Stop and Start Control: a distinction within self-control

The essence of self-control is the effort people put into shaping their own behavior. Amongst a vast array of behavioral options, internal as well as external pushes and pulls, rewards, threats, goals and wishes, people can choose, to a certain extent, which behavior they will perform. Self-control has been defined as the exertion of control over the self by the self (Muraven & Baumeister, 2000) and as such it is one of the forces that shapes human behavior. By means of self-control people can choose not to indulge in pleasures because of eventual unfavorable outcomes, such as forgoing delicious sugary deserts in order not to gain weight; and people can choose to take on difficult or tedious tasks because of valued outcomes, such as getting physical exercise. The research in this dissertation will show that these examples actually stem from two distinct forms of self-control, namely stop control and start control. In order to understand and appreciate the new distinction, this introduction will first explain some of the theoretical background to the distinction and the research questions that have been used to guide the investigations.