Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Scientific Secrets for Self-Control

By: C. Nathan DeWall, The Great Courses
Narrated by: C. Nathan DeWall
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £7.99

Buy Now for £7.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Join an expert in self-control research for six engaging and inspirational lessons that shatter the myths about willpower and replace them with verifiable science that can make the seemingly unattainable finally possible. Packed with eye-opening studies, experiments, and exercises to strengthen your self-control when dealing with money, fitness, personal relationships, and more, this course will have you wondering why you ever doubted yourself.

Whether you're looking for new ways to resist temptation, make a strong first impression, or better control your emotions, this is your guide to understanding—and mastering—what is a frequently misunderstood subject. In clear language, your award-winning professor introduces you to the general theories behind self-control: what it is, how it works, and how you can take steps to improve it.

Among the topics you'll investigate:

  • How researchers discovered that delayed gratification can lead to better individual well-being in everything from higher self-worth to less sensitivity to rejection
  • One of the most influential theories about how self-control works - the limited resource model, which argues that self-control relies on limited energy that becomes depleted after use
  • How scientists discovered the link between the prefrontal cortex and aggression, and how people at risk for violent anger show abnormalities in that region of the brain.

Alongside groundbreaking scientific findings and research, you'll get personal exercises, activities, and thought experiments you can use to practice strengthening your self-control skills to meet whatever specific goals you want to achieve.

Disclaimer: Please note that this recording may include references to supplemental texts or print references that are not essential to the program and not supplied with your purchase.

©2013 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2013 The Great Courses
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Food: A Cultural Culinary History cover art
Algorithms to Live By cover art
Autopilot cover art
The Upward Spiral cover art
Persuasion: Dark Psychology - Secret Techniques to Influence Anyone Using Mind Control, Manipulation and Deception cover art
Thinking in Bets cover art
A Guide to the Good Life cover art
Emotional Intelligence cover art
The Marshmallow Test cover art
The Nerdist Way cover art
Evolve Your Brain cover art
F--k Your Feelings: Master Your Mind, Accomplish Anything and Become a More Significant Human cover art
Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers cover art
The Now Habit cover art
The Paradox of Choice cover art
The Five Elements of Effective Thinking cover art

What listeners say about Scientific Secrets for Self-Control

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    34
  • 4 Stars
    26
  • 3 Stars
    16
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    5
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    33
  • 4 Stars
    24
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    29
  • 4 Stars
    23
  • 3 Stars
    12
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    4

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very helpful

Well written well presented and very helpful good examples and easy to follow guidance enjoyed

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great idea!!

I bought six titles from The Great Courses lectures and just wanted to say what an excellent idea this is.

Non-fiction books, even on an interesting topic, can sometimes be boring, repetitive and overly long. But in lecture form I've found them incredibly engaging. I really have a sense of what it would be like attend a lecture in an auditorium.

This is my first title and I'm really enjoying it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great info

Some great nuggets of info in here provided in an easy to understand way. Good info on the topic.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

slow but good content

bit slow reading for my like. I feel I can handle easily information on a faster pace, and my mind would wander less if it was faster. the content is very good though, worth waiting through....

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Okay, not something I'll listen to again.

I didn't really ever get into this one. It's easily accessible but doesn't feel high enough level, which might have been the issue for myself. The narration is okay and he's quite likable.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Not useful, but controversial

I’m sorry to say I haven’t learnt a single new thing from this course. You will hear about things you already know, that self-control is an energy bank that gets depleted the more it is used, the marshmallow experiment, and endless, pointless talk about the benefits of self-control.
What I found controversial were two things. One is that race is a factor in how tiring we find relations with other people. We need to put more effort in relating to people of different races. Wow. If that’s not racist, I’m not sure what is. How about people of the same race but having completely opposite moral, social and cultural values?
Second, the authors suggests using your relationship to outsource your goals and decisions on to your partner so they help you achieve them and help you keep your levels of mental energy high.
What the author doesn’t address is what to do when your partner does exactly that to you - so that’s a flaw in the argument. Another flaw is just the sheer entitlement, man. It’s written by a man for whom most likely a woman is spending her own mental energy to conserve his. Shameful and infuriating, so completely unconducive to exercising self-control.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

believe making friends requires to be false

sadly author obsessed and brainwashed about dieting and over exercising dangerous ideas and role models

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Really poor

The lecturer is slow, repetitive and boring. Even though this is a short course of six lectures he clearly did not have enough material to fill them and he is obviously trying to stretch what little he has to say over the course. As a result there are long lists of examples, recited slowly and not always relevant to the text. I love The Great Courses but this one was just not up to the their usual standard.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

nothing of merit

I listen to a lot of the great courses audio books, this one is short and lacks any real data of any use

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful