Project Details
Projekt
Effects of Self-Regulatory Competences on Prosocial Behavior and Morality-Related Aspects of Personality from Childhood into Emerging Adulthood
Applicant
Professorin Dr. Rebecca Bondü
Subject Area
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Term
since 2021
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 426314138
Prosocial behavior that is in line with social norms often requires relinquishing own benefits for the sake of others. Therefore, it poses a challenge to self-regulatory competences that generally aid the suppression of primary, egotistic behavioral impulses. During the transition from adolescence into adulthood, manifold new developmental tasks arise in the phase of emerging adulthood. Many of these are related to the formation and stabilization of new partner- and other social relationships, for example in the workplace. Thus, both, prosocial behavior and self-regulatory competences are of particular importance in this period. The present project, therefore, aims to examine the relations between a broad variety of self-regulatory competences and different forms of prosocial behavior from middle childhood into emerging adulthood based on the longitudinal data set from the PIER-Study with initially 1,657 participants and five measurement points spanning a period of 13 years. Doing so will allow for highlighting the effects and the relative importance of a multitude of precisely measured; early and current; affective, cognitive, and behavioral self-regulatory competences on and for prosocial behavior and its trajectories in different age groups and developmental phases. In addition, bi-directional associations will be considered. The project will consider the central indicators of prosocial behavior (helping, sharing, comforting) that were assessed at all five measurement points. In addition, we will capture prosocial behavior in partner relationships in the form of forgiving, positive conflict solution strategies, and general positive behavior towards the partner at the fifth measurement point. This will be done on aggregate (trait) level in the main study as well as on situation-specific (state) level in an additional experience sampling study. In this study, we will assess current daily positive behavior towards the partner along with central self-regulatory competences (emotion regulation, behavior regulation, inhibition). This proceeding will allow for highlighting the relative importance of general (trait) and current (state) self-regulation as well as the current deviation from the individual mean (within variance) for positive daily behavior towards the partner. In addition, justice sensitivity and moral identity will be considered as mediating or control variables in order to derive the incremental validity and potential indirect effects of the self-regulatory competences.
DFG Programme
Research Units
