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Stable social relationships are conducive to well-being. However, similar effects are not reported consistently for daily social interactions in affecting episodic (experiential) subjective well-being (ESWB). The present investigation suggests that the choice of being in a social context plays an important moderating role, such that social interactions increase ESWB only if taken place by one's choice. Moreover, it is argued that choice matters more in a social context than in an alone context because experiences with others are amplified. These ideas were tested and supported in two studies: An experiment that manipulated social context and choice status, and a 10-day experience-sampling study, which explored these variables in real-life settings. Results showed that being with others by one’s choice had the strongest positive association with ESWB, sense of meaning, and control, whereas being with others not by one’s choice—the strongest negative association with ESWB. Effects of being alone on ESWB also varied by choice status, but to a lesser extent. The findings offer theoretical and practical insights into the effects of the social environment on well-being.

Self-control is important, but people may only be motivated to improve their self-control under specific conditions. The present study tests the factors that affect the desire for self-control (DSC), expecting that it would be affected by stable level of self-control (deficiency) and by concerns about meeting current goals (necessity). Four studies (total N = 676) tested the above hypothesis. Study 1 examined the nomological network of DSC, and Study 2 explored specifically its association with the need to exert self-control. Studies 3 and 4 tested experimentally the role of need to exert self-control in increasing DSC. Results revealed that DSC is associated with low trait self-control and with fear of failure (Study 1), and with concerns about meeting current goals (Study 2). Study 3 established causality, showing that DSC increased only among those who were led to believe that their self-control was insufficient to complete an upcoming task. In Study 4, DSC increased among participants who had completed a more (vs. less) demanding task, but only when they expected another demanding task. Jointly, the findings portray the different routes leading to a desire for self-control. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

Two online studies (Total N = 331) tested the hypothesis that individual differences in self-control and responses to uncertainty would predict adherence to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2020a) guidelines, reported stockpiling, and intentions to engage in hedonic behavior in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trait self-control (b = 0.27, p = .015), desire for self-control (Study 1: b = 0.28, p = .001; Study 2: b = 0.27, p = .005), and cognitive uncertainty (b = 0.73, p < .001) predicted more CDC adherence. State self-control (Study 1: b = −0.15, p = .012; Study 2: b = −0.26, p < .001) predicted less stockpiling, whereas emotional uncertainty (b = 0.56, p < .001) and cognitive uncertainty (b = 0.61, p < .001) predicted more stockpiling. State self-control (b = −0.18, p = .003) predicted less hedonic behavior, whereas desire for self-control (b = 0.42, p < .001) and emotional uncertainty (b = 0.26, p = .018) predicted more hedonic behavior. Study 2 (pre-registered) also found that emotional uncertainty predicted more stockpiling and hedonic behavior for participants low in state self-control (stockpiling: b = −0.31, p < .001; hedonic behavior: b = 0.28, p = .025), but not for participants high in state self-control (stockpiling: b = 0.03, p = .795; hedonic behavior: b = −0.24, p = .066). These findings provide evidence that some forms of self-control and uncertainty influenced compliance with behavioral recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-021-02066-y.

Abstract. This article explores people’s perception of their experience while being alone or being with others. To that aim, data from nine studies (total N = 1,717) were meta-analyzed. In each study, participants performed a sentence-completion task referring to their experience alone/“with others”. The responses were analyzed using a text analysis software. Results showed that in a “with others” (vs. alone) mindset, people are more focused on the present, and less focused on the past or the future. When “with others,” more anxiety but less sadness is expressed. Social motives – affiliation and power – are more pronounced in the “with others” mindset, whereas leisure activities are salient in the alone mindset. Conclusions are derived regarding the nature of the experience in these basic conditions.

Objective This research presents evidence for an egocentric shift occurring among individuals high in Neuroticism by the mere thought-and actual state-of being alone. Method Four experiments and one experience sampling study (N = 719). In the experiments, Neuroticism was measured, and participants were randomly primed to adopt either an alone or a "with others" social context mind-set. The experiments measured different expressions of egocentrism. Study 1 measured perspective-taking, Study 2a was focused on social value orientation, Study 2b measured money allocation in a dictator game, and Study 3 measured self-reported and behavioral interpersonal trust. Trust was also the focus of Study 4, a 5-day experience sampling study. Results In an alone mind-set, high (vs. low) Neuroticism individuals were more likely to adopt an egocentric perspective in evaluating social stimuli (Study 1) and to adopt a selfish approach to money allocation (Studies 2a, 2b). Studies 3 and 4 addressed the source of the shift, showing that in an alone mind-set (Study 3) and in an actual alone state (Study 4), Neuroticism was associated with reduced interpersonal trust. Conclusions For high-Neuroticism individuals, thinking about-and actually being-alone induces a sense that they only have themselves to rely on.

