This paper draws on work in the sciences of the mind to cast doubt on some assumptions that have often been made in the study of self-control. Contra a long, Aristotelian tradition, recent evidence suggests that highly self-controlled individuals do not have a trait very similar to continence: they experience relatively few desires that conflict with their evaluative judgments and are not especially good at directly and effortfully inhibiting such desires. Similarly, several recent studies have failed to support the view that self-control capacities are constituted, at least in part, by excellent inhibitory executive function ability. I propose an alternative “indirect harmony” hypothesis about trait self-control. According to this hypothesis, if there is a character trait of being highly self-controlled, it consists in motivational harmony within the mind that is brought about through the effective use of indirect resistance strategies that prevent occurrent motivational conflict from emerging in the first place. If this hypothesis is correct, high trait self-control in actual humans does not fit neatly into the traditional categories of either continence or temperance. I conclude by drawing out several implications this hypothesis has for future research on trait self-control and its relation to executive functions.

本文借鉴了心智科学的研究成果，对自我控制研究中经常做出的一些假设提出了疑问。与亚里士多德的悠久传统相反，最近的证据表明，自我控制力强的人没有与节制非常相似的特质：他们经历的欲望相对较少，与他们的评估判断相矛盾，并且不擅长直接，努力地抑制这种欲望。同样，最近的一些研究未能支持这种观点，即自我控制能力至少部分地由出色的抑制执行功能能力构成。我提出了关于特质自我控制的另一种“间接和谐”假设。根据这个假设，如果有一个高度自我控制的性格特征，它在于头脑中的动机和谐，这是通过有效利用间接抵制策略而产生的，这种策略首先避免了发生的动机性冲突。如果这个假设是正确的，那么实际人类的高性格自我控制就不能很好地适应节制或节制的传统范畴。最后，我提出了该假设对特质自我控制及其与执行功能的关系的未来研究的一些启示。