Self-control, effect

Schulman, J. Neil. Self Control, Not Gun Control. Santa Monica, Calif. Synapse-Centurion, 1995. Presents a forceful progun viewpoint based on both philosophical arguments for self-defense rights and practical arguments against the effectiveness of proposed gun control measures. 

We next ask what are the implications of being aware of future self-control problems by comparing naifs and sophisticates. We identify two effects. First, sophistication about future self-control problems can make people pessimistic about future behavior (that is, they believe in general that they will hit more often than they would if they had no self-control problem). We refer to this phenomenon as the pessimism effect. Second, sophistication about future self-control problems may make people realize that they will resist future temptations only if they resist temptation today. We refer to this phenomenon as the incentive effect. Because the habit formation property of addictive products implies that current indulgence has larger future costs the more people expect to refrain in the future, pessimism about future behavior tends to exacerbate overconsumption due to self-control problems. The incentive effect, in contrast, tends to mitigate overconsumption due to self-control problems. Hence, whether sophisticates hit more or less often than naifs depends on the relative magnitudes of the pessimism and incentive effects. 

The assumptions of naivete and sophistication are essentially the same in this environment as in the basic model. In any given period, naifs believe that they will behave like TCs in the future. Sophisticates, on the other hand, are completely aware of their self-control problems, including the effects of consumption-induced myopia, and they therefore correctly predict future behavior.21... 

The crucial intuition driving these calibration results is the incremental nature of most addictive behavior. At each point in time, people choose whether to indulge now, and the cumulative effect of these decisions determines whether people get and remain addicted. With self-control problems, a sequence of incremental decisions can lead to behavior very different from how people would behave if committing up front to a lifetime path of behavior. In a rational choice model, in contrast, the incremental nature of addiction is irrelevant. If people know exactly what the future holds, and have no self-control problems, then people become addicted only if that is the optimal lifetime path of behavior. 

Cognitive tests focus on measures of acquisition, memory, other performance that demonstrates effective use of language and logic, and measures of self-control or inhibition. Acquisition tests... 

Choreoathetoid movements have been evaluated in samples of cocaine-dependent men (n = 71), amphetamine-dependent men (n = 9), and 56 controls (137). The cocaine-dependent men had significantly worse non-facial (limbs plus body) choreoathetosis scores, and the differences between groups were most marked in the younger age groups. The facial scores were increased only in those under 32 years of age, as they were in the younger amphetamine-dependent subjects. The authors suggested that the absence of choreoathetoid movements in the older cocaine-dependent men may represent an age-related self-selection effect. 

A new probe of solvent accessibility of bound sensitizers has been described and tested for the particular case of a series of Ru" and Os photosensitizers bound to sodium lauryl sulphate micelles. The method depends upon the large solvent deuterium effect on excited-state lifetimes, and a correlation has been established between accessibility of bound complexes and hydrophobicity of the ligands. Luminescence properties of amphiphilic annelide-type complexes of ruthenium in micellar phases have been described. In the case of [4,4 -bis(nonadecyl)-2,2 -bipyridyl]bis-[4,4 -di-(10,13,16-trioxaundecyl)-2,2 -bipyridyl]ruthenium dichloride, intramicellar self-quenching effects have an influence on the excited-state lifetime, and the mechanism of self-quenching has been determined. Deactivation of [Ru(bipy)3] by [Co(EDTA)] has been studied in a micellar environment and found to occur by electron transfer at diffusion-controlled rates a stereoselective effect has been observed. ... 

Emission problems in a causticization operation arise chiefly in the area of dust control of the exit gases from the lime kiln since the water circuit is virtually self-contained. Effective containment is obtained by the use of scrubbers, which achieve some 99% mass removal efficiency from the exhaust gases. Spent scrubber liquor may be returned to the causticization circuit for recycle. Using spent scrubber liquor, either for the slaking of lime or to prepare fresh sodium carbonate solutions for causticization, avoids creating a water emission problem from this aqueous waste stream. It also improves the raw material balance of the process. 

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