Further Reading — Chapter 13: Self-Regulation

Annotated resources for deeper exploration. Items marked with ★ are especially recommended as starting points.

Foundational Books

★ Baumeister, R. F., & Tierney, J. (2011). Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. Penguin Press. The popular account of Baumeister's ego depletion research — readable, well-illustrated with examples, and the fullest presentation of the glucose/finite-resource model. Essential for understanding the original depletion hypothesis. Read alongside Inzlicht et al. (below) for the full picture of what replicated and what did not.

★ Mischel, W. (2014). The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control. Little, Brown. Mischel's own account of the marshmallow studies — what they actually found, what they do and don't mean, and the attention strategies that predicted success. Far more nuanced than the popular summary. Mischel is clear that the finding is about cognitive strategy, not raw willpower or fixed character.

Duhigg, C. (2012). The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. Random House. The accessible account of habit psychology: the cue-routine-reward loop, the habit loop model, and the implications for behavior change. Good on the organizational and social dimensions of habit. Uses narrative effectively. Not a textbook, but a reliable and accurate popular account.

★ Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. Avery. The most practical and widely-used guide to habit formation and behavior change. Grounded in real research and translated into specific, actionable system design. Particularly good on identity-based habits, the two-minute rule, habit stacking, and environment design. Recommended as the implementation companion to the more theoretical material in this chapter.

On Implementation Intentions

Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54(7), 493–503. The foundational paper introducing implementation intentions as a research construct. Clear, accessible, and important. Gollwitzer's meta-analytic work shows consistent, large effects of implementation intentions across hundreds of studies. Essential reading for anyone interested in the intention-action gap.

Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69–119. The definitive meta-analysis of implementation intention research: 94 independent studies, d = .65 on average. Covers the mechanisms (anticipatory mental link), moderators (goal commitment, accessibility of cue), and the range of domains in which effects have been found. More technical than the 1999 paper but comprehensive.

On Ego Depletion and the Revised Model

Hagger, M. S., Chatzisarantis, N. L. D., et al. (2016). A multilab preregistered replication of the ego-depletion effect. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 11(4), 546–573. The large pre-registered multi-lab replication (23 labs, N > 2,000) that found little to no ego depletion effect. A methodologically important paper that substantially revised the field's confidence in the original glucose model.

Inzlicht, M., Schmeichel, B. J., & Macrae, C. N. (2014). Why self-control seems (but may not be) limited. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 18(3), 127–133. An important theoretical paper proposing that depletion effects are better explained by shifts in motivation and attention than by glucose depletion. Accessible to non-specialists and provides the motivational model that replaced the simple resource model.

Job, V., Dweck, C. S., & Walton, G. M. (2010). Ego depletion — Is it all in your head? Implicit theories about willpower affect self-regulation. Psychological Science, 21(11), 1686–1693. Dweck and colleagues' influential findings that beliefs about willpower predict depletion effects: people who believe willpower is limited show depletion; people who believe it is unlimited do not. A critical paper for the motivational/belief-based model.

On Emotion Regulation

★ Gross, J. J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 271–299. The foundational paper introducing the process model of emotion regulation and the reappraisal-vs.-suppression distinction. Gross's writing is clear and conceptually elegant. Required reading for understanding the field.

Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 348–362. The empirical paper demonstrating the costs of habitual suppression (poorer relationships, lower well-being, less positive affect) and the benefits of habitual reappraisal. Accessible and practically important.

Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (1999). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An Experiential Approach to Behavior Change. Guilford Press. The foundational ACT text — more technical than popular books but important for understanding the theoretical underpinnings of acceptance-based emotion regulation. The sections on experiential avoidance and psychological flexibility are particularly relevant to this chapter.

Linehan, M. M. (1993). Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. Guilford Press. The foundational DBT text. The distress tolerance and emotion regulation skills modules are directly relevant to the response gap concept and the acceptance approach. More clinical than typical for this textbook, but a valuable resource for practitioners and for those who want the fullest treatment of self-regulation skills.

Accessible General Reading

★ McGonigal, K. (2012). The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It. Avery. A well-researched and accessible account of willpower science — covering the dual-process model, ego depletion, stress and self-regulation, self-compassion as a self-regulation aid, and environmental factors. Based on McGonigal's popular Stanford course. One of the best popular treatments of the field.

Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R. (2008). Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. Yale University Press. The foundational book on choice architecture and nudge theory — how structuring the environment in which choices are made systematically influences behavior. Directly relevant to environment design as a self-regulation strategy. Readable and practically important.

Ariely, D. (2008). Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. HarperCollins. Ariely's popular account of behavioral economics, including the self-control failures and commitment device strategies covered in this chapter. Particularly good on procrastination, social norms, and the gap between what we plan and what we do. Anecdote-heavy but research-grounded.

For the Academically Inclined

Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D., & Tice, D. M. (2007). The strength model of self-control. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16(6), 351–355. A concise, accessible summary of the strength/resource model — useful for understanding the original hypothesis and what specific claims it made. Read alongside the replication failures for a complete picture.

Metcalfe, J., & Mischel, W. (1999). A hot/cool-system analysis of delay of gratification: Dynamics of willpower. Psychological Review, 106(1), 3–19. The formal theoretical account of Mischel's hot/cool system — how attentional strategies regulate the degree to which immediate rewards hold motivational power. The conceptual framework underlying the attention cooling concept.

Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (1998). On the Self-Regulation of Behavior. Cambridge University Press. The most comprehensive theoretical treatment of self-regulation as a cybernetic control system — feedback loops, goal hierarchies, affect as signal. Technical but thorough. Best for graduate-level engagement with the theory.