PSYC19H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Ego Depletion, Replication Crisis
PSYC19 – LECTURE 1 – INTRODUCTION
We Are All Failures (Sometimes)
• We have all failed at self-control at one point
o Drinking / Eating
o Studying too little
o Don’t excersice
o Aren’t generous enough
o Impatient / unkind to loved ones
o Spend too much
o Cheated on/ been dishonest
o Sleep too little
o Watch too much TV
o Too many video games
• Because of out repeated failures, we make plans to improve
• Think about your own New Years resolution you made …
o 80% of New Years resolutions fail in the first 2 weeks
o 50% of resolutions are health related
o 32% of resolutions are money related
o make sure your goals are specific, not vague (ex: want to drink less VS. want to
get drunk every 2 weeks instead of every week more specific)
What is Self-Control? (SC)
• SC = the capacity to restrain, inhibit, & modify thoughts, emotions, or behaviour
• SC must involve conflict between competing motives
o Without conflicting desire, there is nothing to restrain
o Conflicting desires are temporally asymmetric (small reward now, large reward
later)
▪ Time inconsistent preferences; regret → your preference reverses
depending on if you are going forward or backward in time
• Phenomenologically effortful, even aversive
o Can feel bad, and people tend to avoid things that are effortful
• Based on executive function, specifically inhibition
• SC is distinct from self-regulation (SR) → planning, goal-setting, habits
o There is no conflict in planning or setting goals
o SC is a KIND of self-regulatory behaviour (subtype of SR)
Replication Crisis
• The book assigned to class – a lot of it’s studies are unable to be replicated
• He will contradict the book A LOT
• This topic is very important to the course
• Replications fail, especially in ego-depletion research
• Video link →