Supporting info item, per1972-sup-0001-documentS1 for The Selfish Side of Self–Control by Uziel Liad and Hefetz Uri in European Journal of Personality

Self-control is a central human capacity associated with a wide range of personal and societal advantages. In view of its benefits, increasing self-control among children and adults has been advoca...

Changing attitudes does not necessarily involve the same psychological processes as changing behavior, yet social psychology is only just beginning to identify the different mechanisms involved. We contribute to this understanding by showing that the moderators of attitude change are not necessarily the moderators of behavior change. The results of three studies (Ns = 98, 104, 137) employing an ego depletion manipulation indicate that although people are more likely to agree with a persuasive message when executive control is reduced they are not more likely to change their behavior. Rather, under conditions of ego depletion, attitudes became less correlated with behaviors after persuasion. Moreover, in Study 3, we provide an explanation for this phenomenon: People are more likely to agree with a persuasive message when depleted but are also more likely to fall back on habits that may conflict with their new evaluations. A mini meta-analysis of the data indicated that ego-depletion had a medium effect size on the difference between attitude change and behavior change, N = 339, d ¯ = − 0.51, 95% CI [− 0.72, − 0.29]. Jointly, these studies suggest an integrative, resource-based explanation to attitude-behavior discrepancies subsequent to persuasion.

Self-control is a highly adaptive human capacity. Accordingly, development of self-control is widely encouraged. Whereas the benefits of having self-control are well documented, little is known about the impact of wanting self-control. The present investigation fills this void by exploring the effect of desire for self-control on the ability to exert self-control. It was expected that in the context of demanding self-control challenges, a desire for self-control will highlight a discrepancy between one’s goals and perceived performance potential, leading to reduced efficacy beliefs and task disengagement. Four studies ( N = 635) supported the prediction. Study 1 showed that a strong desire impaired performance on a demanding task but not on a simple task. Study 2 conceptually replicated the decrement in performance and established causality by experimentally manipulating desire for self-control. Studies 3 and 4 showed that reduction in efficacy beliefs mediate the effect. Implications of the findings are discussed.

This study explored how a mind-set associated with being alone affects self-regulation among individuals varying in neuroticism. Neuroticism is associated with a dualistic approach to the social world—evaluation apprehension alongside need for approval. Consequently, in public contexts, neuroticism leads individuals to experience low pleasantness alongside high motivation. The impact of neuroticism on behavior alone is rarely studied. However, the absence of a social motivator (i.e., potential for approval) should bring neuroticism to be associated with low pleasantness alongside low motivation. Three studies supported these predictions using an alone/public social context mind-set manipulation. Higher neuroticism was associated with lower declared willingness to exert effort (Study 1) and with lower actual effort expenditure (Studies 2a, 2b) in an alone mind-set than in a public mind-set. Additionally, across conditions, neuroticism was associated with low pleasantness. Thus, neuroticism reduces individuals’ willpower in the context of merely thinking about being alone.

This research addresses the impact of incongruence between trait and state power on the link between self-control and prosocial behavior. Past research has established that self-control is a powerful resource for behavioral flexibility, enabling one to execute tough, yet personally rewarding, decisions under challenging circumstances. State-trait power-incongruence may pose a threat on individuals, encouraging self-preservation at the expense of others. In this context, self-control is predicted to be associated with self-serving motives and behavior. The present article offers a first empirical test of this possibility. Two experiments demonstrated that under power-incongruence, self-control was associated with less emphasis on prosocial values (Study 1) and behavior (Study 2). Study 3 demonstrated that self-affirmation counters this effect, supporting the notion that power-incongruence poses a threat to the integrity of the self. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

How does mere social presence affect cognitive processes? The extant literature has focused on the impact of social presence on cognitive resources. The present study extends this work by focusing on the positivity of cognitive appraisal. Building on recent findings it was predicted that the traits neuroticism and impression management will differentially moderate the effect, such that neuroticism will be associated with a negative shift in appraisal, and impression management with a positive shift. In an experiment, participants ( N = 158) formed evaluations of life events either alone or in social presence. The results supported the predictions. The findings advance the knowledge about the effect of social presence on cognition, and about the role of personality in moderating responses in public social contexts.

