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Self control is one of the most vital personality traits to teach students in order to ensure their academic success. According to research “Individual differences in self-control reliably predict academic attainment, course grades, and performance on standardized achievement tests.” (Duckworth et al.)
Though self control is not the only trait required for academic success, being able to control one’s behavior and do things that are not fun in the short term such as studying or coming to class is required for not only school success, but professional success as well. Not only does self control lead to things like better grades and performance on standardized tests, but it allows people to have the ability to better themselves, learn new skills, and take on difficult challenges later on in life.
People who want a healthy body must avoid unhealthy foods, exercise regularly, and be consistent in their efforts. People who want to learn to play an instrument or sport must practice regularly, doing repetitive drills that may not always be a thrill. Life is full of choices where the quick and easy option will often lead to long term consequences, but the harder, less fun option can have benefits that last a lifetime.
While the majority of people think of self control as a single action or ability of a person to resist a temptation, there are actually multiple types of self control. While one can demonstrate self control in a moment of temptation, there is actually a second type of self control that is less often considered. A short example should help clarify.
A Story of Non-Traditional Self Control
Odysseus was an ancient Greek character in the famous story of the Odyssey. He goes on an adventure along with the crew of his ship but along the way there are various dangers they must pass.
At one point, the ship must pass by a dangerous area known for having dangerous Sirens, which are creatures that lure men to their death with beautiful songs that enchant the listener. Odysseus is not overconfident and knows he will not have the self control to resist the Siren’s song. Instead he plans ahead, telling his whole crew to plug their ears with wax.
Rather than doing the same and plugging his own ears with wax, Odysseus wants to do something no one else has ever succeeded in doing: hear the Siren’s song and live to tell the tale. In order to be able to do this, he tells his crew to tie him to the ship and not let him loose no matter how he begs or commands.
As the ship passed the Sirens, Odysseus heard their song and he desperately tried to free himself to go to them. However, because he had planned ahead, despite his lack of self control in the moment, he was able to succeed in his challenge of hearing the Siren’s song.
Rather than relying on his ability to control himself in the moment, he found a way to control himself using earlier energy and willpower so that his success was guaranteed later despite his lack of traditional self control. This story is a fantastic example of how self control is not something that must be done in the moment, but also can come from a person controlling their environment to set themselves up for success.
Research on Self Control
Research just released earlier this month sought to gain a deeper understanding of the nuances of self control and understand its relationship to the concept of willpower. Merriam-Webster defines willpower as “the ability to control one’s own actions, emotions, or urges”. (“Self Control”)
Willpower generally refers to a person’s ability to resist temptations in the moment through the use of frontal lobe executive functioning to overpower more primal urges in favor of long term benefits. The researchers found however that there are two types of self control, Synchronic Regulation and Diachronic Regulation.
What is Synchronic Regulation?
Synchronic regulation refers to more traditionally understood self control that is required in the moment of temptation. Using synchronic regulation, the individual must resist a temptation at the time of behavioral choice.
An example of synchronic regulation would be the well known Stanford Marshmallow Experiment originally conducted in 1972. The head researcher named Zeiss was already well-known for experiments testing children’s ability to use self control to delay their gratification.
In this often repeated experiment, children were presented with a marshmallow and told that if they could refrain from eating the single marshmallow while the adults were gone from the room, they could receive a second marshmallow. The researchers found that children who had strategies to distract themselves were more successful than those that had to rely simply on their willpower. Some children would sing to themselves, play games, or even try to go to sleep in order to not focus on the marshmallow in front of them so that they could not disappoint the researcher and get a better reward for waiting patiently as asked.
These children had to employ strategies in the moment in order to not give in to temptation, hence they were synchronously being tempted and having to deal with that temptation. This is a very difficult task for children and even many adults have trouble not giving into temptation when they see a delicious treat in the checkout lane at the grocery store.
Synchronic regulation does not just refer to the ability to not do an undesirable behavior, but also to do a difficult task that brings rewards later. An example of this is when a person must use their willpower to drive to the gym despite being tired from work or school.
Synchronic regulation is about making decisions in the moment of temptation. Synchronic regulation is very difficult for humans, especially when the person has developed poor habits or has addiction issues. People suffering from drug addictions may find it cognitively impossible to resist the temptation when presented with the choice to use or not. Alcoholics offered a drink or smokers given a cigarette from a friend will have a very hard time not giving into this temptation due to how drugs work on the reward centers of the brain.
