Self‐control, fluctuating willpower, and forensic practice
| Date | 10 May 2013 |
| Pages | 85-96 |
| Published date | 10 May 2013 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14636641311322278 |
| Author | Roy F. Baumeister |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Public policy & environmental management,Sociology |
Invited Paper
Self-control, fluctuating willpower,
and forensic practice
Roy F. Baumeister
Abstract
Purpose – This article aims to explain the relevance of new findings about self-control and willpower for
antisocial behaviour and forensic practice.
Design/methodology/approach – The relevance of the phenomena is covered first, followed by an
exposition of how self-control works.
Findings – The basic ingredients for effective self-control are standards, monitoring, and willpower.
Willpower fluctuates as a function of demands on it (including decision making) and bodily states
(including food and rest). Self-control and willpower can be increased, even in adults.
Practical implications – Antisocial and criminal behaviour is often mediated by failures of self-control.
Remediation and prevention can benefit by applying a correct understanding of how self-control
functions.
Originality/value – Understanding of self-control has advanced greatly in recent years and is highly
relevant to forensic practice. Clients can learn to gain control over their actions.
Keywords Self-control, Self-regulation, Ego depletion,Criminals, Willpower, Glucose, Self assessment,
Self development, Will
Paper type Conceptual paper
Basic research psychologists such as myself plumb the depths and margins of human nature,
driven by an abstract curiosity about how people think, act, and feel. In contrast, most forensic
psychologists are concerned with highly practical and pressing matters in dealing with
law-breakers, convicted prisoners, their victims, and the prospects for ameliorating and
rehabilitating human misbehaviour.This article explores what an academic research program
motivated by general curiosity can offer to those dealing with the grim realities of the criminal
world.
Specifically, my colleagues and I have spent more than two decades conducting laboratory
research into the processes of self-control and self-regulation, which is to say how people
manage their actions in relation to moral, social, and legal standards of proper behaviour. The
hard-won insights from several hundred laboratory experiments can potentially offer a useful
perspective for theorists and practitioners who deal with society’s miscreants and the
problems and disruptions they cause.
In a nutshell, our work indicates that people’s ability to control themselves and their
behaviour so as to conform to external standards (rules, moral values, laws, ideals, social
norms and expectations) depends on a limited and fluctuating resource. The folk notion of
willpower, although crude and deficient, has some degree of validity. Behaving in a
legally and morally correct fashion depends to a significant degree on how this resource is
used. Its lapses contribute to antisocial and criminal behaviour. Understanding how
DOI 10.1108/14636641311322278 VOL. 15 NO. 2 2013, pp. 85-96, QEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 2050-8794
j
JOURNAL OF FORENSIC PRACTICE
j
PAGE 85
Roy F. Baumeister is
Professor of Psychology at
the Psychology
Department, Florida State
University, Tallahassee,
Florida, USA.
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