In the office have scoured tasks and colleagues, the nervous blank and the children torpedoed at home with a bad mood of the dinner. Now the little terrorist to sleep, but the bad Conscience is blocking the way to the celebration evening. Any annoying task is always waiting, paperwork, e-Mails, or clean up. But much of it remains. Lack Of Self-Control. The day was stressful enough: the path from The Sofa to return to the refrigerator with the beer in Hand.
The regular Failure of the quick Do annoying tasks has given rise to a concept of psychology to a steep public career. “Ego Depletion”, perhaps as a self-creation halfway aptly translated, posits that self-control is a finite resource of the human being, as it were, fired by a mysterious force.
at some point, the Tank is empty. Intuitively, this seems logical. “Many lay people will find the same riveting,” says Malte Friese of the University of Saarbrücken, “and then we are asked often, whether you really need science to investigate something so obvious.”
A total loss near
summarized, Together with colleagues, the psychologist has just been published in two publications, the state of the discussion. You could also quoted to say: the state of despair. The psychology has set that apart in the past 20 years intensively with the topic of Ego Depletion. Everything seemed to be clear, the concept is clearly demonstrated. But then cracks in the Foundation of the idea came at once: a New Meta-analysis came to the conclusion that perhaps nothing is.
“close to It is a total loss, that we stand after so much research, almost empty-handed.”Malte Friese, University of Saarbrücken
Big replication attempts failed.”There is Ego Depletion?” asks now have released the title of the current review, the Malte Friese and his Team. The answer is something like: You don’t know exactly, but the original idea of the mysterious resource is almost certainly wrong.
“close to It is a total loss, that we stand after so much research, almost empty-handed,” says Friese. What results from social psychology can be trusted at all, he asks. “What is, after all, for our discipline is that we have to deal intensively with the problems,” says Friese.
The original idea of the self-control as a finite resource, Roy Baumeister formulated in the 1990s, a heavy-weight in the discipline. In 1998 he published the first experimental study that seemed to provide evidence for the concept. Had the subjects of the psychologist tear on the belt and the consumption of biscuits to resist, gave up and then a tricky task faster.
“Ego Depletion has also become so popular because it appears to be intuitive for so many everyday areas of life to be plausible.”Malte Friese, University of Saarbrücken
to solve Who have not mastered previously had tried, however, on average, almost twice as long, the subsequent Problem. To control themselves, have consumed resources, the Self was too exhausted to once again get up, concluded a master Builder.
“Ego Depletion has also become so popular because it appears to be intuitive for so many, everyday life is plausible,” says Friese. Diets, healthy diet, alcohol, Smoking, aggression, tests, Training for athletes, marital infidelity, empathy, racism and much more – all of it was studies, now seemingly with the help of self-creation to explain.
And, better yet, Roy Baumeister compared the self-control to a muscle. This was exhausted after a serious work, but he could train. In a range to withstand hot, stand, to also be in other matters, strongly: he Who eats lunch Broccoli instead of Süsskram to get on in the evening, also undaunted, the tax Declaration. Or is it not? A Meta-analysis, published in frieze in 2017, has dampened the hope.
muscle for self-control
The original results to the Ego-Depletion inspired countless scientists. Some went in search of the fuel, may bring with it the capacity for self-control. In 2007, tapped researchers to glucose, is used up, donít get tired of will.
Also not confirmed, as the idea of exhausted, but trainable self-checker. 2015 a Meta-analysis, as many as possible, the evidence of distortion has taken into account factors – including the fact that studies without a clear result (or undesired outcome) are often not published appeared. Amazing study results are interesting.
self-creation is regarded as one of the main victims of the replication crisis in psychology.
this Meta-analysis received criticism. When, however, a large replication efforts failed, threw many psychologists Ego Depletion horrified by Board: 23 laboratories worldwide repeated with over 2000 participants and great effort of the relevant studies and found: nothing. Self-creation is regarded as one of the main victims of the replication crisis in psychology, writing, friezes, and Inzlicht, in “Social Psychology”. And now?
The everyday observation remains true: anyone Who feels exhausted, it can be getting difficult. And conversely, no one runs in the morning directly after getting Up to the fridge to break his diet resolutions. “We need to formulate clear, better testable hypotheses, and we must examine them in the everyday life of people, not only in controlled lab studies,” says Friese. Maybe it’s about the Motivation. Or it could be that it is a matter of perception, which will change with each completed task, away from Required to Desired.
“we can do better.”
the idea of The muscle and the mysterious resource should be to put the files “We can do better,” write Friese, and Inzlicht, in your conclusion in “Social Psychology” and plead for methodologically rigorous science: large samples, pre-registered studies, open raw data, publication of all results.
Much of it is implementing the social psychology since a few years increasingly. This is for the discipline inevitable. But it can be said that All the exhaustion about bursting in the evidence to the contrary, exercises the social psychology especially strong self-control.
Created: 09.12.2019, 10:12 PM