This makes synchronic regulation an often unreliable way to make behavioral changes. Luckily, the researchers described a second type of self regulation that still requires willpower, but often results in more reliable behavioral change.
What is Diachronic Regulation?
Diachronic regulation refers to a person’s ability to change their environment to make it less likely for them to give in to a later temptation. In this type of self control, the person knows that they have trouble with certain behaviors and realizes that if they wait until they are presented with the temptation, they may not be able to resist giving in.
If a person is trying to eat healthier, rather than waiting until they are hungry and going to the fridge and seeing many tempting treats, they can hide sweet treats behind other foods so that they are not immediately visible or even just not purchase them at all. This type of self control allows the person to use their willpower whenever it is at its highest to make changes that will prevent slip-ups even when willpower is low.
Willpower is not a stable personality trait, but instead fluctuates depending on what a person has eaten, how much sleep they have gotten, and their emotional state. When someone is sad, angry, or tired, they are less likely to be able to overpower their urges and are more likely to give in to temptation.
Both synchronic and diachronic regulation require willpower, however. Synchronic regulation requires a high amount of willpower in the moment to overcome urges, while diachronic regulation requires willpower at two separate times. Diachronic regulation requires willpower to actually create strategies and change the environment, but also requires willpower to not simply ignore the changes made.
If someone wants to reduce the amount of time they spend on social media, they need the willpower to download a productivity app that blocks the user from accessing their social media apps during certain periods of time or gives them a time limit. However, they also need the willpower to not simply go in and turn off the app when they feel the temptation to check and are blocked.
How to Improve Students’ Self Control
Help students be mindful of their triggers
Everyone has certain times that their willpower is higher and times when their willpower drops. Willpower often drops when the person experiences a certain trigger.
For example, in the example of the person addicted to alcohol from above, they may experience a trigger to drink when they pass by a certain bar or even spend time with certain people they used to get drunk with. Teachers need to help students figure out what things may trigger their students to make bad choices and help them come up with diachronic strategies to avoid even being tempted in the first place.
For example, if a student is trying to stop talking in class, but they know a certain classmate will be too great a temptation to talk to, they can suggest simply moving seats. Seating them next to someone they are not tempted to talk to requires less willpower than if they remain seated next to their tempting friend.
While teachers may be tempted to tell students to simply be good and not give in, this ignores basic human psychology and increases the chances that their students will fail. The more times the student fails and reinforces that bad habit, the harder it will be to break. On top of that, the shame of failing may eventually cause them to give up feeling that it is just who they are rather than something that they can overcome with sufficient willpower and planning.
Do not shame students for failure, but do keep the consequences
Students who are shamed and told they are weak will begin to believe what they are told and this will lower their future willpower. If students believe that they are weak, stupid, or failures, they are far more likely to give in to temptation as they will feel that it is inevitable and just who they are as a person. Teachers who instead focus on positive traits, even in times of failure, will reinforce in the minds of students that they can do better, and that the momentary failure is just a blip.
However, this does not mean that teachers should simply sugar coat everything and never give out consequences. When the student is working to stop talking to their friend in class and they are caught doing so, giving a consequence actually will increase their future willpower as they want to avoid the consequence.
If the student is shamed by being told they’re helpless, weak, or wasting the teacher’s time, the student will begin to believe that it is pointless to fight against who they are. Instead, the teacher should focus on saying that they expect more from the student as the teacher knows that they are fully capable of behaving well and being successful.
This approach focuses on the child’s positive qualities and encourages them without being overly permissive. Students who are told things like “I’m not surprised” when they fail to study for a test will be less likely to study for the next test than students who are told things like “I know you can do better, you’re so smart, I just wish you wouldn’t waste so much of your own time!”
Students must decide their own diachronic regulation strategies.
If teachers come up with diachronic strategies for their students to avoid poor behaviors, this is less likely to be successful as students may often simply circumvent the diachronic strategies that were put into place. If there is no willpower coming from the student, there is almost no chance whatsoever that the behavior will change.
Teachers can try to balance the scales by adding consequences and rewards, but this will only build up these behaviors while the rewards and consequences are in place. This does not lead to lasting behavioral changes.
