ABSTRACT
The notion of self-control has absorbed social scientists in the 20th Century, much as considerations of determinism and free will were debated in earlier periods. The demonstration of behavior labeled as self-control usually requires a situation where a highly valued substance or event is reasonably available and the individual fails to consume it. This chapter considers role of environmental and internal cues in the operation of self-control processes. It presents an examples of controlled use of addictive substances — heroin and cocaine — that are based on antecedent conditions for self-control that lie in the social environment, i.e., cues emerging from informal social controls, which come to promote internalization of cultural mores and support self-generated standards of behavior. The chapter examines how self-regulation can serve to bring about and maintain controlled use of those substances that are often considered harmful because they are illegal, injurious to physical and/or psychological health, or because they interfere with the individual’s normal daily functioning.
