Psychology of self-control (PSYC19)
According to prominent scholars, self-control is central to success across life domains, from school to work to relationships. Quite simply, self-control—also colloquially know as willpower—is thought to lead to the good life. In this lecture course, we will do a deep dive on self-control, examining how organisms exercise control, bringing thoughts, emotions and behaviours into line with preferred standards. This course will expose students to a number of classic and contemporary theories and empirical findings in the area of self-control. The topics covered in this course represent a broad selection of major themes in the field and each topic will provide students with the opportunity to develop their understanding of the field as well as learn how social, personality, and cognitive psychologists think about this topic. The topics covered in class include ego depletion, executive function, the neural bases of self-control, personality, motivation, goal setting, goal pursuit, and decision-making. Importantly, given recent controversies in the field of psychology, we will also spend a considerable time discussing the replication crisis, including what it means for our understanding of the psychology of self-control.
Science of Behaviour change (PSYD19)
How can we break bad habits? How can we start healthy habits? This course will explore the science of behaviour change, examining how to go from where you are to where you want to be. Topics include goal setting and planning, self-regulation, motivation, temptations, nudges, and habits. While this senior seminar will cover theories of behaviour change, it will also have an applied component where students work on improving their own habits.
This seminar course is designed to not only introduce you to theories and research on behaviour change, but also to leave you with strategies you can use in your everyday life as you set and try to reach your various goals. These strategies are meant to be practical and to be used long after you graduate. I’ve designed this course to maximize meaningful learning and to minimize the memorize-and-regurgitate kind of style that we all get enough of in undergraduate courses. Lectures will be short. On most days, I will try to limit my own talking to a brief orientation to each day’s topic and then to guide student discussions. For half the course, I will provide highlights of our two texts and lead discussion and classroom exercises. For the other half of the course, I will assign different students to lead discussion of articles from our course reader. The success of this seminar depends on everyone’s preparation, and everyone’s preparation will depend on carefully completing the readings and weekly reaction papers.
Psychology of self-regulation (PSYD5430)
The primary goal of this course is to serve as a graduate-level introduction to psychological theory and research on self-regulation: “the many processes by which the human psyche exercises control over its functions, states, and inner processes” (Vohs & Baumeister, 2004, p. 1). A second goal is to allow you to acquire the theoretical and methodological skills necessary to become influential self-regulation scientists should the inclination strike you. A third goal is to provide opportunities to practice skills that will promote academic success in all areas of research.
This course will expose students to a number of classic and contemporary theories and empirical findings in the area of self-regulation. The topics covered in this course represent a broad selection of major themes in the field and each topic will provide students with the opportunity to develop their understanding of the field as well as learn how social, personality, and cognitive psychologists think about this topic. The topics covered in class include (but are not limited to) self-control, executive function, motivation, goal setting, goal pursuit, and the neuroscience of control. We will also spend time discussing the replication crisis and how it has shaped our understanding of the psychology of self-regulation. The course will be discussion based, with lecturing kept to a minimum.
I’ve designed this course to maximize meaningful learning and to minimize the memorize-and-regurgitate kind of style that we all get enough of in undergraduate courses. Lecturing will be minimal. On most days, I will try to limit my own talking to a fairly brief orientation to each day’s topic and to guiding discussions where necessary. The course will mainly consist of student-led discussions aimed at fostering meaningful (as opposed to superficial) understanding of the material. Because participation is essential at the graduate level, I expect all of you to come to class having completed the assigned reading and having responded (in writing) to the reading. This should stimulate lively discussion and debate.
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It’s probably all too familiar. Against your best intentions, you find yourself reaching for a late-night snack again. You snap at a colleague who didn’t really say anything wrong. You find excuses so that your daily run becomes a biweekly one. You’re convinced you don’t want to behave that way anymore, but here you are, doing it again. Psychologist Michael Inzlicht of the University of Toronto has long been fascinated by how we keep ourselves in check — or don’t — whether you call that willpower, self-control or something else.
But sometimes—whether it’s running a marathon, climbing a mountain, or assembling furniture—we willingly choose difficulty over ease. Michael Inzlicht, a psychologist at the University of Toronto, calls this the effort paradox. While we often eschew hard work, other times we value it, viewing things as more rewarding if we have to work for them. We hike mountains even though we could see the same view by gondola and willingly spend more on furniture we put together than on preassembled pieces. “Both things seem to exist at once: we avoid effort, we also seem to like it,” says Inzlicht.
Collaborators
- Joshua Aronson, New York University
- Avi Ben-Zeev, San Francisco State University
- Elliot Berkman, University of Oregon
- Kirk Brown, Virginia Commonwealth University
- Daryl Cameron, Penn State University
- Belle Derks, Utrecht University
- Jennifer Gutsell, Brandeis University
- Greg Hajcak, Florida State University
- Eddie Harmon-Jones, University of New South Wales
- Jacob Hirsh, University of Toronto
- Cendri Hutcherson, University of Toronto
- Sonia Kang, University of Toronto
- Michael Larson, Brigham Young University
- Lisa Legault, Clarkson University
- Ian McGregor, University of Waterloo
- Marina Milyavskaya, Carleton University
- Sukhvinder Obhi, McMaster University
- Liz Page-Gould, University of Toronto
- Travis Proulx, Cardiff University
- Blair Saunders, University of Dundee
- Brandon Schmeichel, Texas A&M University
- Zindel Segal, University of Toronto
- Alexa Tullett, University of Alabama
University of Toronto
Organizations
- Association for Psychological Science
- Canadian Psychological Association
- Canada Foundation for Innovation
- International Social Cognition Network
- International Society for Research on Emotion
- National Academy of Education
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Social and Affective Neuroscience Society
- Social Psychology Network
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
- Society for Personality and Social Psychology
- Society for Psychophysiological Research
- Spencer Foundation
The struggle for self-control is real, and one many of us are familiar with - but is 'willpower' actually a myth? Psychology professor Michael Inzlicht has long been intrigued by how we curb our less desirable behaviours, and what it is that unites people with 'high self-control'. His research at the University of Toronto's Work and Play Lab also seeks to understand our complicated relationship with effort and empathy - and whether so-called 'empathetic AI' has a place in our future.
Listen to on-air interview on Radio New Zealand