http://www.spring.org.uk/images/tempted.jpg

 

“只要能够自我约束就尽情释放自己！”～麦克贾格尔

It's all right letting yourself go,

as long as you can get yourself back. mick Jagger

 

新近研究表明利用抽象推理有助于自制力提升。

New research suggests self-control

can be improved using abstract reasoning.

 

    诱惑万千，强烈、本能得让人无法抵抗。暴饮暴食，奢侈挥霍，恣意妄为。在脑海深处回荡的瞬间信息试图指引着我们的行为。

Temptation comes in many forms, often so potent, so animal, that it seems impossible to resist. Eating too much, drinking too much, spending too much or letting the heart rule the head. We get instant messages from deep in the gut that resonate through the mind, trying to dictate our behaviour.

 

    能够运用更高层次的认知功能——自制力来抵制各种诱惑是人类最为有用的技能之一，没有这种能力进步文明便不会存在。心理学家发现自制力与成功紧密相关，成功的因素包括高度的自尊、出色的人际沟通能力，恰当的情绪反应，以及也许让人惊讶的鲜有缺陷的高层自制力（Tangney et al., 2004）。

    One of humanity's most useful skills, without which advanced civilisations would not exist, is being able to engage our higher cognitive functions, our self-control, to resist these temptations. Psychologists have found that self-control is strongly associated with what we label success: higher self-esteem, better interpersonal skills, better emotional responses and, perhaps surprisingly, few drawbacks at even very high levels of self-control.

 

    人们，仅仅是人类，常常要与其强烈的基本需求和自制做着持续斗争。然而，俄亥俄州州立大学的Kentaro Fujita博士与其同事在最新实验研究中发现提供自制力的方法，自制力的源头以及时而失控的原因。

    People, being only human, find the constant battle with basic urges is frequently too great and their self-control buckles. However, recent experimental research by Dr Kentaro Fujita at Ohio State University and colleagues has explored ways of improving self-control, where it comes from and why it sometimes deserts us.

 

     在过去几十年的试验研究基础上，Fujita博士和同事们提出抽象思考与心理距离对于自制力至关重要。

    Based on new research, along with studies conducted over the past few decades, Dr Fujita and colleagues have proposed that abstract thinking and psychological distance are particularly important in self-control.

 1. 抽象思考有助于自制的依据

 1. Evidence that abstract thinking improves self-control

     两个人对相同的事情存在不同的观点，这样的事情司空见惯了，所谓仁者见仁，智者见智。然而我们看待人和事的方式并不只是受到一成不变的思维模式的限制。Fujita博士与同事们发现人们如何解释世界直接影响自制力。他们认为从更加抽象，更深层次的角度思考可以提高自制力。

It never ceases to amaze just how different two people's views of exactly the same event can be: one person's freedom fighter is another's terrorist. But the way in which we view people or events isn't just constrained by unchangeable patterns of thought that are set in stone. Dr Fujita and colleagues explored the idea that simple manipulations of how we construe the world can have a direct effect on self-control. Their hunch was that thinking from a more abstract, high-level perspective increases self-control.

 

     理论研究成果发表于期刊《性格和社会心理学》（Fujita et al. 2006），研究过程中针对解释或者口述事情的方式对自制力的影响做了大量实验。研究者面临的问题在于如何让人们自然无意识地解释事情：这需要设局。

     In their research, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Fujita et al. (2006) used a number of experiments to test the idea that self-control is affected by how we construe or interpret events. The problem for the researchers was manipulating aspects of people's construal without them realising: this required some deception.

 

    在Fujita et al(2006)一项研究中，参与者被告知他们要参加两项独立实验——一项性格测试，另一项告知为学生调查。事实上这就是将两项研究设计在一起进行的幌子而已。

    In one of Fujita et al.'s (2006) studies participants were told they were going to take part in two separate experiments - one on personality and another billed as a student survey. In fact this was just a cover story as the two pieces of research were designed to work together.

