Running head: SELF-CONTROL

Self-control and its influence on generations, actual society and the self
Nicolas Cerquera Angarita
LDS Business College

SELF-CONTROL

Self-control and its influence on generations, society and the self.

Self-control is a value that has long term effects that not only involve the immediate self
and family but generations. The analysis of the definition of self-control, what variables affect it
and how it has affected human history is crucial to see the impact of this value in families,
nations and generations. To better understand this value, it is also necessary to understand if there
is a pattern in self-control development regardless of gender, age and personal characteristics and
types of addiction.
Self-control has been defined by Baumeister as the capacity to alter ones own
responses, especially to bring them into line with standards such as ideals, values, morals, social
expectations, and to support the pursuit of long-term goals (Baumeister, Vohs & Tice, 2007).
Implicit in this definition we can infer that self-control is affected by certain bases or rules that
can be personal and national. We can divide the self-control into two categories: the self-control
based on personal beliefs or knowledge and the self-control based on a society moral code.
Although the philosophical analysis on self-control is started by Socrates in the ancient
Greece, the first appearance of self-control based on personal beliefs is as old as the first human
on earth. In Weakness of will, Justin Gosling mentions that Socrates said that human beings are
always finding pleasure or avoiding harm and that these are the motives of most human actions
(2003, p. 7). Even though this statement is unrealistic, as the author mentioned mention in his
book, it can help us understand how people in the past acted before the first societies were
formed and can also help us understand why even though the actual society has several
regulations and laws, many people are still struggling with them in order to accomplish them.

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Socrates mentioned that most of the reasons a person acts not according to his own
beliefs or a societys moral code is because he or she considers that the pleasure that he or she
will get from an action not according with these standards will give more pleasure than holding
with these standards. The same applies when a person is unable to endure accomplishing certain
goals. The pleasure of doing something against that goal will be more rewarding, in the persons
perspective, than if they stuck with the long term goal. This is well supported in various studies
like The behavioral economics of will in recovery from addiction, in which it is stated that the
behavior of self-control is like a hyperbola. This means that when the reward is near the
accomplishing time, the value assigned to it is higher. When two rewards with different
achieving times are compared, the lower-time lower-value reward will in some point exceed the
value of the longer-time longer-value reward and this can explain why people with low selfcontrol prefer short time rewards rather the longer but more substantial rewards (Stojek, Fischer
& Mackillop, 2015).
Socrates provided a clearer example. Two objects that are at the same distance from us
and with the same size will seem to have the same worth to us (if the value is determined by
size). But if we compare two objects with different sizes at the same distance, it is clear what
object we will choose. Sometimes the smaller object could be closer to us, making it look bigger
than the bigger object that is at a longer distance away from us. Obviously, this perspective will
make us see the smaller object as the bigger of the two objects we can see (Gosling, 2003).
According to this example, one of the variables that can affect self-control is the
knowledge the person has on the subject. If the self-control is based on personal beliefs we can
say he is being self-controlled since he is acting according to what he thinks is right or worthy.

SELF-CONTROL

But if the self-control is based on a social moral code, it could be that his actions are not aligned
with societys moral code and therefore he is not exercising this value. Since a community moral
code is based on the principle of helping the peaceful interaction of different individuals, and
therefore to ensure the pleasure of more individuals, we can say that self-control based on moral
codes is more important these days than the self-control based on personal values.
Self-control is affected by a wide variety of factors. The two types of self-control, as well
as the natural need of human interaction, can give us some hints. Most of self-control is affected
by social interactions. The environment in which we are raised and the people we are with
influence us to adopt a certain type of behavior. The study published in Self-control and jail
inmates' substance misuse post-release: mediation by friends' substance use and moderation by
age, shows that people released from jail that associate with people that abuse drugs were more
likely to abuse the same substance and to experiment with more harmful substances as well
(Malouf, Schaefer, Witt, Moore, Stuewig & Tangney, 2013).
A perfect example to illustrate how the lack of self-control can affect generations, and
even a whole nation, is Adolf Hitler. He was raised in Austria near the border of Germany.
Because of the similarities of both nations, the desire of unifying those nations started. With the
help of some strong nationalist teachers at his school, the rough life in Vienna and the defeat of
Germany in the First World War, the future of Adolf Hitler was decided. He would spend the rest
of his life in politics and help Germany regain its lost glory. Some aspects of his life that are
important to highlight could be found in the descriptions that a teacher gave of Hitler when he
was young:

