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The Influence of Chronic Ego Depletion on Goal Adherence: An Experience Sampling Study

Although ego depletion effects have been widely observed in experiments in which participants perform consecutive self-control tasks, the process of ego depletion remains poorly understood. Using the strength model of self-control, we hypothesized that chronic ego depletion adversely affects goal ad...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Wang, Ligang, Tao, Ting, Fan, Chunlei, Gao, Wenbin, Wei, Chuguang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4642976/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26562839
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0142220
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author Wang, Ligang
Tao, Ting
Fan, Chunlei
Gao, Wenbin
Wei, Chuguang
author_facet Wang, Ligang
Tao, Ting
Fan, Chunlei
Gao, Wenbin
Wei, Chuguang
author_sort Wang, Ligang
collection PubMed
description Although ego depletion effects have been widely observed in experiments in which participants perform consecutive self-control tasks, the process of ego depletion remains poorly understood. Using the strength model of self-control, we hypothesized that chronic ego depletion adversely affects goal adherence and that mental effort and motivation are involved in the process of ego depletion. In this study, 203 students reported their daily performance, mental effort, and motivation with respect to goal directed behavior across a 3-week time period. People with high levels of chronic ego depletion were less successful in goal adherence than those with less chronic ego depletion. Although daily effort devoted to goal adherence increased with chronic ego depletion, motivation to adhere to goals was not affected. Participants with high levels of chronic ego depletion showed a stronger positive association between mental effort and performance, but chronic ego depletion did not play a regulatory role in the effect of motivation on performance. Chronic ego depletion increased the likelihood of behavior regulation failure, suggesting that it is difficult for people in an ego-depletion state to adhere to goals. We integrate our results with the findings of previous studies and discuss possible theoretical implications.
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spelling pubmed-46429762015-11-18 The Influence of Chronic Ego Depletion on Goal Adherence: An Experience Sampling Study Wang, Ligang Tao, Ting Fan, Chunlei Gao, Wenbin Wei, Chuguang PLoS One Research Article Although ego depletion effects have been widely observed in experiments in which participants perform consecutive self-control tasks, the process of ego depletion remains poorly understood. Using the strength model of self-control, we hypothesized that chronic ego depletion adversely affects goal adherence and that mental effort and motivation are involved in the process of ego depletion. In this study, 203 students reported their daily performance, mental effort, and motivation with respect to goal directed behavior across a 3-week time period. People with high levels of chronic ego depletion were less successful in goal adherence than those with less chronic ego depletion. Although daily effort devoted to goal adherence increased with chronic ego depletion, motivation to adhere to goals was not affected. Participants with high levels of chronic ego depletion showed a stronger positive association between mental effort and performance, but chronic ego depletion did not play a regulatory role in the effect of motivation on performance. Chronic ego depletion increased the likelihood of behavior regulation failure, suggesting that it is difficult for people in an ego-depletion state to adhere to goals. We integrate our results with the findings of previous studies and discuss possible theoretical implications. Public Library of Science 2015-11-12 /pmc/articles/PMC4642976/ /pubmed/26562839 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0142220 Text en © 2015 Wang et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Wang, Ligang
Tao, Ting
Fan, Chunlei
Gao, Wenbin
Wei, Chuguang
The Influence of Chronic Ego Depletion on Goal Adherence: An Experience Sampling Study
title The Influence of Chronic Ego Depletion on Goal Adherence: An Experience Sampling Study
title_full The Influence of Chronic Ego Depletion on Goal Adherence: An Experience Sampling Study
title_fullStr The Influence of Chronic Ego Depletion on Goal Adherence: An Experience Sampling Study
title_full_unstemmed The Influence of Chronic Ego Depletion on Goal Adherence: An Experience Sampling Study
title_short The Influence of Chronic Ego Depletion on Goal Adherence: An Experience Sampling Study
title_sort influence of chronic ego depletion on goal adherence: an experience sampling study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4642976/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26562839
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0142220
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