Implicit Theories About Willpower

People endorse different beliefs—implicit theories—about the nature of willpower. These beliefs affect their self-control on consecutive tasks in the laboratory as well as their goal striving and psychological adjustment in everyday life. Only when people believe that willpower is a limited resource (limited-resource theory), they show the ego-depletion effect and their self-control capacity gets impaired when they face high demands in everyday life. In contrast, people who believe that willpower is not a limited resource (nonlimited-resource theory) are better able to maintain their self-control performance at high levels. Consequently, they make more progress toward their personal goals and experience higher subjective well-being as compared to people with a limited-resource theory. Exploring mechanisms that may explain these effects research found that a limited theory about willpower makes people sensitive to cues about the availability of mental resources. Further, when they experience a task as exhausting their self-efficacy regarding upcoming tasks gets diminished and they are motivated to rest and replenish their resources. Taken together, the research summarized in this chapter provides support for a motivational account on ego depletion and sustained self-control, highlighting the role of lay beliefs and expectations.