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UUPer Mark Muraven believes that it takes practice to practice self-control.
He’s got a chance to prove his point, thanks to a three-year, $600,000 grant from the Department of Defense Army Research Institute.
Muraven, an associate professor of psychology at the University at Albany, received the grant in August. The grant will allow him to build on data he compiled in his Self-Control in Life laboratory at UAlbany, which focuses on addictions, crime and theoretical issues, such as why self-control is easier to exercise in some situations than others.
“We don’t quite know the ins and outs of it, but it seems like self-control acts like a muscle that gets stronger with use,” said Muraven. “The idea of (the investigation) is to see if you can strengthen your self control, you will cope better.”
Muraven said the first phase of the multi-step process will start soon. Volunteers, most of them UAlbany students, will be hooked to monitors and put into stressful situations, such as counting backward from 1,000.
Once tested, volunteers will be given palm pilots and asked to answer a series of questions about their day, each day for four weeks. They will also be given information to help them increase and exercise their self control. There will also be a control group that will not practice self-control, he said.
Muraven said he believes his research will lead to treatments to build self-control and ways people can use those treatments to deal with stress.
“I hope that we show that people who practice self-control cope with stress better than those who don’t,” Muraven said.
“We want to show that we can improve self-control and that the use of self-control is important in coping with stress.”
— Michael Lisi