The strength model of self-regulation failure and health-related behaviour

Abstract

Successful self-regulation is associated with adherence to health-related behaviour in many domains. In contrast, self-regulatory failure is linked to poor adherence and drop-out. This review presents the strength model of self-control as a framework to explain self-regulation in health-related behaviour contexts. In the model, self-regulation is conceptualised as a limited resource that once depleted results in reduced capacity to further regulate the self. We provide an overview of the hypotheses of the strength model and review research applying the model to self-regulation in four health-related behaviour domains: dietary restraint and eating behaviour, alcohol consumption, smoking cessation and physical activity. Based on our review, we recommend practitioners adopt strategies to minimise self-regulatory failure in people engaging in health-related behaviours such as minimising demands on self-control resources in the early stages of uptake and eating regularly to prevent hypoglycaemia. We advocate techniques to improve self-control strength through rest and training on self-control tasks. Suggestions on how these techniques can be integrated into health-related behaviour-change interventions are provided. Recommendations for future research to identify the mechanisms underpinning self-control resource depletion, conduct further randomised controlled interventions using the model, and integrate strength model hypotheses into existing models of health-related behaviour are proposed.

Keywords:

• self-control
• ego-depletion
• limited resource
• behaviour change
• energy
• mental fatigue

Acknowledgements

The research was supported by grant #F/00568/R from the Leverhulme Trust awarded to Nikos Chatzisarantis and Martin Hagger.

Notes

1. We use the terms self-regulation and self-control interchangeably in the present article. Some authors have made a distinction between self-regulation as a global term that refers to all aspects of self-regulation, even those that are non-conscious, such as homeostasis, while self-control is regarded as the deliberative and effortful control over outcomes (Baumeister & Vohs, 2007; Baumeister et al., 2007; Vohs & Heatherton, 2000). We have used the terms self-control and self-regulation synonymously because the typical definition and understanding of self-regulation in the health psychology literature is close to the view of self-control in the strength model as the deliberate, effortful and conscious overriding of one's impulses or desires to obtain some future desired state.