Self-control: is it a Sign of Intelligence?

Many people usually ask if self-control is a sign of intelligence. Self-control is our ability to sway away things that seem wrong to us no matter how satisfying it looks. It is a way of inhibiting actions that we are tempted to do in front of temptations or impulses. This article would talk more about this topic in a more detailed manner. But first, here is the answer to the question of self-control as a sign of intelligence.

Self-control is a great sign of intelligence. The reason for this is that self-control requires intellect for us to distinguish right or wrong, and force ourselves into doing the right thing. Because of this, self-control becomes a sign of intelligence.

Now, even if you already know the answer, we would still need to explain more about this topic. We are going to explain the reason why this happens and what science says regarding this manner. This article would provide a comprehensive answer of self-control being a sign of intelligence and would talk about the relationship between self-control and emotional intelligence.

Self-control and Intelligence photo

Is self-control a sign of intelligence?

A clear sign of intelligence is if a person has self-control. This is because when distinguishing right and wrong, we usually tap into our intelligence and logical reasoning. Furthermore, self-control and intelligence are both from a part of the brain named the Prefrontal Cortex, hence their strong correlation.

Now, let us explain self-control as a sign of intelligence in more detail.

We know that self-control is our ability to inhibit the wrong impulses and promote the right ones. This is the basic concept of self-control.

Differentiating the right and wrong things to do requires a lot of logical reasoning and intelligence.

When we go to the science behind this, intelligence and reasoning actually come from a part of our brain named the Prefrontal Cortex.

The Prefrontal Cortex is a part of your brain that sits on the front side of your brain. That’s why it is pre-frontal.

But the reason why the Prefrontal Cortex is important is that it is mostly responsible for our control over our impulses, logical thinking, and intelligence.

With that being said, our prefrontal cortex is very important and the one responsible for our self-control. In fact, it is the one activating when we are thinking rationally.

When the prefrontal cortex breaks, we lost our self-control. This happened with Phineas Gage, a construction foreman who accidentally got his prefrontal cortex broken by a crowbar during work.

Long story short, because of the accident, his skull got hit by a crowbar and his prefrontal cortex got destroyed by accident.

What happened is that he survived the accident with a minor incident of losing his prefrontal cortex. What happened after that is that he did not become himself anymore. Basically, his close friends and coworkers define him as “not being Gage anymore”.

Phineas Gage Skull After the Accident | Photo from Anatomography

The reason is simple, he doesn’t have his prefrontal cortex anymore, that’s why he doesn’t have any self-control.

The fact that self-control and intelligence both come from the prefrontal cortex is already proving that self-control and intelligence are related to each other.

That’s why self-control is a big sign of intelligence.

Furthermore, in a research paper by Ryan C. Meldrum, Ph.D., he assessed the relationship between General Intelligence and Self-control in children.

As a result, he has demonstrated that higher intelligence scores are connected with more self-control, regardless of whether we employ cross-sectional or longitudinal models.

“Results based on a national sample of U.S. children indicates that higher scores for intelligence are associated with more self-control in both cross-sectional and longitudinal models, even when accounting for prior self-control, child executive functioning, maternal intelligence, and maternal self-control.”

Ryan C. Meldrum, PhD, from his research “Reassessing the relationship between general intelligence and self-control in childhood”

There are numerous proofs of the relationship between self-control and its relationship with intelligence.

Whether we look at it anatomically such as when I explained the story of Phineas Gage, and scientific papers, we can see that they are closely related to each other.

With that, this means that self-control is related to intelligence, and since it is related because of the presence of the prefrontal cortex, we can also get better with self-control.

What I mean by this is that science has also proven that our brain can grow bigger and better if we train it. There are numerous things you can do to increase the size of your prefrontal cortex such as puzzle games, learning, meditation, and exercising.

If removing or weaker prefrontal cortex means weaker self-control, then stronger or bigger prefrontal cortex means better self-control.

That’s why I argue in my other article that self-control is something that we can improve. You can check the article here where I explained more on the science behind self-control as both genetic and skill. Here is the link: Can self-control be learned?

However, we need to talk about the relationship between self-control and emotional intelligence since there is much confusion between the two. The next section would talk about that.

Emotional Intelligence 5 Part Model Infographic

Are self-control and emotional intelligence the same?

Self-control and Emotional Intelligence are not the same. Self-control is only a part of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence covers a lot of things from knowing what others are feeling and acting depending on their feelings. Self-control is more on the acting portion of emotional intelligence.

To help explain this, let me give the 5 key elements to emotional intelligence.

