It is a generally accepted fact that self-control can allow people to achieve goals and better health. Beyond that, a recent study shows that having higher self-control is also associated with greater happiness and life satisfaction. Regulatory focus plays a role in this relationship. (Regulatory focus is defined as “the way people frame and direct their goal pursuit strategies.”) For example, someone who is dieting, with chocolate cake in front of him/her, could take on a promotion-focused view to advance to the goal by thinking “I want to eat healthy foods” rather than the prevention-focused view by thinking “I should not eat sweets”. Recent research has suggested that regulatory focus is influenced by one’s self-control levels, showing that individuals with low self-control exhibited enhanced motivation for protection with heightened perceived vulnerability, leading to a prevention-focused orientation. Therefore, it would be reasonable to speculate that individuals with more self-control have more promotion focus. Since greater promotion focus is found to be associated with more happiness, the study concludes that more self-control is associated with increased happiness. It is interesting to note that this contradicts the traditional view that self-control is associated with prevention focus. The study mentions that although it is true that self-control often leads to inhibitory behaviors, but let us not forget that the more successful examples of self-control tends to be invested towards inhibitory behaviors that help people advance to a positive long-term goal (Eg. having an overall healthy diet instead of just not eating this chocolate cake). The last thing to note is that this study only shows a correlation, not a causation.
Reference:
Cheung TTL, Gillebaart M, Kroese F, Ridder DD. Why are people with high self-control happier? The effect of trait self-control on happiness as mediated by regulatory focus. Front Psychol. 2014; 5: 722.