Self–control is a powerful tool that promotes goal pursuit by helping individuals curb personal desires, follow norms, and adopt rational thinking. In interdependent social contexts, the socially acceptable (i.e. normative) and rational approach to secure long–term goals is prosocial behaviour. Consistent with that, much research associates self–control with prosociality. The present research demonstrates that when norm salience is reduced (i.e. social relations are no longer interdependent), high self–control leads to more selfish behaviour when it is economically rational. In three studies, participants were asked to allocate an endowment between themselves and another person (one–round, zero–sum version of the dictator game), facing a conflict between a socially normative and an economically rational approach. Across the studies, norm salience was manipulated [through manipulation of social context (private/public; Studies 1 and 2), measurement of social desirability (Studies 1 and 3), and measurement (Study 2) and manipulation (Study 3) of social power] such that some participants experienced low normative pressure. Findings showed that among individuals in a low normative pressure context, self–control led to economically rational, yet selfish, behaviour. The findings highlight the role of self–control in regulating behaviour so as to maximize situational adaptation. Copyright © 2014 European Association of Personality Psychology

The research examines how personality characteristics and gender influence adjustment to a foreign culture among workers participating in one of two international assignment types: expatriation and frequent business trips. The research presents first evidence of relationships between personality and adjustment among business travelers, joins previous findings of relationships between personality characteristics and adjustment to a foreign culture among expatriates, and enables comparison between the two assignment types. The research contributes new findings on differences between the sexes in global employment: contrary to our hypothesis, men adjust better than women to a foreign culture in the two assignment types, in two of four dimensions examined.

This research reports about asymmetrical relations in self-other ratings of attachment style. Specifically, results showed that romantic partners hold relatively accurate perceptions of each other’s attachment styles with one exception: women’s ability to judge their male partner’s level of attachment-related anxiety was compromised compared with the other agreement indices measured. The effect was not moderated by acquaintanceship length or relationship satisfaction, but it was affected by men’s interpersonally oriented self-control. The findings appear to reflect men’s reluctance from appearing anxious to their female partners and from the nature of the anxiety dimension of attachment. Anxiety (as compared with avoidance) has a less consistent interpersonal behavioral manifestation and thus is more concealable among those motivated and capable of doing so.

The present study explores the role of personality in moderating the effect of public social context on self-control. The authors predicted that in public settings neuroticism would be associated with ego-depletion effects and individual differences in impression management (IM) would be associated with restoration effects. Three experiments supported the hypothesis. In Study 1 neuroticism was associated with impaired self-control and IM was associated with enhanced self-control following an initial phase of working on a simple task in public (vs. in private). Study 2 replicated and extended these results to other domains of self-control. Study 3 explored whether public social context can cancel out early depletion effects. In this study, depleted participants engaged in a task that required self-control either alone or in public. As expected, the public settings were associated with restored self-control resources mostly among high IM individuals. Implications for self-control, neuroticism, and IM are discussed.

The present research tested competing approaches to individual differences in impression management (as measured with social desirability scales) and their implication for behavior in social contexts. A defensiveness approach argues that impression management is a source of defensive self-presentation, which causes performance impairment in public social settings. The competing adjustment approach argues that impression management measures friendliness and self-control, which should bring about performance facilitation in public social settings. To decide between these approaches, two experiments utilized a social facilitation paradigm, whereby task performance was compared between an alone and a public condition. The results supported the predictions of the adjustment approach. Across different tasks, a high impression management score was associated with performance facilitation in social presence, expressed in greater creativity, positive implicit affect, and high self-control. The results reveal previously unnoticed constructive effects of impression management, supporting the reframing of the trait as reflecting interpersonally oriented self-control.

Social desirability (specifically, impression management) scales are widely used by researchers and practitioners to screen individuals who bias self-reports in a self-favoring manner. These scales also serve to identify individuals at risk for psychological and health problems. The present review explores the evidence with regard to the ability of these scales to achieve these objectives. In the first part of the review, I present six criteria to evaluate impression management scales and conclude that they are unsatisfactory as measures of response style. Next, I explore what individual differences in impression management scores actually do measure. I compare two approaches: a defensiveness approach, which argues that these scales measure defensiveness that stems from vulnerable self-esteem, and an adjustment approach, which suggests that impression management is associated with personal well-being and interpersonal adjustment. Data from a wide variety of fields including social behavior, affect and well-being, health, and job performance tend to favor the adjustment approach. Finally, I argue that scales measuring impression management should be redefined as measures of interpersonally oriented self-control that identify individuals who demonstrate high levels of self-control, especially in social contexts.

