Autonomously regulated self-control typically does not reduce over time as much,
compared with self-control underpinned by controlled motivation. The proposed
study tested whether an acute stress response is implicated in this process. Utilizing a
framework grounded in self-determination theory, this study examined whether participants' motivational regulation would influence repeated self-control performance
and acute stress levels, measured by the stress hormone cortisol. A single-blind
randomized experimental design incorporating two motivational conditions (autonomous regulation and controlled regulation) tested these hypotheses. Participants (female = 28; male = 11; Mage = 22.33) performed three sequential self-control tasks; a
modified Stroop task followed by two “wall sit” postural persistence tasks. Salivary
cortisol was measured at baseline and after each of the wall sits. A repeated measures
ANCOVA unexpectedly revealed that participants in the controlled regulation condition recorded greater wall sit performance in the first and second wall sits, compared
with the autonomous condition. A repeated measures ANCOVA also revealed a significant quadratic interaction for cortisol. Controlled regulation was associated with
an increase, and autonomous regulation condition a decrease, in cortisol that subsided at timepoint two. Results imply autonomous motivation facilitates an adaptive
stress response. Performance on the self-control tasks was contrary to expectations,
but may reflect short-term performance benefits of controlled motivation.
Funding
National Institute for Health Research
History
School
Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
Published in
Psychophysiology
Volume
58
Issue
11
Publisher
Wiley on behalf of Society for Psychophysiological Research
This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Wiley under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/