Beyond Talent: The role of

self-control in achievement
Angela Lee Duckworth
Presentation to Evergreen School
November 2009

Overview

Self-control, intelligence, and achievement

Gender differences in self-control
Self-control in adolescence
Building self-control in our children

self-control =
the regulation of emotions,
attention, and behavior in the
service of a valued goal
*also referred to as self-discipline,
self-regulation, effortful control,
willpower

One of the most significant

contrasts among the factors
residing within the individual is
that between capacity and
industry

Clark Hull, 1928

Intelligence and
willingness to work
are not yoked.

Figure reproduced from Lubinski and Benbow (2006)

Skill

Peak skill is reached

after years of practice

Age (years)
Figure adapted with permission from The scientific study of expert levels of performance by K.A. Ericsson, p. 90, 1998

many who are capable of the higher

pleasures, occasionally, under the
influence of temptation, postpone them to
the lower. But this is quite compatible with
a full appreciation of the intrinsic
superiority of the higher. Men often, from
infirmity of character, make their election
for the nearer good, though they know it
to be the less valuable

--John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism

Marshmallow Test

Four-year old preschoolers

One marshmallow now vs. two later
Wait time in seconds predicts SAT scores more than 10
years later, as well as a range of social-cognitive,
personal and other competencies.
(explains 18% of variance in verbal SAT and 32% of variance in
math SAT scores)

Study 1: self-control Outdoes

IQ

A prospective longitudinal study

of college-bound adolescents
Eighth graders (N = 164) at urban school
Self-control and IQ measured in the fall
Academic performance measured in the
spring
GPA
Achievement test scores
Attendance
Studying and lifestyle habits

Questionnaires
Brief Self-Control Scale (Tangney,
Baumeister, & Boone, 2004)
Example item: Pleasure and fun sometimes
keep me from getting work done.
Completed by students, parents, homeroom
teachers

Eysenck Impulsiveness Scale

Example item: Do you save regularly?
Completed by students

Value

Monetary Choice Questionnaire

Subject 1

Subject 2

A
V=
1 + kD

Subject 3

Delay

Figure adapted from Green, Frey, and Myerson, 1994

Choice Delay Task

Participants are given
a $1
The choice is posed:
$1 now or $2 in a
week
About 20% of
participants choose
$1 now

V=

A
(1 + k )d

A composite self-control score

predicted academic performance
better than did IQ

Self-control also predicted gains in

GPA over the school year

Study 1 findings
Self-control explained more of the
variation in academic outcomes than did
IQ
More importantly, because self-control
was not strongly related to IQ (r = .13, ns),
self-control provided incremental
predictive validity over and beyond IQ

Study 2: Self-Control Gives

Girls the Edge

Underprediction
Girls earn higher grades than boys in all
subjects at all grade levels
Girls do not consistently outperform boys
on standardized tests of achievement or
aptitude
Hence, standardized tests tend to
underpredict grades earned by girls and to
overpredict grades earned by boys

Girls in our study earned

significantly higher grades but not
achievement test or IQ scores

Girls were more self-controlled

An advantage in self-control
partially explains superior report
card grades
self-control
= .20**

Gender

= .64***
(c.f. gender)

= .26***
= .12*

GPA

Adolescence is the perfect

storm

The enigma of adolescence

I would there were no age between sixteen
and three-and-twenty, or that youth would
sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in
the between but getting wenches with
child, wronging the ancientry, stealing,
fighting
-Shakespeare, Winters Tale

Sensation seeking peaks in

adolescence

Fostering self-control

William James
Psychology is a
science, and teaching
is an art; and
sciences never
generate arts directly
out of themselves. An
intermediary inventive
mind must make the
application.
-Talks to Teachers, 1899

Self-control may be more teachable

Personality changes more across the life course
than IQ
Personality may be less heritable

Strategy = a plan or method

originally from the Greek strategia for
military general

Insights from the marshmallow

studies
Strategic use of distraction
Not looking at the marshmallow

Cognitive transformation
Thinking of the marshmallow as a fluffy, white
cloud

Repeating the contingency

If I wait, then Ill get two!

Temptations are idiosyncratic

Applying these lessons

Strategic use of distraction
Keep the wii out of sight and out of mind

Cognitive transformation
Is homework a chore, a duty, or an
opportunity?

Repeating the contingency

If I turn this project in on time, I will improve
my grade

Temptations are idiosyncratic

Identifying Achilles' heel temptations

If-then planning
Self-control is not helped much by Try your
best! exhortations
Specific goals are more effective (e.g., Complete
your math homework every day.)
When goals are specific, feedback is possible.

An if-then plan specifies where, when, and how

you will accomplish your goal
If it is a weekday at 6pm, I will go to my room and
open my book bag to do my work.
And, If my brother bothers me, I will

From strategies to habits

Our virtues are habits as
much as our vicesour
nervous systems have
grown to the way in which
they have been
exercised, just as a sheet
of paper or a coat, once
creased or folded, tends
to fall forever afterward
into the same identical
folds
--William James (1899)

Summary
Self-control and IQ are not highly related
Self-control can be more important to
academic achievement than IQ
Girls seem to have a slight advantage in
self-control
How can self-control be cultivated?
Strategies tools of the mind can be
taught.

Thank you!