Objectives:In a resource-constrained reality, physicians are facing polar demands—those of healthcare managements to adopt cost-conscious behaviors and those of ethical standards that obligate physicians to consider only their patients' best interests. In our study, we aimed to determine the attitudes, practices, and knowledge of healthcare costs among Israeli physicians.Methods:A questionnaire was developed and mailed to a representative sample of physicians in Israel. The overall response rate was 51 percent. The study reviewed self-reported levels of cost consciousness in practice, attitudes, obstacles related to cost containment, and knowledge of the costs of medical resources.Results:Forty-two percent of the physicians reported high levels of cost consciousness in their daily practice; 70 percent reported greater current cost consciousness in comparison to 5 years ago; 76 percent of the responses legitimized institutional demands for cost containment. Although 83 percent of the physicians that responded expressed the belief that economic thinking was inherently the role of management, only 39 percent thought it was part of the physician's role. It was found that predominant predictors of agreement to cost consciousness concepts were employment by a community health plan, a managerial position, participation in health economics seminars, and male gender.Conclusions:Cost consciousness among physicians is related to a broad array of parameters. Interventions must emphasize the benefits of evidence-based medicine as an anchor for both cost containment and quality care, as well as providing assistance to physicians in accepting economic decision-making as part of their professional role.

The present study reviews the social facilitation literature and identifies two overarching responses to social presence: negative-apprehensive and positive-self-assured. These responses correspond to two general orientations toward the social environment described in current personality literature: a negative orientation, comprised of neuroticism and low self-esteem; and a positive orientation, comprised of extraversion and high self-esteem. A meta-analysis reveals that social presence is associated with performance impairment for negatively oriented individuals, and with performance improvement for positively oriented individuals. Additional analysis reveals that personality is a more substantial moderator of the effect of social presence than is task complexity. The results of this study open a new avenue in the research on social facilitation, encouraging a closer inspection of the meaning that various individuals attribute to social presence.

Over the past decade evidence has accumulated showing relations between extraversion and positive affect and neuroticism and negative affect. However, little has been said about the source of these relations. The present study proposes cognitive evaluation as a potential source. Specifically, it is argued that when evaluating events, extraverts ascribe weight to their positive aspects and neurotics to their negative aspects, a difference that brings about corresponding differences in affective reactions. To explore this idea, 226 participants were asked to evaluate 30 hypothetical everyday events. Each event was evaluated along two independent scales referring to the positivity and the negativity of the event. The participants also completed a personality questionnaire and reported on their momentary affective state. The results supported the hypothesis by showing that extraversion correlated with a more positive (but not less negative) rating of events, whereas neuroticism correlated with a more negative (but not less positive) rating of events. Regression analyses ruled out the possibility that momentary affective state accounts for these effects. The study shows the different yet complementary ways through which extraversion and neuroticism contribute to reality perception. With that, a new dimension is added to the understanding of personality–affect relations.

The research examines how personality characteristics and gender influence adjustment to a foreign culture among workers participating in one of two international assignment types: expatriation and frequent business trips. The research presents first evidence of relationships between personality and adjustment among business travelers, joins previous findings of relationships between personality characteristics and adjustment to a foreign culture among expatriates, and enables comparison between the two assignment types. The research contributes new findings on differences between the sexes in global employment: men adjust better than women to a foreign culture in the two assignment types, in two of four dimensions examined.The research examines how personality characteristics and gender influence adjustment to a foreign culture among workers participating in one of two international assignment types: expatriation and frequent business trips. The research presents first evidence of relationships between personality and adjustment among business travelers, joins previous findings of relationships between personality characteristics and adjustment to a foreign culture among expatriates, and enables comparison between the two assignment types. The research contributes new findings on differences between the sexes in global employment: contrary to our hypothesis, men adjust better than women to a foreign culture in the two assignment types, in two of four dimensions examined.

This article explores the status of impression management (IM) scales ("lie scales," notably, BIDR-IM) as measures of response bias, offers theory-driven substantive meaning to them, and compares them with self-deception enhancement (SDE). Study 1 (N = 99) compared self-descriptions of actual self and ideal self given in a non-anonymous setting. High similarity indicates self-enhancement. Study 2 (70 dyads) analyzed self-other agreement about IM and SDE. Agreement indicates substantive basis to the scales' scores. Study 3 (N = 182) explored the centrality of self-control in the self-perception of individuals varying in IM and SDE. Study 4 (95 dyads) corroborated self-reports about self-control using informants' reports. In Study 1, IM was associated with relative humility, whereas SDE was associated with self-enhancement. In Study 2, strong self-other agreement was found only for IM, indicating that high IM (but not SDE) is grounded in real-life behavior. In Study 3, self-control was central in the self-perception of high IM and high SDE individuals. In Study 4, strong relations with self-control were corroborated by informants only for IM. IM scales measure substantive content associated with self-control aimed at social adaptation, whereas the SDE scale depicts individuals with a grandiose self-perception, who fail to impress knowledgeable others.