Page 74 - The Importance of Common Metrics for Advacing Social Science Theory and Research

The Importance of Common Metrics for Advancing Social Science Theory and Research: A Workshop Summary
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/13034.html

62 THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMON METRICS

and lending and high-risk investments made with little or no concern for
potential long-term consequences.
It is difficult for Hoyle to imagine how he might have a measure with-
out a model. However, it is very clear to him that there is no commonly
accepted model of self-regulation at this time. Although there is currently
no consensus regarding even its definition, a working definition of self-
regulation might be the various means by which human beings manage
themselves, including the following:

• Attention—the degree to which one is able to stay focused on an
important task in the face of distraction;
• Cognition—the degree to which one is able to produce positive
thoughts or suppress negative thoughts when distressed;
• Motivation—finding the will to continue in the face of challenge
and stopping when continuing is unlikely to produce a desired
outcome;
• Emotion—seeking or prolonging pleasant emotions and resisting
or quickly banishing unpleasant emotions; and
• Behavior—for example, declining a second helping of food when
it is offered, going to the gym when it is inconvenient or requires
sacrificing preferred behavior.

In each of these systems, Hoyle noted two conceptual distinctions; first, the
idea of self-stopping and self-starting and, second, the idea of deliberate
versus automatic actions.
Hoyle next provided evidence of the predictive potency of self-
regulation from three research studies. Building on earlier studies on chil-
dren’s ability to self-regulate by delaying gratification, Walter Mischel and
colleagues (1989) found that preschool delay time predicted a number of
fairly consequential outcomes, including academic and social competence,
coping ability, and personality characteristics in adolescence (e.g., greater
attentiveness, planfulness, and reasoning ability). Caspi and Moffitt’s large-
scale birth cohort study revealed that children who were considered “under-
controlled” at age 3 were, at age 18, high on impulsivity, danger-seeking,
and various other traits that are related to poor self-control; at age 21,
some 18 years after their initial assessment, they were more than twice as
likely than their counterparts to engage in a variety of problem behaviors.
Finally, James Heckman’s research on early deficits in self-regulation found
that they translate to reduced personal, social, and economic productivity
in adulthood. Heckman posits that early childhood investments that narrow
the gap in noncognitive abilities can offer a ninefold return on investment,
yielding a 15-17 percent increase in adult economic productivity and mak-
ing a compelling case for early intervention.

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