ABSTRACT
The study of self-regulation has blossomed in recent decades. At the same time, people (laypersons and academics alike) seem worse at effectively controlling themselves and one could easily make the argument that people are worse at self-regulating than ever before. Consider a father throwing punches at a hockey referee after a loss; the fact that medicinal noncompliance presents a major impediment to treatment of schizophrenia, adult attentional deficient and hyperactivity disorder, depression, and bipolar disorder; escalating rates of sexually transmitted diseases among people in their twenties; rampant and unnecessary looting in times of national crisis; and lastly consider that by the time an American reaches 65 years of age, she will have watched nine years of television (at a rate of 4 hours of television watching a day). These situations of course differ in a variety of ways, but they have in common a breakdown in self-control. The destructive and disastrous consequences of a loss of self-control seem all-too-common of late.
