ABSTRACT
Recently the notion of “willpower” was the focus of a New York Times health blog by Tara Parker-Pope (posted December 6, 2007). Parker-Pope described research by Baumeister, Tice, Vohs, and colleagues that suggests that willpower is an internal resource that can be strengthened with practice, depleted, and restored (see Baumeister, Vohs, & Tice, 2007, for a review; see also, this volume, Baumeister & Alquist, Chapter 2; Tice, Chapter 12; Vohs, Lasaleta, & Fennis, Chapter 17). The discussion in response to the initial post became in essence a discussion by mostly nonpsychologists on the nature of motivation—in particular, what motivates us and whether we can control it. The discussion echoed much of the discussion that takes place in the research literature. For example, some posters attempted to identify the features that make striving successful, such as the presence of clear goals. Others argued about the line between healthy self-control and psychiatric disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorders or eating disorders. Several brought up the possibility of cultural differences (e.g., suggesting that Asian cultures have more willpower than materialistic Western cultures), and some speculated about whether there are inborn individual differences or whether willpower is something that is learned and can change. Amid arguments about the previous points, one poster noted:
Here is Mick’s law: the need for will power is in inverse proportion to the strength of motivation. … To me, will power is the ability to make yourself do something even when you don’t feel like it or, conversely, to refrain from doing something even when you really, really want to …. People of great achievement often seem to be exemplars of will power. Someone like Steven King, say, who turns out another fat book or two each year. Or Joyce Carol Oates, who has been averaging three books a year (poems, essays, novels, short stories) for going on three decades. Surely it must take tremendous will power to sit down at a desk each day and write their ideas out, and edit them and polish them.
[BUT] … whatever you may think of their writing, I’m pretty sure Joyce Carol Oates and Steven King don’t produce their many books by gritting their teeth. Rather, I suspect they really enjoy their work and look forward to thinking up stories, setting them out in new and creative ways, and sharing them. In other words, they are highly motivated, just as an Olympic athlete is highly motivated … So maybe my wishing for will power is beside the point. Maybe what I really need is to focus more on enhancing motivation. (posted December 7, 2007)
