The Effects of Physical and Mental Foci on Self-Regulatory Persistence

Abstract

Given the tendency for humans to dichotomize phenomena into mental and physical categories, the present work explored the consequences of this dichotomization within the domain of self-control exertion. In particular, these studies develop an individual difference of mental-physical interactionism, manipulate situational features promoting a focus on mental or physical phenomena, and examine how these factors influence perceptual, cognitive, and behavioral responding in self-control contexts. Results show that these factors show independent and interactive effects on metrics of task construal, subjective pain, and overall self-control exertion. Such findings warrant future inquiry on the role of metaphysical representations within the domain of self-control, as well as within other domains of psychological and physiological science.