A monitoring model for understanding the regulatory depletion effect.

摘要

It has commonly been observed that a person's performance on a self-regulation activity is often impaired when he or she has already performed a prior task that requires substantial self-regulation, a phenomenon termed as the regulatory depletion effect. The prevailing explanation for this effect, as reported in the literature, is referred to as the resource depletion theory. According to this theory, self-regulation relies on a limited pool of resources. Because all acts of self-regulation draw on the same resource pool, its use in one task reduces the resources available to perform an immediately subsequent task, even if these tasks are seemingly unrelated.; Recent research has shown that the depletion effect is offset when depleted individuals are motivated to spend adequate resources on subsequent self-regulation. These studies suggest that the depletion effect might not be caused by a limitation in resource capacity. This dissertation proposes a monitoring model that posits that the depletion effect occurs because of a breakdown in the monitoring process among depleted individuals. Monitoring involves a comparison of individuals' behavior in relation to a salient standard with the goal of adjusting the behavior so as to minimize the discrepancy between current performance and the standard. The depletion caused by an initial self-regulation task prompts individuals to focus on the resources they are allocating to the subsequent self-regulation task and to thereby lose sight of their standard for comparison. The result of this monitoring breakdown is that unlike non-depleted individuals, depleted individuals act upon their current desire to quit prematurely on the subsequent task, which is manifested as a depletion effect.; The implication of this model is that prompting individuals to monitor their performance by comparing it with their standard enhances the likelihood of sustaining performance on the subsequent self-regulation task. This dissertation tests the monitoring model by introducing interventions thought to vary monitoring. Nine experiments are reported in which the depletion effect is moderated: (a) by the presentation of a cue that makes comparison of performance against a standard salient, (b) when individuals have a natural proclivity to self-monitor, and (c) when individuals are in positive affect.