An Investigation into the Structure of Self-Control

Self-control has been measured using a variety of methods including self-report measures, cognitive inhibition tasks, delay discounting and delay of gratification tasks, and persistence and willpower tasks. Although these are all theoretically linked to processes involved in self-control, recent evi...

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Main Authors:	Dreves, Parker A, Blackhart, Ginette
Published:	Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University 2019
Subjects:	self-control impulse inhibition measurement Psychology
Online Access:	https://dc.etsu.edu/asrf/2019/schedule/229

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spelling	ndltd-ETSU-oai-dc.etsu.edu-asrf-13452019-05-16T05:21:29Z An Investigation into the Structure of Self-Control Dreves, Parker A Blackhart, Ginette Self-control has been measured using a variety of methods including self-report measures, cognitive inhibition tasks, delay discounting and delay of gratification tasks, and persistence and willpower tasks. Although these are all theoretically linked to processes involved in self-control, recent evidence has shown that these diverse measurement techniques relate only minimally to one another. Assuming that self-control is a reflective construct, this would indicate that many of these tasks are poor indicators of self-control. The present research challenges the common assumption that self-control is a reflective construct and instead proposes that self-control is a formative construct. Conceptualizing of self-control as a formative construct could reconcile some of the inconsistencies in the literature, in particular the fact that many indicators for self-control do not correlate highly. To examine the possibility of a formative model of self-control, this research examines 13 commonly used measures of self-control and investigates indicator intercorrelations, indicator relationships with the theoretical consequences of self-control, and performs a vanishing tetrad test (Bollen & Ting, 2000). Results show that in general, indicator intercorrelations are low and nonsignificant as well as indictor correlations with theorized construct consequences. The results of the vanishing tetrad test suggest a reflective interpretation of self-control, but concerns with uniformly low covariances between indicators limit the interpretation of this test. It is concluded that currently available measures of self-control contain large sources of error variance and that questions about the ontological nature of the construct will be unanswerable until more precise measures are developed. 2019-04-12T16:40:00Z text https://dc.etsu.edu/asrf/2019/schedule/229 Appalachian Student Research Forum Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University self-control impulse inhibition measurement Psychology
collection	NDLTD
sources	NDLTD
topic	self-control impulse inhibition measurement Psychology
spellingShingle	self-control impulse inhibition measurement Psychology Dreves, Parker A Blackhart, Ginette An Investigation into the Structure of Self-Control
description	Self-control has been measured using a variety of methods including self-report measures, cognitive inhibition tasks, delay discounting and delay of gratification tasks, and persistence and willpower tasks. Although these are all theoretically linked to processes involved in self-control, recent evidence has shown that these diverse measurement techniques relate only minimally to one another. Assuming that self-control is a reflective construct, this would indicate that many of these tasks are poor indicators of self-control. The present research challenges the common assumption that self-control is a reflective construct and instead proposes that self-control is a formative construct. Conceptualizing of self-control as a formative construct could reconcile some of the inconsistencies in the literature, in particular the fact that many indicators for self-control do not correlate highly. To examine the possibility of a formative model of self-control, this research examines 13 commonly used measures of self-control and investigates indicator intercorrelations, indicator relationships with the theoretical consequences of self-control, and performs a vanishing tetrad test (Bollen & Ting, 2000). Results show that in general, indicator intercorrelations are low and nonsignificant as well as indictor correlations with theorized construct consequences. The results of the vanishing tetrad test suggest a reflective interpretation of self-control, but concerns with uniformly low covariances between indicators limit the interpretation of this test. It is concluded that currently available measures of self-control contain large sources of error variance and that questions about the ontological nature of the construct will be unanswerable until more precise measures are developed.
author	Dreves, Parker A Blackhart, Ginette
author_facet	Dreves, Parker A Blackhart, Ginette
author_sort	Dreves, Parker A
title	An Investigation into the Structure of Self-Control
title_short	An Investigation into the Structure of Self-Control
title_full	An Investigation into the Structure of Self-Control
title_fullStr	An Investigation into the Structure of Self-Control
title_full_unstemmed	An Investigation into the Structure of Self-Control
title_sort	investigation into the structure of self-control
publisher	Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University
publishDate	2019
url	https://dc.etsu.edu/asrf/2019/schedule/229
work_keys_str_mv	AT drevesparkera aninvestigationintothestructureofselfcontrol AT blackhartginette aninvestigationintothestructureofselfcontrol AT drevesparkera investigationintothestructureofselfcontrol AT blackhartginette investigationintothestructureofselfcontrol
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An Investigation into the Structure of Self-Control

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