    用“学生调查”作为幌子的实验旨在测试不同程度解释的效果。他们要求参与者要么在深层次（抽象——纵观全局），要么在浅层次（具体——细看个体）思考。他们让参与者按照两种不同思考方式来考虑他们体质健康水平。

Experimenters used the 'student survey' as a cover to manipulate levels of construal. They needed participants to be thinking in either a high-level way (abstract - seeing the whole forest) or a low-level way (concrete - seeing individual trees). They did this by getting participants to think about their level of physical health, but in two different ways:

• 深层解释的情况：要求参与者思考为什么要保持身体健康，然后填写一份表格。很多参与者会这么写：“在学校表现良好。”这让他们想到的是目的，而不是方法——体质健康的根本目的。
• High-level construal condition: participants were asked to fill in a diagram which encouraged them to think about why they maintain good physical health. Participants tended to put answer such as: "To do well in school." This got them thinking about ends rather than means - the ultimate purpose of physical health.
• 浅层解释的情况：与前者相反，这种情况的参与者要求思考他们如何才能保持身体健康。很自然的答案是“锻炼”。换句话说他们关注的是方法，而不是目的，实际的过程。
• Low-level construal condition: in contrast participants in this condition were asked to think about how they maintained their physical health. Naturally they responded with things like: "Go exercise". In other words they focused on means rather than ends, the actual process.

     在进行解释层次实验之前的一项研究中，故意错误地告诉参与者要分开参加心理学上的性格测试，方法是紧握手柄。设计出来的手柄很难压到一起，但是要求参与者尽可能紧紧握住，为测量他们握力提供一个基线值。

Just before this manipulation of construal level, in a study they were misinformed was separate, participants were told their personality was being tested physiologically through holding a handgrip. This handgrip was designed to be difficult to squeeze together but participants were told to hold on as long as possible. This provided a baseline measurement of their grip strength.

     在完成解释层次测试之后，参与者的胳膊贴上假电极，让他们紧握手柄再次进行性格测试。尽管这次告诉他们握手柄时间越长，测试信息越准确。但问题是参与者一旦知道了获取性格信息的目的后，他们怎么能忘记紧握手柄的暂时疼痛？

 Just after the manipulation of construal level participants had dummy electrodes attached to their arm and were told that their personality could be measured while they squeezed the stiff handgrip again. This time, though, they were told that the longer they could squeeze the handgrip the more accurate the information would be. The question was: how well could participants forget the temporary discomfort of holding the handgrip once they had been told about the desired goal of getting information about their own personalities?

      试验结果证实了Fujita et al(2006)的猜想。参加浅层解释（思考手段而不是目的）的参与者紧握手柄时间平均比基线测试时候短了4.9秒。

The results confirmed Fujita et al.'s (2006) suspicions. They showed that participants in the low-construal thinking condition (thinking about means rather than ends) held on to the handgrip for, on average, 4.9 seconds less than they had during the baseline measurement.

     与之相反，参加深层解释的参与者的时间比基线测试时候长了11.1秒。无论是思考手段还是目的，两者都对紧握手柄的时间有比较大的影响。那些鼓励参加深层的，抽象阶段测试的参与者，为了得到更为准确的性格描述，在面对手柄压力的时候表现出来更强的自制力。

In contrast those in the high-construal condition held on for 11.1 seconds longer than their baseline measurement. Whether participants were thinking about means or ends had a really significant effect on how long they squeezed the handgrip. Those participants who had been encouraged to think in high-level, abstract terms demonstrated greater self-control in enduring the discomfort of the handgrip in order to receive more accurate personality profiles.

     Fujita et al.(2006)还使用不同自制力评定方法和深层或者浅层解释的不同诱导方式进行了试验研究。这些试验结果大致相似，深层解释情况下的人一直：

• 似乎更可以避免瞬间快乐的诱惑；
• 准备在健康检查方面做更多投资；
• 基本不会正面评价啤酒和电视那样的诱惑；
  

Along with this design Fujita et al. (2006) also carried out other studies using different measures of self-control and different ways of inducing either high-level or low-level construal. These produced similar findings. People in the high-level construal condition were consistently:

• More likely to avoid the temptation of instant gratification.
• Prepared to make a greater investment to learn more about their health status.
• Less likely to evaluate temptations like beer and television positively.

2. 性格和环境如何影响自制力
2. How personality and the situation affect self-control

     自制力不仅仅受到特定时间下的思维影响，如果是那样的话太简单了。我们每个人都有自己的自制力。一些人似乎很容易抵制诱惑，而其他人可能总是容易自我满足。在一定程度上，我们必须承认还处于自制阶段的起点，并尽全力做好。

Self-control is not just affected by how we are thinking at a specific moment, that would be too easy. We have each developed different amounts of self-control. Some people seem to find it easy to resist temptation while others can be relied on to always yield to self-gratification. To a certain extent we have to accept our starting point on the self-control sliding scale and do the best we can with it.

