Haneul Jang

Freshman Composition

Adrian James Wright

November 6, 2018

Role of Self-Control in Academic Achievement

 

Self-Control is the ability “to change and adapt the self so as to produce a better, more optimal fit between self and world” (Rothbaum et al., 1982 as cited in Tangney, Baumeister, & Boone, 2004. Print). The role of self-control in academic achievement is extremely important. There have been many studies that look at how different aspects of self-control effect academic performance as well as studies looking into whether self-control or IQ is a better predictor of academic performance. We begin to develop self-control at a very young age, however since self-control is managed primarily by the prefrontal cortex it is not fully developed until our 20’s (Fuster, 1988. Print). This means that there is a large span of time to influence the development of ones self-control. Parents and teachers have been shown to play an important role in the development of a child’s self-control. It is important to understand how a parent’s or teacher’s interactions with a child can affect the development of the child’s self-control. The lack of awareness by parents and teachers of the role they play in the development of children’s self-control can cause unintentional damage to the long term success of the children and therefore awareness needs to be raised in order to prevent this as much as possible.

One’s self-control in childhood can help predict their success later in life. Mischel and his colleagues conducted a study known as the marshmallow study to examine the importance of self-control. The participants in the study were preschoolers. The researcher left a marshmallow on a plate in front of each child. The researchers explained to each child that if they waited until the researcher returned, he or she would receive an additional marshmallow, but if a child could not wait, then he or she could just ring a bell and eat the marshmallow without waiting for the additional one more marshmallow. Then, the researchers conducted a followed-up of each of the participants about 40 years later. The result of the follow-up showed that the children who successfully waited for the researcher to return in order to receive an additional marshmallow performed better at self-control as adults (Mischel et al., 2011. Print).  This study indicated that self-control, during childhood, could be a very important factor leading to one’s success in life. To develop a child’s self-control skills, the role of parents and teachers play a very important part in the child’s development.  If this influence fails, it can lead to a lack of self-control and affect the child’s learning ability.

Parents play a role in the development of children’s self-control. The deficiency of parents to place limits on some of their children’s activities can lead to a child developing learning problems related to self-control. Flanders et al. (2009) conducted a study of rough and tumble play between a father and his preschool child to determine the children’s ability to regulate their aggression. The result showed that children with set limits of play with their father had low levels of aggression. A contrasting observation of children without any regulation on limits of rough and tumble play with their father lead to behavior problems (Flanders et al., 2009. Print). Adding to this study, Honken (2013) found that people with lack of self-control can lead to risky behavior, such as drugs or alcohol abuse, and a lack of diligence and persistence was more likely among those with a lower level of self-control than among those with higher levels of self-control. Therefore, due to aggression and behavior problems among high school students, especially seniors, there were instances of involvement in risky behavior, difficulty in making right choices, difficulty in using time wisely, unable to avoid emotional distractions, not being able to establish goals and inability to focus to accomplish given tasks necessary for learning (Honken, 2013).

According to Paquette (2004), a father can help their children, between the ages of 2 and 6 years old, to manage their aggressive emotions and develop one’s self-regulation skills using rough and tumble play. Rough and tumble play is a specific form of physical play. Some examples of rough and tumble play are wrestling, chasing, tumbling, jumping, and grappling (Pellegrini & Smith, 1998). Paquette’s study (2004) showed that children can more effectively manage their self-control when the father sets limits during rough and tumble play. One way for fathers to be successful during rough and tumble play is to be a leader who sets limits and regulates the flow of the play. The study shows that when fathers play a leadership role, children do not show as high levels of aggression than those whose father’s did not set limits. However, when fathers do not set limits and do not act as a leader, children are too rough and show more aggression than children with the limits in place (Paquette, 2004). Therefore, to develop one’s self-control, fathers can teach children how to calm down when they reach the edge of uncontrollable emotion during rough and tumble play (Tannock, 2006). 

Teachers also play a critical role in the development of one’s self-control. A study by Bembenutty (2011) supports the role of teachers and their need to motivate students on the importance of completing homework. If their students do not understand the importance of learning and completing homework, they miss the contribution of these accomplishments to the development of self-control. The study also mentioned that teachers and parents, who only focus on raising a students’academic performance, only achieve short-term success and do little to develop the student’s self-control skills. The result is that the student does not learn delayed gratification, which can have a long-term impact for learning in college and throughout the individual’s life (Bembenutty, 2011). Furthermore, according to Honken and his colleagues (2013), their study indicated that self-control had a direct relationship to learning and a student’s GPA. Students with a lack of self-control tend to have a lower GPA for their first quarter of school than students with good self-control. He stated that “first semester GPA is caused by self-control or lack of self-control and academic performance. It is becoming apparent that this is an important trait for students to be successful academically”(Honken et al., 2013). 

