Professor Dang Junhua from Xi'an Jiaotong University Visits the School of Public Policy and Management to Deliver an Academic Lecture Entitled "Have You Exercised Self-Control Today"

At 7 p.m. on January 5, 2026, Professor Dang Junhua, Professor and doctoral supervisor of the Institute of Social Psychology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Xi'an Jiaotong University, was invited to visit the School of Public Policy and Management of our university and delivered a wonderful academic lecture entitled "Have You Exercised Self-Control Today" for teachers and students of the school. Representatives of teachers and students of the school attended the lecture, which was presided over by Xu Bing, Academic Leader of the school.

Figure 1: Lecture by Professor Dang Junhua

In the lecture, Professor Dang Junhua took the topic of "self-control" close to daily life as the starting point, analyzed it from the methods and levels of self-control, and systematically explained the core issues of "what is self-control, how to exercise self-control and why to exercise self-control". He pointed out that although self-control is a challenging thing, it is not without rules to follow, and mastering scientific methods can reduce the psychological consumption in the process of self-control. At the same time, jumping out of the single perspective of willpower, Professor Dang Junhua interpreted the essence of self-control from a more macro perspective: self-control is not simply resisting temptations by willpower, and its effect is deeply related to factors such as habit formation, environment shaping and thinking mode. He proposed that advance planning and preparedness, and laying a good foundation from the aspects of habits and environment, can more effectively cope with external temptations and improve self-control ability.

At the end of the lecture, Professor Dang Junhua shared the core viewpoint that "the best self-control is that no deliberate self-control is needed", and put forward practical suggestions for the teachers and students present: integrate self-control into daily habits and replace deliberate self-control behaviors with habits; cultivate good habits by virtue of the power of faith, and make self-control a natural state of life by planning life in advance, seeking supervision and help from others and other ways.

Professor Dang Junhua's explanation has both theoretical depth and practical guidance, including the interpretation of classic theories of social psychology and case analysis close to reality, which not only helped teachers and students clarify the psychological mechanism behind self-control behavior, but also provided feasible methods to improve self-control. The interactive atmosphere at the lecture site was warm, teachers and students actively asked questions and communicated, and Professor Dang Junhua answered them one by one in detail. This lecture gave the teachers and students present a new understanding of "self-control", and provided important ideas and inspiration for everyone to improve their self-management ability in study, work and life. The lecture ended with warm applause from all teachers and students.