Laura L. Huntzinger and Dr. Harold L. Miller, Psychology
Self-control has been defined by researchers as choosing larger, more delayed reinforcers over smaller, less delayed reinforcers (1). The term impulsiveness is used to describe the opposite of self-control, that is, choosing smaller, less delayed rewards rather than larger but more delayed rewards. Research involving adult humans has found that subjects almost always choose the self-control alternative in a lab setting. There are, however, many reasons for calling into question the generalizability of such research.
One reason is that adults often show impulsiveness in natural settings. Behaviors such as gambling, alcoholism, and birth control have all been described as forms of impulsiveness. It may be that the strong tendency to self-control behavior exhibited by adults in the laboratory setting is a reflection of research methods that are somehow too narrow or restrictive. The topic of gender differences in self-control among adults has been almost completely ignored by researchers. However, if laboratory settings normally show almost complete self-control behavior in adults, there may have been little, if any, room for a gender difference to emerge. The research reported here employed the Self-Control Schedule (2) to assess self-control behavior in subjects. The 36-item questionnaire includes a broad range of behaviors related to self-control, so it had greater potential to reveal individual differences, including gender differences.
One ability related to self-control for which a gender difference has been demonstrated is temporal perception. Empirical research on temporal perception has shown that women were “drastically” less accurate and more variable than men in their scores (3). Temporal perception has also been correlated with self-control. Gerbing, Ahadi & Patton (4) found that impulsive people tend to overestimate the passage of time.
The hypothesis of the present study was that if there is a gender difference in temporal perception, and if temporal perception affects self-control, then gender differences in self-control in adults should be correlated with gender differences in temporal perception.
Forty-three men and 50 women with ages 18-25 were recruited from introductory psychology courses at Brigham Young University. Subjects were tested individually in one of four rooms equipped with a panel of lights and push buttons placed on a table. The table also held a computer monitor and keyboard. The lights on the panel and the buttons were controlled by the MED-PC software system (5). The system also recorded subjects’ responses. Testing consisted of three parts: (1) temporal estimation, where subjects estimated the period of time that one of the panel lights was illuminated, (2) temporal production, where subjects illuminated a panel light for their estimation of a given time interval, and (3) administration of the SCS.
The results indicate that, on the temporal estimation task, subjects were more variable in their estimates; they did not consistently over- or under- estimate the actual intervals. However, the significant positive correlation for the temporal production task suggests that subjects tended to produce time intervals longer than the time intervals that were specified. Similarly, the absence of correlation between temporal perception and gender shows that males and females tended to be equally likely to overestimate the time intervals during temporal production and to be equally variable in their estimates within the temporal estimation task. Furthermore, no significant correlations were found between overall scores on the SCS and subjects’ performance on the temporal estimation or temporal production tasks. Nor was any significant correlation found between gender and SCS scores. Each SCS item was individually correlated with gender and the two temporal perception tasks. Only the correlation of Item 28 and the signed difference for temporal perception was significant.
The hypothesis of the present study rested on the assumption that gender differences in temporal perception could be reproduced and that those differences would be further displayed in subjects’ responses to the SCS. Since no gender differences emerged in temporal perception, no meaningful correlation to the overall score could be obtained. The absence of correlation between overall scores on the SCS and performance on either temporal perception tasks calls into question the claim that self-control and temporal perception are linked. Or perhaps it suggests that the sample used in this study was idiosyncratic in ways that would militate against significant correlations.
The research reported here is significant because it suggests that the gender differences in temporal perception previously reported may have, in part, been the result of the experimental procedures that were employed. The failure of the present study to reproduce such differences raises the possibility that the use of repeated trials involving a range of stipulated intervals may negate gender differences in performance. The placement of the temporal estimation procedure prior to the temporal production procedure may be similarly negating. If an experimental design could employ a broader definition of self-control and combine it with a task that reliably produced gender differences in temporal perception, the goal of the present study might yet be realized.
References
- Logue, A. W. (1995). Self Control. Englewood Cilffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
- Rosenbaum, M. (1980). A schedule for assessing self-control behaviors: Preliminary findings. Journal of Research in Personality, 19, 208-218.
- Carlson, V. R., & Feinberg, I. (1970). Time judgement as a function of method, practice and sex. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 55(2), 171-180.
- Gerbing, D. W., Ahadi, S. A., & Patton, J. H. (1987). Towards a conceptualisation of impulsivity: Components across the behavioural and self-report domains. Multivariate Behavioural Research, 22, 357-379.
- MED Associates, Inc.. (1999). MED-PC Program Manual. St Albans, VT: MED Associates.