Instead, teachers should have the students themselves not simply agree to, but come up with their own strategies. This teaches students how to plan and execute their own behavioral changes in ways that will last a lifetime.
Instead of being reliant on teachers, bosses, or the government to keep them in check, they can keep themselves in check by making their own plans that can help them become better people even when there is no external pressure.
Add quick and clear rewards to tip the balance in the willpower scale.
While external pressure and rewards will not be as long lasting, for some students, especially young students or students with deeply embedded bad habits, teachers can help students realize that behavioral change is possible by adding small rewards. Though this should only be a short term practice, it can be the spark that helps despondent and negative students realize that they can do more.
Every decision is weighed in the brain by considering consequences and rewards of doing an action. Just as rewards can be helpful in encouraging someone to follow through on to-do list tasks, giving students rewards to shoot for if they follow through with their willpower challenges will help keep their motivation higher. Rewards can often be just as motivating as consequences when trying to change behaviors.
Rewards are most beneficial, especially for young students, when they are very concrete and received shortly after completing the willpower challenge. Giving students extra break time, giving them a sweet treat, or allowing them to switch to an activity they prefer will encourage them to power through their challenges and not give in to temptation.
Abstract and distant rewards are less salient in the brain. Trying to tell a student that they need to work hard in school so that they can get a good job is far too abstract and distant for their minds to really grasp and will not do much to balance the scales in their brain when making a decision.
Even many adults struggle with long term benefits. It is a struggle to make it to the gym every morning. It is difficult to not eat those tempting snacks, especially when emotional. When benefits can be years away, the human mind may simply feel that the benefits simply are not worth it. People who “live in the moment” will often fall prey to this type of thinking. While living in the moment is good for not being lost in worry or regret, planning for the future and having goals is vital for people who want more out of life and desire to improve themselves.
Make students realize they have control of their actions and lives
One of the biggest demotivators for a person is when they feel like they have no control over their lives. People who feel that their actions do not result in any meaningful change are much less likely to summon the willpower to try again the next time.
Teachers need to help students notice their successes and highlight them with praise. Students with low grades will often be disheartened when they still receive a lower grade when they were hoping for an A.
When this happens, the teacher needs to help them see that even though it was not a great grade, it was better than when they did not study at all. If the teacher can show them a steadily increasing set of grades, this will be far more motivating than seeing the same numbers no matter what is done.
One of the best ways to do this is by allowing students to redo work. If they are willing to put in more effort and time to improve a project or paper, teachers should absolutely allow them to do so. It may take more time and effort to grade again, but it is an easy way to show students that if they put in more, they will absolutely get more out.
Teachers can help tip the balance by giving easy to input feedback that makes a mindful difference in grades, even if it is only a small one. Grades can be very demotivating for students, but they can also be a great concrete motivator. “Doing better” can be an abstract concept, but when it is tied to a number or set of numbers, students will better be able to see a concrete value for the effort they have been putting in.
Conclusion
Teachers that can help students improve their willpower will not only have better behaved students in class, but help to create better adults that consider their actions before acting on impulse. Self control is an absolutely vital skill for any student whether they hope to be a rocket scientist, a lawyer, a plumber, a pianist, or a rock star.
Both synchronic and diachronic regulation require willpower. By helping students to plan their own diachronic regulation strategies and highlighting the successes of their current willpower challenges, it will increase their willpower for the future.
Students that see success will be more motivated to strive for that success again. Students that fail time and time again will feel that their efforts are wasted and that they might as well not try. However, if teachers can help students plan mindful strategies and celebrate their successes, this will empower students to realize they have control of their actions and lives leading to a better classroom and more capable adults.
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References
Duckworth, Angela L. et al. “Self-Control And Academic Achievement”. Annual Review Of Psychology, vol 70, no. 1, 2019, pp. 373-399. Annual Reviews, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-103230.
Irving, Zachary C. et al. “Will-Powered: Synchronic Regulation Is The Difference Maker For Self-Control”. Cognition, vol 225, 2022, p. 105154. Elsevier BV, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105154.
Mischel, W., Ebbesen, E. B., & Raskoff Zeiss, A. (1972). Cognitive and attentional mechanisms in delay of gratification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 21(2), 204–218. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0032198
“Self Control”. Merriam Webster, 2022, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/self-control.
