Self-Restraint
Self-control is the ability to regulate one's emotions, thoughts, and behavior in the face of temptations and impulses. It is an aspect of inhibitory control, one of the core human executive functions. Executive functions are cognitive processes that are necessary for regulating one's behavior in order to achieve specific goals.
As an executive function, self-control supports goal-directed behavior, planning, and decision making. In psychology, self-control is often distinguished from the broader construct of self-regulation, which includes the monitoring, adjustment, and maintenance of behavior and emotional states across changing situations.
One influential model has described self-control as operating like a muscle that draws on a limited resource.
In the short term, use of self-control can lead to the depletion of that resource. However, in the long term, the use of self-control can strengthen and improve the ability to control oneself over time.
Self-control is also a key concept in the general theory of crime, a major theory in criminology. The theory was developed by Michael Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi in their book A General Theory of Crime (1990). Gottfredson and Hirschi define self-control as the differentiating tendency of individuals to avoid criminal acts independent of the situations in which they find themselves. Individuals with low self-control tend to be impulsive, inconsiderate towards others, risk takers, short-sighted, and nonverbal-oriented. About 70 percent of the variance in questionnaire measures of this construct of self-control has been found to be attributable to genetic factors.
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