This is 5 part model of emotional intelligence is proposed by Daniel Goldman which is an American Psychologist.

  • Self-awareness
  • Self-regulation
  • Motivation
  • Empathy
  • Social skills

When we are talking about self-control, we are talking about our ability to do the right things and to prevent doing the wrong things.

This is the action part of emotional intelligence.

Among the 5, self-control can only be applied to self-regulation and self-awareness.

We can also include social skills but not everything about social skills is about self-control.

If you’re interested in social skills, then you are free to check my other article about how to get better at social skills where I give 25 easy tips to follow. Here is the link: How to Improve Your Social Skills and Confidence

But back to the point. When we are talking about self-control, it is just a part of emotional intelligence.

Thus, self-control is not exactly emotional intelligence. However, it is a big part of emotional intelligence.

That’s why people regularly confuse the two. But actually, they are not completely the same.

As I said, by checking the 5 part model of Emotional Intelligence, self-control only takes part in 2 of them. 3 if you count social skills.

But not all social skills are related to self-control.

Thus, the conclusion is that self-control is just part of a bigger puzzle which is emotional intelligence. This is based on analyzing what is self-control and placing it in the 5 part model of emotional intelligence.

In simpler terms, emotional intelligence has two basic parts. The feeling and the doing.

Let me give an example. When our friend is telling us about how bad their day way, a person with good emotional intelligence would feel empathy knowing how bad they must be feeling.

Furthermore, they will act according to what the other person is feeling.

The part of acting the right thing is what self-control is all about. If we have self-control, we won’t blame the person or lecture at those times. We would use our intelligence to act correctly depending on the situation.

It is the same with applying emotional intelligence to yourself. It is one thing that you know what you are feeling, it is another to do the right thing that corresponds to the feeling.

You might be feeling bored, thus many people with poor self-control would do things that can suck their time such as browsing mindlessly on social media.

But a person with self-control might think that it’s a waste of time and would prefer reading books.

As you can see, in an easier sense, self-control is the action part of emotional intelligence. That’s why it is only a part of it and not emotional intelligence as a whole.

Only the things I love.

ongjason.com is reader-supported. When you buy through links on the site, I earn an affiliate commission.

If you’re following me, you’ll know that I believe it is essential to have some tools, whether it’s for personal development or lifestyle in general.

So, here are the things I love.

YouTube

If you want to learn things for free, I recommend watching my YouTube Channel. Click the Button Below to go straight into my Channel. 🙂

Okay, let me first explain my Channel.

I believe that I really can’t explain everything too well on my blog. That’s why I created a YouTube Channel so I can easily explain a lot of things. Plus, I believe that Video Sharing is the future.

Recommended Books

The next thing is books. Books are, for me, one of the cheapest ways to get invaluable information. We can learn personal development, finance, career, relationships, and many more from books.

Here, I will be listing my favorite books in different categories.

  1. For Beginners7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey – Personal development has a lot of concepts and ideas to learn. Thus it can be really hard for beginners to know where to start. Thus, I recommend this book since all the basic concepts of personal development are here(except finance, check what I recommended for that)
  2. ProductivityThe One Thing by Gary Keller – This book teaches us the power of focusing on one thing which is the ultimate source of productivity. The concepts taught are what I am using to constantly publish YouTube videos while maintaining this website.
  3. Busy?Make Time by Jack Knapp – This book teaches us how to make time for the things we love. The concept is really simple but I think that makes it a book worth reading.
  4. HealthLifespan by Dr.Sinclair – This Book teaches about the latest scientific research on lifespan. In his book, he has shared numerous things he is doing to slow down his aging process. This can be as easy as eating less which he recommends.
  5. FinanceThe Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason – Perhaps one of the first books I’ve read about Finance, this book for me is the best if we are talking about learning basic finance such as basic saving and investing. The concepts are very simple but effective.

Audiobooks

Take this advice as a grain of salt.

I don’t recommend buying Audiobooks one by one. I mean, audiobooks can be quickly finished by listening while working out or doing some mindless tasks.

So here is to save you some money. Just go for a monthly subscription to Audible. I believe that you will save a lot of money with that plus, they usually give freebies to anyone starting.

My Audiobook Recommendation will always be the same as my book recommendations, but I personally like The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins. I like how she is so casual while reading her book.

Source:

Meldrum, Ryan C., et al. “Reassessing the Relationship between General Intelligence and Self-Control in Childhood.” Intelligence, vol. 60, 2017, pp. 1–9. Crossref, doi:10.1016/j.intell.2016.10.005.

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