ABSTRACT

In the World Library of Psychologists series, international experts present career-long collections of what they judge to be their finest pieces—extracts from books, key articles, salient research findings, and their major practical theoretical contributions.

In this volume, Roy F. Baumeister reflects on his distinguished career as an eminent scholar in the field of self-control and self-regulation, as well as belonging, rejection, free will, and consciousness. Offering a unique perspective on both the program of research in ego-depletion as one of social psychology’s most widely successful theories, and its position in the changing landscape of the scientific field, the book charts Baumeister’s development as one of the pioneers of study into self-control.

Featuring a newly written introductory piece in which the author offers a unique insight into the initial findings that led to an eventual theory of ego-depletion, this collection will give readers a vital understanding of how the hugely influential theory of ego depletion first came to be developed, and is essential reading for students and researchers in self-control and self-regulation.

chapter 1|29 pages

Ego depletion

Is the active self a limited resource?

chapter 2|33 pages

Making choices impairs subsequent self-control

A limited-resource account of decision making, self-regulation, and active initiative

chapter 3|51 pages

Strength model of self-regulation as limited resource

Assessment, controversies, update

chapter 4|44 pages

The physiology of willpower

Linking blood glucose to self-control

chapter 6|43 pages

Taking stock of self-control

A meta-analysis of how trait self-control relates to a wide range of behaviors

chapter 9|11 pages

Longitudinal study of procrastination, performance, stress, and health

The costs and benefits of dawdling

chapter 10|30 pages

Intellectual performance and ego depletion

Role of the self in logical reasoning and other information processing

chapter 11|39 pages

How leaders self-regulate their task performance

Evidence that power promotes diligence, depletion, and disdain