Exercising self-control can be a challenge, whether it involves avoiding temptations or striving toward long-term goals. When attempting to exert self-control, the way people address themselves (e.g., self-talk) is important. This study examined how self-talk strategies want and need affected behavioral self-control outcomes in a temptation situation using a 2 (self-talk strategy: want vs need) x 2 (goal emphasis: temptation vs long term goal) factorial design. Participants’ own cell phones served as the temptation and a computer task designed to portray a career-relevant emotional intelligence training served as the long-term goal. Participants were randomly assigned toward either the long-term goal or the temptation, and primed with either want or need self-talk, via a handwriting task. Participants then had the opportunity to spend 20 minutes however they chose (emotional intelligence training, cell phone use, doing nothing, any combination of activities); this segment of the experimental session was video recorded to determine the amount of time participants dedicated to each task. Results revealed that neither goal emphasis nor self-talk strategy significantly affected the amount of time participants spent engaged in the long-term goal task or the temptation task. Additionally, there was no interaction between goal emphasis and self-talk strategy. Interestingly, for participants in the need self-talk condition, those oriented toward the temptation thought they spent substantially more time engaged in the long-term goal task than participants who were actually oriented toward the long-term goal. Finally, self-control predicted less desire to engage in the temptation for participants who wanted /needed the temptation, and participants who wanted the long-term goal; but for participants who needed the long-term goal, self-control predicted greater desire for the temptation.
","abstract_html":"<p>Exercising self-control can be a challenge, whether it involves avoiding temptations or striving toward long-term goals. When attempting to exert self-control, the way people address themselves (e.g., self-talk) is important. This study examined how self-talk strategies want and need affected behavioral self-control outcomes in a temptation situation using a 2 (self-talk strategy: want vs need) x 2 (goal emphasis: temptation vs long term goal) factorial design. Participants’ own cell phones served as the temptation and a computer task designed to portray a career-relevant emotional intelligence training served as the long-term goal. Participants were randomly assigned toward either the long-term goal or the temptation, and primed with either want or need self-talk, via a handwriting task. Participants then had the opportunity to spend 20 minutes however they chose (emotional intelligence training, cell phone use, doing nothing, any combination of activities); this segment of the experimental session was video recorded to determine the amount of time participants dedicated to each task. Results revealed that neither goal emphasis nor self-talk strategy significantly affected the amount of time participants spent engaged in the long-term goal task or the temptation task. Additionally, there was no interaction between goal emphasis and self-talk strategy. Interestingly, for participants in the need self-talk condition, those oriented toward the temptation thought they spent substantially more time engaged in the long-term goal task than participants who were actually oriented toward the long-term goal. Finally, self-control predicted less desire to engage in the temptation for participants who wanted /needed the temptation, and participants who wanted the long-term goal; but for participants who needed the long-term goal, self-control predicted greater desire for the temptation. </p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Baker, Danielle Elyse"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts in Psychology (MA)","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Ham, Lindsay S.","Eidelman, Scott H."],"advisors":["Veilleux, Jennifer C."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2018,"date_issued":"2018-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2018-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:00:19Z","subjects":["Long-term Goal","Self-regulation","Self-talk","Temptation","Clinical Psychology","Social Psychology"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/2632","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Ham, Lindsay S.","Eidelman, Scott H."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Veilleux, Jennifer C."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Baker, Danielle Elyse"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2018"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2024-02-06T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts in Psychology (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Long-term Goal","Self-regulation","Self-talk","Temptation","Clinical Psychology","Social Psychology"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/2632"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Exercising self-control can be a challenge, whether it involves avoiding temptations or striving toward long-term goals. When attempting to exert self-control, the way people address themselves (e.g., self-talk) is important. This study examined how self-talk strategies want and need affected behavioral self-control outcomes in a temptation situation using a 2 (self-talk strategy: want vs need) x 2 (goal emphasis: temptation vs long term goal) factorial design. Participants’ own cell phones served as the temptation and a computer task designed to portray a career-relevant emotional intelligence training served as the long-term goal. Participants were randomly assigned toward either the long-term goal or the temptation, and primed with either want or need self-talk, via a handwriting task. Participants then had the opportunity to spend 20 minutes however they chose (emotional intelligence training, cell phone use, doing nothing, any combination of activities); this segment of the experimental session was video recorded to determine the amount of time participants dedicated to each task. Results revealed that neither goal emphasis nor self-talk strategy significantly affected the amount of time participants spent engaged in the long-term goal task or the temptation task. Additionally, there was no interaction between goal emphasis and self-talk strategy. Interestingly, for participants in the need self-talk condition, those oriented toward the temptation thought they spent substantially more time engaged in the long-term goal task than participants who were actually oriented toward the long-term goal. Finally, self-control predicted less desire to engage in the temptation for participants who wanted /needed the temptation, and participants who wanted the long-term goal; but for participants who needed the long-term goal, self-control predicted greater desire for the temptation.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["How Want vs Need Self-Talk Facilitates Goal-Directed Behavior"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Ham, Lindsay S.","Eidelman, Scott H."],"dc:contributor.advisor":["Veilleux, Jennifer C."],"dc:creator":["Baker, Danielle Elyse"],"dc:date":["2018"],"dc:date.available":["2024-02-06T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Exercising self-control can be a challenge, whether it involves avoiding temptations or striving toward long-term goals. When attempting to exert self-control, the way people address themselves (e.g., self-talk) is important. This study examined how self-talk strategies want and need affected behavioral self-control outcomes in a temptation situation using a 2 (self-talk strategy: want vs need) x 2 (goal emphasis: temptation vs long term goal) factorial design. Participants’ own cell phones served as the temptation and a computer task designed to portray a career-relevant emotional intelligence training served as the long-term goal. Participants were randomly assigned toward either the long-term goal or the temptation, and primed with either want or need self-talk, via a handwriting task. Participants then had the opportunity to spend 20 minutes however they chose (emotional intelligence training, cell phone use, doing nothing, any combination of activities); this segment of the experimental session was video recorded to determine the amount of time participants dedicated to each task. Results revealed that neither goal emphasis nor self-talk strategy significantly affected the amount of time participants spent engaged in the long-term goal task or the temptation task. Additionally, there was no interaction between goal emphasis and self-talk strategy. Interestingly, for participants in the need self-talk condition, those oriented toward the temptation thought they spent substantially more time engaged in the long-term goal task than participants who were actually oriented toward the long-term goal. Finally, self-control predicted less desire to engage in the temptation for participants who wanted /needed the temptation, and participants who wanted the long-term goal; but for participants who needed the long-term goal, self-control predicted greater desire for the temptation.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/2632"],"dc:subject":["Long-term Goal","Self-regulation","Self-talk","Temptation","Clinical Psychology","Social Psychology"],"dc:title":["How Want vs Need Self-Talk Facilitates Goal-Directed Behavior"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts in Psychology (MA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:00:19Z"}