Project Details
Projekt
Implicit self-regulation mechanisms in intimate relationships and their endocrinological basis
Subject Area
General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
Term
from 2015 to 2021
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 284237295
In the current research project, we develop and empirically test a model of relationship-related regulation processes which integrates cognitive, affective-motivational, and physiological processes. We propose that during relationship initiation and stabilization, implicit relationship-related self-regulation processes support the activation of situationally appropriate behavior. In particular, we focus on a) the activation of trust in response to relationship threat and challenges and b) evaluative processes that are activated in response to reciprocal romantic interest (RRI; increasing the value of the reciprocating person and simultaneously devaluing attractive but less promising options). Besides identifying the prescribed regulation mechanisms, we examine the modulating role of centrally released oxytocin (OXT). Related to this question, we aim at testing whether the ostensibly distinct regulation mechanisms of relationship initiation and stabilization are actually based on a universal regulation pattern. From a theoretical perspective, the project aims at introducing a new perspective into the research on intimate relationships which stresses the flexible and dynamic character of automatic processes involved in relationship-related self-regulation. According to this perspective, basic cognitive processes (i.e., valence biases in affective information processing) are hormonally regulated in response to current relationship-related demands and challenges, which, in turn, facilitates activation of adaptive coping processes (increasing or decreasing the value of the partner or attractive alternatives respectively, trust).
DFG Programme
Research Grants