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Hitler was certainly gifted, although only for particular subjects, but he lacked
self-control and, to say the least, he was considered argumentative, autocratic,
self-opinionated and bad-tempered, and unable to submit to school discipline. Nor
was he industrious; otherwise he would have achieved much better results, gifted
as he was (Shirer, 1990, p. 12).
This lack of self-control was not only part of his early years of existence but also an
important trait in his life. He started to get help from a wide variety of people, including
perverted homosexuals, resented criminals and people with deep hate for the government. He
spread propaganda and ideas throughout the country about anti-Semitism and the belief of a
superior race (Shirer, 1990, pp. 19-23). This was in opposition to the welfare of the whole nation
since a big part of it were Jews and different races, totally against the benefit of a lot of people. If
we analyze this, we can say that if self-control is based on personal beliefs, Hitler was
outstanding since he struggled in a lot of different ways and was imprisoned because of his acts
and thoughts. But if self-control is based on a moral code perspective, he was definitely wrong.
The consequence of this person lacking so crucial of a value, is evident as history can
show. There were six million Jews killed in concentration camps and sixty to seventy million
human casualties because of the conflict known as World War Two. This was a conflict that was
provoked by the hate of one single person that was transmitted to a nation. These are the
numbers by which Adolf Hitler will be remembered forever. Because of this war many traditions
were formed, the courses of nations were changed and entire lives and generations were touched
for the rest of their existence.

SELF-CONTROL

As we discussed before, self-control is mostly influenced by social interactions. Someone

could imply that this means self-control is a trait that mostly depends on the parents background,
their level of education and culture. Thereby they can jump to the conclusion that if you are born
in certain circumstances that will determine your development of self-control and therefore your
future and the future of your family, but studies have shown that this is not really the case.
Studies like The brief self-control scale predicts jail inmates' recidivism, substance
dependence, and post-release adjustment, Self-control and jail inmates' substance misuse postrelease: mediation by friends' substance use and moderation by age, Stress, cues and eating
behavior. Using drug addiction paradigms to understand motivation for food, or Dysfunction
of Self-Regulation and Self-Control in Facebook Addiction are studies on the subject that have
a target population of a wide variety of people of different races, ages and backgrounds and they
have determined that these variables, although important, are not final predictors of the
development of the self-control in a person (Baumeister, Vohs & Tice, 2007) (Stojek, Fischer &
Mackillop, 2015)(Blachnio & Przepiorka, 2015)(Malouf, Schaefer, Witt, Moore, Stuewig,
Tangney, 2013)(Malouf, Tangney & 2012). Because of these results, we can assume that the
environment in which a person grows can influence a persons self-control but is not a
determining factor in the development of this value.
Self-control is a huge transcending value. It can determine the future of a person, a
country, and future generations and because of this, we must try to do further and deeper research
on this value to implement it on families and in actual society to achieve higher levels of
happiness and peace.
References

SELF-CONTROL

Baumeister, R. Vohs, K. Tice, D. (2007). The strength model of self-control. Current Directions
on Psychological Science, 16(6), 351-55. Retrieved from:
http://cdp.sagepub.com/content/16/6/351.full.pdf+html

Blachnio, A. Przepiorka, A. (2015). Dysfunction of self-regulation and self-control in Facebook

addiction. Psychiatric Quarterly, 10(5), 1-8. Retrieved from:
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11126-015-9403-1
Gosling, J. (2003). Weakness of the will. [Adobe Digital Editions Version].
doi:10060783
Malouf, E. Schaefer, K. Witt, E. Moore, K. Stuewig, J. Tangney, J. (2013). The brief self-control
scale predicts jail inmates recidivism, substance dependence, and post-release
adjustment. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 40(3), 334-47. Retrieved from:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4485378/
Malouf, E. Stuewig, J.Tangney, J. (2012). Self-control and jail inmates' substance misuse postrelease: mediation by friends' substance use and moderation by age. Addictive behaviors,
37(11), 1198-204. Retrieved from:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3401316/
Shirer, W. (1990). The raise and the fall of the third reich. New York: Touchstone.
Stojek, M. Fischer, S. Mackillop, J. (2015). Stress, cues, and eating behavior. Using drug
addiction paradigms to understand motivation for food. Appetite, 92, 252-60. Retrieved
from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277407940_Stress_cues_and_eating_behavior_U
sing_drug_addiction_paradigms_to_understand_motivation_for_food