Researchers led by Tricia M. Leahey found that individuals with more willpower or self-control lost more weight; were more physically active; consumed fewer calories from fat; and had better attendance at weight loss group meetings. The same was true for participants who experienced an increase in self-control during a six-month behavioural weight loss treatment programme, the journal Obesity Research and Clinical Practice reports.

While the findings may seem obvious, Leahey from the Miriam Hospital’s Weight Control and Diabetes Research Centre says there have been surprisingly few studies focusing on the impact of self-control on weight loss. ‘Of course, it makes sense that if you have more willpower you’ll do better in a weight loss programme, however, this phenomena is surprisingly not studied much,’ she says, according to a Miriam statement. ‘Our study is the first to examine whether practicing acts of self-control during weight loss is linked to an increase in self-control and better weight loss outcomes, although other research has demonstrated this effect in the area of smoking cessation,’ Leahey adds.

‘The more you ‘exercise’ it by eating a low fat diet, working out even when you don’t feel like it, and going to group meetings when you’d rather stay home, the more you’ll increase and strengthen your self-control ‘muscle’ and quite possibly lose more weight and improve your health,’ says Leahey.

Follow-up studies found that delaying gratification for a longer time as a preschooler was tied to adolescent academic strength, social competence, planfulness, ability to handle stress, and higher scores. “Interventions can improve young children’s self-control, which may decrease children’s risk of becoming overweight and may have further positive effects on other outcomes important to society (general health, financial stability etc),” said Tanya R, Schlam, from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, who led the study.

To further assess the adult benefits of childhood self-control, Schlam and colleagues from Universities of Washington, Columbia and California, Berkeley, followed up with study participants (164 responded; 57 percent female), who are now in their mid-30s, to assess their current BMI (an indicator of body fat), which was cross-referenced with how they did on the delay of gratification test as children. The researchers found that each minute a child delayed gratification predicted a 0.2 decrease in adult BMI. Only 24 percent of the respondents were overweight and nine percent were obese, which is lower than the 2008 national adult average of 34 percent overweight and another 34 percent obese.

Source: IANS 

Timothy Bates, professor at Edinburgh’s School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, said the genetic influence was strongest on a person’s sense of self-control, according to an Edinburgh statement. The study of twins in the US — most aged 50 and over — used a series of questions to test how they perceived themselves and others. Questions included “Are you influenced by people with strong opinions?” and “Are you disappointed about your achievements in life?”

The results were then measured according to the Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scale which assesses and standardises these characteristics. Researchers found that identical twins, with the exact same DNA, were twice as likely to share traits compared with non-identical twins.Psychologists say the findings are significant because the stronger the genetic link, the more likely it is that these character traits are carried through a family. They found that genes affected a person’s sense of purpose, how well they get on with people and their ability to continue learning and developing.

Bates added: “Why do some people seem to manage their lives, have good relationships and cooperate to achieve their goals while others do not?  ”Previously, the role of family and the environment around the home often dominated people’s ideas about what affected psychological well-being. However, this work highlights a much more powerful influence from genetics.”

Source: IANS

“Our goal was to study whether tobacco smoking affects an individual’s self-control resources,” said lead author Bryan W. Heckman, M.A., a graduate student at the Moffitt Tobacco Research and Intervention Program and the Department of Psychology at the University of South Florida. ”We hypothesized that participants who underwent a self-control depletion task would demonstrate less persistence on behavioural tasks requiring self-control as compared to those with self-control intact, when neither group was allowed to smoke. However, we also hypothesized that we would not find this performance decrement among participants who were permitted to smoke,” Heckman stated. The results of the study supported the investigators’ premise.

“We found that smoking did have a restorative effect on an individual’s depleted self-control resources. Moreover, smoking restored self-control, in part, by improving smokers’ positive mood,” said Heckman. According to the researchers, evidence is mounting to suggest that self-control is a limited resource perhaps like muscle – expending and self-control on a task has the short-term effect of depleting the resource, making it more difficult to engage in another task that requires self-control.

While nicotine has been found to enhance performance on a variety of rational tasks, such as motor abilities, attention and memory, this study was the first to evaluate the effects of smoking on self-control. It suggests that the desire to restore depleted self-control may contribute to smokers’ addiction to tobacco. ”Smoking is obviously a maladaptive way to restore self-control,” said study co-author Thomas H. Brandon, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Health Outcomes and Behaviour at Moffitt Cancer Center, and psychology professor at USF. Of course there are healthier alternatives to restore self-control like sugary drinks or comfort food which doesn’t cause damage like smoking. It is estimated that 1 out of 3 cancer deaths are due

The study also suggested that smokers wanting to quit might benefit from learning such alternative self-control restoration strategies as a way to reduce their dependence on tobacco. The finding was published in a recent issue of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

Severine Sabia, University College London and colleagues based their findings on the Whitehall II cohort study, involving British Civil Service employees. They examined the link between smoking and cognitive decline in the transition from midlife to old age. 

They obtained data from 5,099 men and 2,137 women with average age of 56 years at the first cognitive assessment, the Archives of General Psychiatry reports. 

The authors note their analysis presents four key findings. They suggest smoking in men is tied to more rapid cognitive decline and that men who continued to smoke over the follow-up experienced greater decline in all cognitive tests, according to a University College statement. 

Men who quit smoking in the 10 years preceding the first cognitive measure were still at risk of greater cognitive decline, especially in executive function (an umbrella term for various complex cognitive processes involved in achieving a particular goal). 

However, long-term ex-smokers did not show faster cognitive decline. “Finally, our results show that the association between smoking and cognition, particularly at older ages, is likely to be underestimated owing to higher risk of death and dropout among smokers,” the authors comment. 

Source: IANS