當自我資源耗竭面對維持正向自我評價需求時：自我調控的啟動與運作

Too Exhausted to Do It? Maybe Your Self-Evaluation is Not Involved: The Activation and Operation of Self-Regulation

Baumeister認為自我調控是有限資源，但當個體處於自我耗竭狀態時，個體本身信念及作業重要性會有調節效果，使得個體有著較佳的表現。Tesser則強調所有的自我功能相互影響，共同運作於自我系統來維持正向自我評價。本研究則希望結合兩者，提出所有自控行為運作在同一自我系統下共影響來維持正向自我評價的想法。我們預期當個體正向自我評價受威脅，此時即便自我調控控制資源已被消耗，個體還是會有動機去調控資源，以自我設限的方式來維護自我評價，但卻不會更進一步去擴大自我評價。本研究首先透過二個預試找到合適的自我資源耗竭作業及自我設限作業，正式研究則為2（自我設限傾向：低 vs. 高）× 2（自我資源耗竭程度：低 vs. 高）× 2（叫色作業性質：妨礙相關 vs. 妨礙無關）的三因子參與者間實驗設計，以叫色作業正確完成題數為依變項。結果符合研究假設，當受到威脅、自我設限傾向高時，若告知叫色作業會妨礙表現，此時即便自我耗竭程度高，參與者仍會顯著完成比告知叫色作業與表現無關組更多的題數。而當參與者自我設限傾向低時，告知叫色作業會妨礙表現，則不管參與者是否仍有資源，他們的表現並無顯著差異。這些結果顯示自我調控作業作用於同一自我系統，在自我資源耗竭程度高時，個體還是會願意去調度資源盡力從事自我設限的自控作業來維持正向自我評價，但卻不會去擴大化自我評價。

Baumeister proposes a strength model of self-regulation and suggests that self-control consumes inner resource, leaving individuals in a state of ego depletion and making them less able to perform subsequent self-control task. Other research suggests that the impairment of performance is only an indication of conservation. When the self-control resource is limited, individuals just become more discriminating as to the task that they are about to perform. That is, motivation might play an important role in self-regulation. Tesser suggests that different self-functions work under the same self-system to maintain rather than maximize one's positive self-evaluation. In the present study, we tried to combine these two lines of thinking and proposed that all self-control behaviors confluence one another to maintain a positive self-evaluation. Individuals would exert their remaining source, even in the high ego depletion condition, to perform an enhancement-related self-control task if their self-evaluation was threatened. Participants were randomly assigned to a 2 (success feedback: contingent vs. non-contingent) × 2 (ego depletion: low vs. high) × 2 (task type: performance-interfering vs. performance-irrelevant) experimental design. The main dependent measure was the number of trials accurately accomplished on the stroop task. Results gave support to our hypotheses. Individual who received non-contingent success feedback would manage to perform significantly more trials when they were told that the stroop task would interfere with their subsequent formal task than performance-irrelevant, even when they were highly depleted. Furthermore, when receiving contingent successful feedback (i.e., self-handicapping tendency was low), individuals with low ego depletion showed no differences on the performance with those who in the high ego depletion condition. In other word, we found individuals would manage to exert the remaining inner resource to accomplish more trials on the selfcontrol task which could provide “excuses” for their possible future failure, even when they were “exhausted.” However, their basic motive was to maintain rather than maximize their positive self-evaluation.