4 Apr
1994
4 Apr
'94
12:53 a.m.
Below is the abstract of a forthcoming target article by:
Howard Rachlin
on:
SELF-CONTROL: BEYOND COMMITMENT
This article has been accepted for publication in Behavioral and Brain
Sciences (BBS), an international, interdisciplinary journal providing
Open Peer Commentary on important and controversial current research in
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____________________________________________________________________
SELF-CONTROL: BEYOND COMMITMENT
Howard Rachlin
Psychology Department
SUNY at Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY 11794-2500
HRACHLIN(a)PSYCH.1.PSY.SUNYSB.EDU
ABSTRACT: Self control, so important in the theory and practice of
psychology, has usually been understood introspectively. This
target article adopts a behavioral view of the self (as an abstract
class of behavioral actions) and of self control (as an abstract
behavioral pattern dominating a particular act) according to which
the development of self control control is a molar/molecular
conflict in the development of behavioral patterns. This subsumes
the more typical view of self control as a now/later conflict in
which an act of self control is a choice of a larger but later
reinforcer over a smaller but sooner reinforcer. If at some future
time the smaller-sooner reinforcer will be more valuable than the
larger-later reinforcer, self control may be achieved through a
commitment to the larger-later reinforcer prior to that point.
According to some, there is in the development of self control a
progressive internalization of commitment. There are theoretical
and empirical problems with this view. In two experiments, one with
pigeons choosing between smaller-sooner and larger-later
reinforcers, the other with adult humans choosing between
short-term particular and long-term abstract reinforcer, temporal
patterning of choices increased self control.
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