ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a three-phase model–loosely based on stage models– to map the role of self-control in smoking cessation. It explores principles of self-control strategies that are often spontaneously used by smokers and ex-smokers, including the strategies for smoking self-control, decision self-control, and abstinence self-control. The chapter presents, for each of the three phases with their unique goals, rough outlines for self-control interventions that target people’s self-control actions. Smokers apply a broad range of self-control strategies to downplay information on the negative physical effects of smoking. These strategies refer to different emotion-regulation processes that are meant to “defend” the goal of smoking. To keep on “smoking peacefully” smokers also have to deal with negative social effects of smoking. When smoking self-control of smokers starts to fail, the threat posed by the knowledge of the negative physical and social outcomes may pass a threshold that motivates people to set a new goal to cope with the conflict.
