How do I help students have more willpower?
There are more effective techniques for self-control than trying to increase willpower. Here鈥檚 something I wrote about the topic for as a :
This year, I am fulfilling my lifelong dream of giving out full-size candy bars to trick-or-treaters on Halloween. I don鈥檛 have a bucket list, but if I did, this would be on it.
At this very moment, on a very high shelf in our basement, in a large cardboard box sealed with duct tape, sit dozens and dozens of Hershey bars, Reese鈥檚 peanut butter cups, Kit Kats, M&M鈥檚, and Snickers.
Why hide away this glorious bounty? Why not double the joy of anticipation by leaving the candy out in plain view?
My guess is that you know exactly why I鈥檝e stashed away the goodies. And you鈥檙e right. Hiding Halloween treats where we cannot see them is a clever trick. As the old saying goes, what鈥檚 out of sight is out of mind. In the scientific literature, the technique is called situation modification.
We鈥檙e not born knowing this self-control strategy. We learn it.
In the classic , most 4-year-old children prefer to wait with the marshmallows in plain sight. But two years later, children prefer to cover the marshmallows because, as one 6-year-old child explained, 鈥淚t would just seem like there were no marshmallows in this room.鈥�
Yet at any age, it helps to be reminded of this trick.
In one , both high school and college students were given a 15-minute lesson on situation modification and asked to apply it however they wanted in their everyday lives. Compared to a control group of students encouraged to use willpower, students taught situation modification were better able to achieve their academic goals the following week.
顿辞苍鈥檛 equate self-control with old-fashioned willpower. There are far more clever tricks for resisting temptation.
Do make self-control easier by using situation modification. Stashing Halloween candy where you can鈥檛 see it is just one idea. Another is keeping screens of any kind鈥攃ellphones, televisions, computers鈥攁way from bedrooms. The ways you can modify your situation are only limited by your imagination.
