insufficiently intimate disclosures, or egotistical arrogance). Thus, inner processes may serve interpersonal functions, although optimal interpersonal activity exacts a short-term cost.

The Cultural Animal

Abstract: What makes us human? Why do people think, feel, and act as they do? What is the essence of human nature? What is the basic relationship between the individual and society? These questions have fascinated people for centuries. Now, at last, there is a solid basis for answering them, in the form of the accumulated efforts and studies by thousands of psychology researchers. We no longer have to rely on navel-gazing and speculation to understand why people are the way they are; we can instead turn to solid, objective findings. This book not only summarizes what we know about people; it also offers a coherent, easy-to-understand though radical, explanation. Turning conventional wisdom on its head, the author argues that culture shaped human evolution. Contrary to theories that depict the individual's relation to society as one of victimization, endless malleability, or just a square peg in a round hole, he proposes that the individual human being is designed by nature to be part of society. Moreover, he argues that we need to briefly set aside the endless study of cultural differences to look at what most cultures have in common; because that holds the key to human nature. Culture is in our genes, although cultural differences may not be. This core theme is further developed by a tour through the main dimensions of human psychology. What do people want? How do people think? How do emotions operate? How do people behave? And how do they interact with each other? The answers are often surprising, and along the way, the author explains how human desire, thought, feeling, and action are connected.

Parenting behaviour and adolescent behavioural and emotional problems: The role of self-control:

Abstract: Cross-sectional data from 1359 boys and girls aged 10–14 years investigated whether parenting behaviours are directly or indirectly (through building self-control) associated with emotional (depression, stress, low self-esteem) and behavioural (delinquency, aggression) problems among adolescents. Replicating existing findings, both types of problems were directly, negatively related to adaptive parenting behaviour (high parental acceptance, strict control and monitoring, and little use of manipulative psychological control). Extending existing findings, self-control partially mediated the link between parenting behaviour and adolescent emotional and behavioural problems. Contrary to earlier suggestions, there was no sign that high self-control was associated with drawbacks or increased risk of psychosocial problems.

Exploding the self-esteem myth.

Abstract: Boosting people's sense of self-worth has become a national preoccupation. Yet surprisingly, researchshows that such efforts are of little value in fostering academic progress or preventing undesirable behavior

Audience support and choking under pressure: A home disadvantage?

Abstract: This paper highlights the not-so-obvious but compelling reasons why the same supportive audiences that can help performers attain their highest potential also may increase performers' risk of choking under pressure. Drawing primarily from social psychology research and theory, we conclude that audience support magnifies performance pressure and induces performers to avoid failure rather than seek success during the most critical moments of performance contests. Although supportive audiences can inspire performers to excel when motivation would otherwise be lacking, audiences may also lead performers towards maladaptive self-monitoring and overcautiousness when the stakes are highest. The increased self-focus that supportive audiences induce can disrupt the automatic execution of the skills performers possess. Dispositional and situational moderators of the relationship between audience support and performance are reviewed.

Exploding the self-esteem myth

Abstract: Boosting people's sense of self-worth has become a national preoccupation. Yet surprisingly, research shows that such efforts do little to improve academic performance or prevent troublesome behavior

Positive Psychology at the Summit

Abstract: Psychology has traditionally placed more emphasis on the negative than positive aspects of human behavior The positive psychology movement, since its beginnings in 1999, has made major advances toward correcting this imbalance Research inspired by the movement now spans an impressive range of topics, including many that are absolutely essential to a comprehensive psychological understanding of human nature The present special issue provides a sampling of some of the best work in the area All but the first and last articles come from presentations at the Second International Positive Psychology Summit, held in 2003 in Washington, DC This sample can be supplemented by the chapters that have appeared in several recent anthologies of contemporary research