Self-control failure scenarios in daily life: Developing a taxonomy of goals and temptations

Veilleux, Jennifer C.; Hill, Morgan A.; Skinner, Kayla D.; Pollert, Garrett A.; Spero, Kaitlyn D.; Baker, Danielle E.

doi:10.1007/s11031-018-9695-1

Original Paper
Published: 26 April 2018

Self-control failure scenarios in daily life: Developing a taxonomy of goals and temptations

Jennifer C. Veilleux¹,
Morgan A. Hill¹,
Kayla D. Skinner¹,
Garrett A. Pollert¹,
Kaitlyn D. Spero¹ &
Danielle E. Baker¹

Motivation and Emotion volume 42, pages 653–670 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Our aim was to develop a taxonomy of commonly experienced goals and temptations. We expected to find evidence of interpersonal self-control challenges and avoidance temptations (e.g., avoid a difficult conversation), as these are anecdotally frequent but under represented in the psychological literature. In Study 1, we used qualitative coding to develop a taxonomy, after asking people to describe a goal and a competing temptation in four recent personal situations involving self-control failure. From these narrative descriptions, we identified categories of goals and temptations and then coded each scenario. We then verified the frequency of these goal and temptation categories (Study 2). Findings revealed many instances of interpersonal self-control challenges and some evidence of avoidance temptations, as well as the common phenomenon of being tempted to “not do the goal.” We discuss the variability in how people describe their goals in terms of approach and avoidance framing with the intention of outlining avenues for future research on commonly experienced self-control scenarios.

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Notes

In the service of fulling describing self-control challenge situations, we retained all scenarios in subsequent analyses, including those depicting successes (even though those were counter to the instructions). Conclusions do not change in any substantive way by excluding “success” scenarios.

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Funding

Funding was provided by John Templeton Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

Department of Psychological Science, University of Arkansas, 216 Memorial Hall, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA
Jennifer C. Veilleux, Morgan A. Hill, Kayla D. Skinner, Garrett A. Pollert, Kaitlyn D. Spero & Danielle E. Baker

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Jennifer C. Veilleux
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Morgan A. Hill
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Kayla D. Skinner
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Garrett A. Pollert
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Kaitlyn D. Spero
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Danielle E. Baker
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Correspondence to Jennifer C. Veilleux.

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Veilleux, J.C., Hill, M.A., Skinner, K.D. et al. Self-control failure scenarios in daily life: Developing a taxonomy of goals and temptations. Motiv Emot 42, 653–670 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-018-9695-1

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Published: 26 April 2018
Issue Date: October 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-018-9695-1

Keywords

Self-control
Goal
Temptation
Approach
Avoidance