Do You Follow Your Id Or Ego? New Research Explores How To Become More Ego-Effective

Psychologist Michael Robinson explains how an individual’s ego effectiveness affects self-control, social competence, and well-being.

By Mark Travers, Ph.D. | April 2, 2022

A new study published in the Journal of Research in Personality explores the topic of 'ego effectiveness' and how this concept is able to predict levels of social and psychological well-being and self-control.

I recently spoke to co-author Michael D. Robinson from North Dakota State University to better understand this self-control experience. Here is a summary of our conversation.

What inspired you to investigate the topic of ego effectiveness and self-control in social functioning, how did you study it, and what did you find?

It is clear that some people can control themselves (e.g., their emotions, their behaviors) better than others and these individual differences matter quite a bit.

The dominant model for understanding these individual differences has been that some people have more self-control "strength" than others, but it is now clear that this is not a sufficient theory for personality-based self-control. For example, it does not explain why people who are better at self-control experience fewer temptations, nor why they have healthier habits.

For some time now, we have been pursuing a method of assessing what can be called "social competence"— that is, the possessing of knowledge and/or skills that allow individuals to better succeed within the interpersonal world. The method presents descriptions of everyday life dilemmas (e.g., a friend has been reading one's emails, without permission) and asks people how one could or should respond to them. These scenarios can be paired with "would do" instructions that ask people how they would respond if encountering the situation. Alternatively, the scenarios can be paired with "should do" instructions that ask people how one (not necessarily the self) should respond in the described circumstances.

It occurred to us that by using both "would do" and "should do" instructions, we could examine a very interesting question — namely, the extent to which a given person would do what he or she thinks to be effective in a given situation. Individuals who have high levels of ego-alignment or ego effectiveness of this type are likely to live better and less conflicted lives. Even when faced with emotional circumstances, they would be guided by ideas concerning effective courses of action (i.e., what the ego would favor).

By contrast, misaligned individuals would essentially be working at cross purposes. They would act in ways that they, themselves, know to be problematic. This is a more id-like mode of existence.

We conducted three studies to investigate this model of successful self-control.

In your opinion, what is it about ego effectiveness that aids approach coping behaviors when faced with friendship-related challenges?

We think that people with low ego effectiveness live a more id-like existence.

The id enjoys doing things that produce natural pleasures (e.g., food, relaxing), but has a hard time engaging in effortful action, particularly when the relevant action would involve some unpleasantness in the short-term.

In the domain of health behavior, there are many healthy behaviors that fall into this category — for example, exercising can be hard to do (or going to the doctor for a checkup, etc.).

Similarly, in the domain of social behavior, there are many effective behaviors that require us to be assertive and/or to fix problems in ways that require very active modes of coping.

Ego effective individuals have essentially aligned the acting self with a long-term vision of the effectiveness of social actions. Such individuals would not experience effortful action or approach behaviors as aversive. They would experience them in more instrumental terms; that is, the relevant action would be appreciated for its ability to solve a problem.

For ego-effective individuals, that is, seemingly effortful courses of action would not be experienced as such.

What are (if any) advantages of avoidance coping? In what situations might it be beneficial?

Avoidance coping can be beneficial in certain particular circumstances, for short periods of time. For example, a person could suppress nervousness or avoid certain thoughts in the context of an impending speech that one has to give.

However, avoidance coping does not seem to be a good way of handling life in the long-term. Problems do not get solved and thoughts and feelings that are avoided seem more threatening as one continues to avoid them.

The ego becomes weaker when adopting this strategy.

Please could you explain the relationship between successful self-control and higher levels of psychological well-being?

When the self has been transformed such that it naturally does what it deems to be effective, the self should tend to be more successful. Given that the present focus was on friendship-related scenarios, the ego-effective individual in this circumstance should be capable of developing better interpersonal relationships.

With this in mind, it is important to note how good relationships contribute to, and bolster, well-being.

Finally, ego-effective individuals are essentially less conflicted and conflict is a major source of suffering. Thus, we think there are multiple routes that should link successful self-control with psychological well-being.

Your research findings describe ego-effective individuals to be more socially competent, dominant and extroverted. Can an individual have high levels of ego effectiveness and be introverted? What would this look like?

Yes, this is possible. It would require a context or culture in which introverted modes of being, or introverted actions, tend to be more effective than actions that are extraverted.

In the friendship domain, also, there may be contexts in which it is better to concentrate on the relationships that one currently has, relative to seeking as many social contacts as possible.

However, on average (and this tends to be true in many cultures), social interaction benefits from more extraverted courses of action. This is why we generally expect ego-effective individuals to be more extraverted.

What practices can individuals implement into their lives to have higher levels of self-control?

I think a lesson of the research is that everyone has an effective source of self-guidance within themselves.

Before one acts, one should think about both behaviors that are likely to be effective in a situation as well as how courses of action are likely to be problematic.

Then, do those things that you think will be effective rather than those things that you believe will produce negative consequences.

To the extent that you can ask yourself about what is likely to be effective before acting, the acting self should gain wisdom and good habits as a result.