Raising self-controlled children

Raising self-controlled children Dorothee Horstkötter Introduction Self-control is everywhere Lack of self-control considered major social problem 1990 1994 2011 2012 Nov 2013 Is there a parental responsibility to install self-control in children? If so, what does it entail? Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 2 Introduction Overview 1. Recent studies on the relevance of self-control 2. Recent neurobiological/genomics research 3. Apparent conclusion: Raising self-controlled children to achieve health, wealth and public safety 4. Raise what? 1. Self-control as goal-achievement: Willpower versus self-control skills 2. The self of self-control: Self-control as goal-construction and -evaluation 5. Neuroscience and new parental responsibilities? 6. Conclusion Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 3 1. Recent studies on the relevance of self-control Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 4 1. Recent studies on the relevance of self-control Child self-control at 3 years predicts: - Physical health - Substance dependence - Personal finances - Criminal offending outcomes 40 years later Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 5 2. Neurobiological/genomics research Neuroscience (selection) Emerging understanding of neuropsychological bases of self-controlled behaviour (domain-general framework) Lesions studies [in children]: - Distinct developmental differences after prefrontal lesions - Altered integration and interplay of various deficits that contribute to frontal lobe syndromes Functional neuroimaging studies (fMRI) - Goal-directed decisions basis in a signal encoded in ventromedial PFC Exercising self-control: modulation of the signal by dorsolateral PFC Differences in vmPFC activities in dieters & non-dieters Methamphetamine abusers specific self-control deficits in motor, cognitive and affective control and structural differences in ventrolateral PFC - Inhibitory control recruits an interacting network of brain-regions Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 6 2. Neurobiological/genetics research Genetics (selection) Heritability studies Genetic influence on personality traits, psychological interest, social attitudes Molecular genetics (candidate genes) Monoamine oxidase-a genetic variations influence brain activity associated with inhibitory control Polymorphism of the COMT gene (affects dopaminergic neurotransmitter system) associated with differences in the prefrontal executive control network Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 7 3. Apparent conclusion: Raise self-controlled children Policy implications (Moffitt et al.) - Install early intervention programs for young children - Interventions in adolescence to prevent/ameliorate mistakes - Support self-controlled decisions by opt-out programs (default does not require ‘difficult’ self-control) - Policy interventions to render self-control superfluous - Policy interventions to make self-controlled decisions more easy (ban cigarettes, obligation to wear safety bells, etc) Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 8 3. Apparent conclusion: Raise self-controlled children Intervention implications (Berkman, Graham & Fisher, 2012) Focus on young children (more amendable to intervention) Focus on one particular aspect of self-control (yield success in others too) Improve self-control precondition for additional interventions FMRI studies to test intervention readiness or gains related to selfcontrol Targeted intervention that specifically activate specific brain regions considered relevant for self-control tasks Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 9 3. Apparent conclusion: Raise self-controlled children Parenting implications ? - Relevance of early childhood - Implications for the meaning of ‘good parenthood’ - Parental responsibility to install/foster self-control in children and safeguard their future health, wealth and law-abidingness Raising self-controlled children !? Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 10 4. Varieties of self-control Self-control in social psychology “Self-control involves the ability to prevent or override unwanted thoughts, behaviours and emotions” (Muraven, Baumeister & Tice 1999) Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 11 4. Varieties of self-control Self-control in social psychology “Self-control involves the ability to prevent or override unwanted thoughts, behaviours and emotions” (Muraven, Baumeister & Tice 1999) Focus 1: prevent or override Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 12 4. Varieties of self-control Self-control in social psychology “Self-control involves the ability to prevent or override unwanted thoughts, behaviours and emotions” (Muraven, Baumeister & Tice 1999) Focus 1: prevent or override Focus 2: unwanted Different implications regarding parental responsibility Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 13 4. Varieties of self-control Self-control in social psychology (prevent and override) Self-control tests typically psychological tests 1) Test children’s capacity to delay gratification. 2) Test differences in self-control in subsequent self-control tasks Commonalities Pre-given goal, self-control supports goal-achievement/overcome temptation Differences Willpower, mental strength, mental muscle versus Strategy, skill, plan, etc. Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 14 4. Varieties of self-control Self-control in social psychology (prevent and override) Self-control as control of the self by the self Willpower/Self-control skill: control of the self (self the object of selfcontrolled behavior) Self-control as control by the self? Not goal-achievement, but goal-setting/-construction/-evaluation Self as the subject of self-controlled behavior Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 15 4. Varieties of self-control Self-control in social psychology and neuroscience Self-control studies in neuroscience sole focus on strength model Self-control to achieve pre-set goals Normative value of these goals! Source of this normative value? Tension goal-achievement versus goal-adjustment Reasons needed for the one or the other The self: control by the self Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 16 4. Varieties of self-control Self-control in social psychology (unwanted) i) Self-determination theory Control versus self-determination Assumption: controlled action less successful than self-determined action (goals the value of which one appreciates and which constitute a reason to achieve it) ii) Self-control versus self-regulation Self-regulation maintaining one’s action in line with one’s integrated self Current neuroscience research pays no attention to these understandings of self-control Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 17 5. Neuroscience and new parental responsibilities? Parental responsibilities and self-control Educational goals I - Obedience - Ability to accept and follow externally-set rules - Suppress impulses, ‘first order desires’ Educational goals II - Become autonomous person - Develop ‘second order desires’ - Develop a self/personality - Become able to set goals (for reasons) - Evaluate goals (achievable, desireable) Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 18 5. Neuroscience and new parental responsibilities? Neuroscience on self-control and parental responsibilities It depends: Educational goals I: Maybe Educational goals II: No Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 19 5. Neuroscience and new parental responsibilities? Neuroscience on self-control and parental responsibilities It depends: Educational goals I: Maybe Educational goals II: No - Empirical question whether/how exactly parenting (and interventions in parenting) makes a difference in the neurobiological development of the brains of children. - Brain training interventions, emerging evidence, currently tested - Remaining challenge: Invoke self-control for which goals? - Parental responsibility: raising children to achieve distant goals goes together with care to not install too much (rigidity) or errant self-control (for bad goals) Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 20 5. Neuroscience and new parental responsibilities? Neuroscience on self-control and parental responsibilities It depends: Educational goals I: Maybe Educational goals II: No Not investigated by current neurosciences Not investigatable by current/future neuroscience [There probably is a parental responsibility to raise autonomous children, yet no implications regarding this responsibility because of recent findings in neuroscience] Fundamental normative questions which goals to go for and why. Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 21 6. Conclusion Neuroscience and genomics research potentially relevant for insight into the generation of human behavior. Also more detailed evidence in this regard, will not establish a direct link on how to raise our children Remains a normative rather than a biological question. ... Only, after the normative question has been addressed, neuroscience might be invoked to achieve what is considered desirable. “Which thoughts, behaviors and emotions are undesirable and ought to be prevented or overridden” Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 22 THANK YOU [email protected] Department Health, Ethics, and Society Dorothee Horstkötter 23