 

    尽管有些人有或高或低的自制力，三分之二的人能力一般：有时候很容易抵制诱惑，有时候却很难。自然而然，实际情况对我们自制力的发挥有着巨大影响。心理学家发现，对于自制力至关重要的不同状态，其一个特性就是“心理距离”。

    Although a few people have very high (or very low) levels of self-control, two-thirds of us lie somewhere near the middle: sometimes finding it easy to resist temptation, other times not. Naturally the exact situation has a huge effect on how much self-control we can exert. One property of different situations central to self-control that psychologists have examined is 'psychological distance'.

      研究发现，当人们在时间宽裕的情况下思考问题，更容易做出决定并表现出来自制力，比方说安排下周的训练量，或者明天要吃什么(Fujita, 2008)。与之相似的，站在别人立场上比自己更会做出周密的决策。人在潜意识遵循这样的格言：说一套、做一套。

Research reveals that people find it much easier to make decisions that demonstrate self-control when they are thinking about events that are distant in time, for example how much exercise they will do next week or what they will eat tomorrow (Fujita, 2008). Similarly they make much more disciplined decisions on behalf of other people than they do for themselves. People implicitly follow the maxim: do what I say, not what I do.

      不难发现“心理距离”和深层解释之间相同之处。两者都强调一个观点：我们自己和特定决策或事情之间的心理或者概念距离越远，我们越以抽象的方式去思考，自制力也可以更好的表现。就在于形成一种特殊类型的客观。

It's not hard to see the convergence between the idea of 'psychological distance' and high-level construal. Both emphasise the idea that the more psychological or conceptual distance we can put between ourselves and the particular decision or event, the more we are able to think about it in an abstract way, and therefore the more self-control we can exert. It's all about developing a special type of objectivity.

 3. 如何提高你的自制力

3. How to improve your self-control

      Fujita et al(2006)的研究结果和Fujita(2008)一些相似结论都表明自制力通过这些相关思考方式得以提升。

Fujita et al.'s (2006) studies, along with other similar findings reported by Fujita (2008), suggest that self-control can be increased by these related ways of thinking:

• 全局处理。意思是关注于木头还不是树木：纵观全局，以及只是全盘计划或者目的的一部分特定动作。比方说：想要吃的健康，就应该重视最终目标，以及每次饮食如何利于或者不利于目标实现的。
• Global processing. This means trying to focus on the wood rather than the trees: seeing the big picture and our specific actions as just one part of a major plan or purpose. For example, someone trying to eat healthily should focus on the ultimate goal and how each individual decision about what to eat contributes (or detracts) from that goal.
• 抽象推理。也就是说避免考虑当前环境中特定细节部分，而考虑全局情况下如何应对——做到冷静处理。有些人想将自制更多地加入训练体系中，可能就不考虑训练的细节，转而重视理想的身体自我的抽象部分或者如何训练身心贯通。
• Abstract reasoning. This means trying to avoid considering the specific details of the situation at hand in favour of thinking about how actions fit into an overall framework - being philosophical. Someone trying to add more self-control to their exercise regime might try to think less about the details of the exercise, and instead focus on an abstract vision of the ideal physical self, or how exercise provides a time to re-connect mind and body.
• 深层分类。意思是考虑深层概念，而不是特定对象。如果过度关注每天进度的细节而忘记最终目标，任何一个长期项目，无论是商业，学术或其他都会陷入困境。将任务或者项目阶段概念化分类会有助于个人或者团队维持他们焦点，从而达到更好的自律。
• High-level categorisation. This means thinking about high-level concepts rather than specific instances. Any long-term project, whether in business, academia or elsewhere can easily get bogged down by focusing too much on the minutiae of everyday processes and forgetting the ultimate goal. Categorising tasks or project stages conceptually may help an individual or group maintain their focus and achieve greater self-discipline.

    这些只是一个特定的例子，不过发挥点创意，同样的原理能够适用于需要自制的很多环境里。最后这三种思考方法成了描述同样事情的不同方法：避免思路过于狭窄和局限；尝试全局地、客观地，抽象思维；提高自制力应该遵循。
    These are just some examples of specific instances, but with a little creativity the same principles can be applied to many situations in which self-control is required. Ultimately these three ways of thinking are different ways of saying much the same thing: avoid thinking locally and specifically and practice thinking globally, objectively and abstractly, and increased self-control should follow.