Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-rbxfs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-09T23:19:36.208Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Willpower needs tactical skill

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2021

Juan Pablo Bermúdez Open the ORCID record for Juan Pablo Bermúdez [Opens in a new window]
Juan Pablo Bermúdez*
Affiliation:
Institut de Philosophie, Université de Neuchâtel, 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland juanpa@gmail.com; https://philpeople.org/profiles/juan-pablo-bermudez Programa de Filosofía & Grupo de Investigación ‘Salud, Conocimiento Médico y Sociedad’, Centro de Investigación sobre Dinámica Social, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Ainslie advances our understanding of self-control by theoretically unifying multiple forms of willpower. But one crucial question remains unanswered: How do agents pick the right forms of willpower in each situation? I argue that willpower requires tactical skill, which detects willpower-demanding contexts, selects context-appropriate tactics, and monitors their implementation. Research on tactical skill will significantly advance our understanding of willpower.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 44 , 2021 , e32
Check for updates
Creative Commons
The target article and response article are works of the U.S. Government and are not subject to copyright protection in the United States.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Ainslie, G. (2001). Breakdown of will. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Muraven, M., & Tice, D. M. (1998). Ego depletion: Is the active self a limited resource? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(5), 1252–1265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berkman, E. T., Hutcherson, C. A., Livingston, J. L., Kahn, L. E., & Inzlicht, M. (2017). Self-control as value-based choice. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 26(5), 422–428.Google ScholarPubMed
Bermúdez, J. P. (2020). The skill of self-control. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/7wz5v.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonanno, G. A., & Burton, C. L. (2013). Regulatory flexibility: An individual differences perspective on coping and emotion regulation. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(6), 591–612. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691613504116.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boureau, Y.-L., Sokol-Hessner, P., & Daw, N. D. (2015). Deciding how to decide: Self-control and meta-decision making. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19(11), 700–710. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2015.08.013.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bürgler, S., Hoyle, R. H., & Hennecke, M. (2020). Flexibility in Using Self-Regulatory Strategies to Manage Self-Control Conflicts: The Role of Metacognitive Knowledge, Strategy Repertoire, and Feedback Monitoring. PsyArxiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/86h74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carruthers, P. (2020). Explicit nonconceptual metacognition. Philosophical Studies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-020-01557-1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diamond, A. (2013). Executive functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 135–168.Google ScholarPubMed
Duckworth, A. L., Gendler, T. S., & Gross, J. J. (2016). Situational strategies for self-control. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 11(1), 35–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fujita, K., Carnevale, J. J., & Trope, Y. (2018). Understanding self-control as a whole vs. part dynamic. Neuroethics, 11(3), 283–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fujita, K., Trope, Y., Liberman, N., & Levin-Sagi, M. (2006). Construal levels and self-control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(3), 351–367. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.90.3.351.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69–119.Google Scholar
Hennecke, M., & Bürgler, S. (2020). Many roads lead to Rome: Self-regulatory strategies and their effects on self-control. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 14(6), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12530.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hommel, B. (2015). Between persistence and flexibility: The yin and yang of action control. In A. J. Elliot (Ed.). Advances in motivation science (Vol. 2, pp. 33–67). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.adms.2015.04.003.Google Scholar
Inzlicht, M., Werner, K. M., Briskin, J. L., & Roberts, B. W. (2020). Integrating models of self-regulation. Annual Review of Psychology, 72, 319–345.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kurzban, R. (2016). The sense of effort. Current Opinion in Psychology, 7, 67–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.08.003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ludwig, R. M., Srivastava, S., Berkman, E. T., & Donnellan, B. (2018). Planfulness: A process-focused construct of individual differences in goal achievement. Collabra: Psychology, 4(1), 1–18.Google Scholar
Sjåstad, H., & Baumeister, R. F. (2018). The future and the will: Planning requires self-control, and ego depletion leads to planning aversion. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 76, 127–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2018.01.005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southward, M. W., Altenburger, E. M., Moss, S. A., Cregg, D. R., & Cheavens, J. S. (2018). Flexible, yet firm: A model of healthy emotion regulation. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 37(4), 231–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sripada, C. (2020). The atoms of self-control. Noûs.CrossRefGoogle Scholar