Implicit motives and identity development

隐性动机和身份发展

• 批准号: 299302848
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Jan Karl Hofer
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Abteilung Entwicklungspsychologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2015-12-31 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/299302848?language=en
• 关键词: Implicit; motives; identity; development

In developmental psychology, identity formation is understood as a life-long process. Nonetheless, due to developing cognitive capacities and new demands put forth by the social environment it is in adolescence that individuals begin to consciously deal with their own identity. Adolescents seek answers to the question Who am I?, they make their own life-plans, set goals, and look for guiding principles which they can use as orientation for their behavior. Various theoretical models describe identity formation as a process which is strongly formed by the sociocultural context which the adolescent grows up in. Cultural contexts set different demands for adolescents and grant certain freedoms but also set certain boundaries when it comes to the exploration of and commitment to identity elements. In particular, in modern societies, youths are expected to find their own unique identity without institutional help. Parenting styles, which often reflect dominant socialization goals in a given cultural context, are an additional factor in the process of identity formation. Studies have shown that apart from such external factors, internal factors have an impact on the process and the outcome of the identity crisis in adolescence. In particular, in various studies self-regulation has been identified to be an important resource in this context. The role of implicit motives, however, has not yet been examined in the context of identity formation. This is surprising as implicit motives energize and direct behavior. Moreover, they influence developmental processes across the life-span. In the present project the research traditions of implicit motives and identity formation which previously have been considered separately are meant to be brought together. Identity formation here is understood as a combination of exploration of and resulting commitment to goals. A central assumption of the project is that implicit motives form the process of identity formation because they function as a sort of weighing disposition, indicating whether an identity element (i.e., goal) under exploration shows a fit with one's inner needs. The multivariate, cross-cultural, and longitudinal design makes it possible to conjointly consider various significant factors that impact identity formation in adolescence, thus promising new insights in a topic that has always fascinated psychologists.

在发展心理学中，身份形成被理解为一个终身的过程。尽管如此，由于认知能力的发展和社会环境提出的新要求，个人开始有意识地处理自己的身份问题是在青春期。青少年在寻找我是谁这个问题的答案，他们制定自己的人生计划，设定目标，并寻找指导原则，以此作为自己行为的方向。不同的理论模型将身份认同的形成描述为一个由青少年成长的社会文化背景强烈形成的过程。文化背景对青少年提出了不同的要求，并给予了一定的自由，但在探索和承诺身份要素方面也设定了一定的界限。特别是，在现代社会中，人们期望青年在没有机构帮助的情况下找到自己独特的身份。父母教养方式往往反映了特定文化背景下占主导地位的社会化目标，是身份形成过程中的一个额外因素。研究表明，除了这些外部因素外，内部因素对青少年身份危机的过程和结果也有影响。特别是，在各种研究中，自我监管已被确定为这方面的一个重要资源。然而，内隐动机的作用尚未在身份形成的背景下进行研究。这是令人惊讶的，因为内隐动机激励和指导行为。此外，它们影响整个生命周期的发展过程。在本项目中，以前被单独考虑的内隐动机和身份形成的研究传统将被整合在一起。这里的身份形成被理解为对目标的探索和由此产生的承诺的结合。该项目的一个核心假设是，内隐动机形成了身份形成的过程，因为它们起到了一种权衡倾向的作用，表明身份元素（即，在探索下的目标）显示出与一个人的内在需求的契合。多变量，跨文化和纵向设计使得有可能联合考虑影响青春期身份形成的各种重要因素，从而有望在一个一直令心理学家着迷的话题中获得新的见解。