Failure to complete homework and developing self-control are highly related. Due to these teachers can play a large role in the development of one’s self-control (Ramdass, 2011). Ramdass (2011) explains how to engage students to complete homework assignments while they exercise self-control. Zimmerman (2000) identified three sequential phases of how self-control develops while a student is completing homework. First, during the forethought process, students identify learning strategy and find their own way to complete the homework assignments successfully. Second, during the performance phase, students seek help for their homework assignments from knowledgeable people who are using self-monitoring and self-control strategies. Third, during the self-reflection phase, students examine their homework efforts and also evaluate their standards for learning and their feeling of satisfaction (Zimmerman, 2000). According to Ramdass, (2011), for elementary school students, homework assignments should be short and easy to complete so it can help students to have a positive attitude on learning and completing their homework. To develop a student’s time management skills and self-reflection, teachers can make a homework checklist. In the checklist, teachers can include the planned time of starting and completing homework, how students avoided distractions, and how students motivated themselves to complete homework. Moreover, teachers can make homework logs for students to record their feelings and behavior after completing homework. For older students, teachers can provide effective strategies to complete homework such as organizing their desk, setting priorities, how to manage time, how to avoid distractions, and how to manage unwanted emotions (Ramdass, 2011).

Some may believe that IQ is the key to predicting academic success, however studies have shown that self-control is a better predictor of academic success than IQ. Duckworth and Seligman (2005) performed a two part study using 140 eighth grade students and 164 eighth grade students. In part one of the study the participants’ self-control was evaluated using self-report, parent report, teacher report and a monetary questionnaire. In part two of the study the participants performed a behavioral delay of gratification task, completed a questionnaire on study habits and a group-administered IQ test. Academic achievement was assessed 7 months later. The findings suggest that self-control is a better indicator of academic success than IQ is. The failure to exercise self-control is also suggested to explain why students fall short of their intellectual potential (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005). 

The research on self-control and academic achievement is vast, however, as seen in some of the research examined here, there are many ways adults can influence a child’s self-control development that they may not be aware of. The concept of delayed gratification for example is not something most parents think to practice with their children on a regular basis. You may have heard parents say something like “he’s just being a boy”when a young boy is playing rough with his father, siblings, or friends and they blow it off even if someone gets hurt instead of teaching the child that you can not be that rough because “he’s just being a boy”. They are not aware that allowing this level of rough play as a child is teaching them that it is ok to show aggression which has a lasting impact later in life. There are many little ways we can influence the development of a child’s self-control early in life and more attention should be paid to these actions in order to help provide our children with the tools to be as successful as possible.

Works Sited

Bembenutty, H. “Homework completion: The role of selfefficacy, delay of gratification, and self-regulatory processes.” The International Journal of Educational and Psychological Assessment (2010): 20.

Bembenutty, H. “Meaningful and maladaptive homework practices: The role of self-efficacy and self-regulation.” Journal of Advanced Academics (2011): 448-473.

Broidy, L, D Nagin, R Tremblay, J Bates, B Brame and K Dodge. “Developmental Trajectories of Childhood Disruptive Behaviors and Adolescent Delinquency: A Six-Site, Cross-National Study.” Developmental Psychology 39.(2003): 222-245.

Duckworth, A L. and M E. Seligman. “Self-Discipline Outdoes IQ in Predicting Academic Performance of Adolescents.” Psychological Science 16.(2005): 939-944.

Flanders, J L., V Leo, D Paquette and R Pihl. “Rough-and-tumble play and the regulation of aggression: An observational study of father-child play dyads.” Aggressive Behavior 35.(2009): 285-295.

Fuster, J. “Prefrontal Cortex (pp.” 107-109). n.p.: n.p., 11 . 6 Nov. 2018.

Honken, N B. and P S. Ralston. “High-achieving high school students and not so high-achieving college students: A look at lack of self-control, academic ability, and performance in college.” Journal of Advanced Academics 24.(2013): 108-124.

Mischel, W, O Ayduk and M Berman. “‘Willpower’ over the life span: Decomposing self-regulation.” Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 6(2), 252-256. n.p.: n.p., 4 . 6 Nov. 2018.

Paquette, D. “Theorizing the Father-Child Relationship: Mechanisms and Developmental Outcomes.” Human Development 47.(2004): 193-219.

Pellegrini, A and P Smith. “Physical Activity Play: The Nature and Function of a Neglected Aspect of Play.” Child Development 69.(1998): 577-598.

Ramdass, D and B J. Zimmerman. “Developing Self-Regulation Skills: The Important Role of Homework.” Journal of Advanced Academics 22.(2011): 194-218.

Tangney, J P., R F. Baumeister and A L. Boone. “High Self-Control Predicts Good Adjustment, Less Pathology, Better Grades, and Interpersonal Success.” Journal of Personality 72.(2004): 271-324.

Tannock, M T.. “Young children’s rough and tumble play: An exploratory study.” Dissertation Abstracts International Section A (2006): 1645.

Zimmerman, B J.. “Attaining self-regulation: A social cognitive perspective.” In M. Boekaerts (2000):

The reason I chose this topic is that self control is important to everyone. I chose two genres which are social media and internet news. First, my audience is everyone especially parents with a child and teachers. Nowadays, no one is without a smartphone. And people spend a lot of time using phone. I am going to use social media. For example, facebook, twitter, instagram and youtube. There are many advertisement. I will use a short advertisement to inform why self control is important and how much influence parents and teachers have on their children. Also, I will put self-control learning in an ads. Then, when people watch Facebook or YouTube, they will see the ad. 

Second, it is internet news like a small article. When people go to the school or work, they use their phone. And these days, people read more e-news than paper news. I am going to use small article which is about the self-control. For example, when should children learn self-control, how parents teach their children it? Also, how can adults improve self-control?  I will put these contents in the small article. 

PPT

HANEUL JANg  

ARTICLE

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-self-control-works/