Explorer Project Stability and Change
Stability and Change in Regulation and Self-Regulation
Self-regulation (SR) is a process that allows a system to maintain or attain a positively valued state or goal. As such, understanding SR is essential for the study of psychological and social stability, but it is equally crucial for understanding the reaction to change. It is highly plausible that the SR of groups/organizations and that of individuals is mutually dependent. There are thus two dimensions to the relationship between stability and change in SR: the question how the goals of SR are maintained or changed when (social-) contexts and environments change, and the question how individual and social SR relate to each other in this process. Our research aims at showing how change and stability of goal pursuit in SR and its individual and social levels relate to each other, within different contexts.
In a first step, we have investigated altruism as a self-regulation mechanism in social-contexts. Altruistic actions towards an in-group can on the one hand maintain stability for such a group, but on the other hand can create an “us versus them” narrative and toxic behaviour. We conducted a mixed-method study to investigate how a change in social-context influences such narratives and behaviours. The results of the first experiment show that individuals are willing to break a small rule in an altruistic manner in favour for members of the own group. The disadvantage individuals create with this behaviour on members of other groups is split unevenly. The more identity characteristics another group shares, the less they are hurt.
This and the upcoming studies can help to create a fundamental understanding of altruism when social-contexts change – a phenomenon that we can observe recently for example in migration due to war or climate.
Next to this, we investigate goal attainment on the individual level. With ambulatory assessments we track individuals and how they stick to their goals during the changes of everyday life.
In a future step, we will combine these avenues of research in field research in Laos where we will investigate how the individual goal attainment relates to the social-context.