Research Program

Individuals are socio-culturally shaped shapers of their socio-cultural environment. Put differently, culture and the individual mutually influence each other. Therefore, in order to understand the social dynamics of the self, neither focusing on the individual nor on the larger societal context alone would be sufficient.

A fruitful approach to understand these social dynamics of the self hence requires the combination of different levels of analysis, which integrates psychology (as the study of individual thinking, feeling, and action) and social sciences that study the larger context, in particular sociology and political science. This is the general aim of the RTG’s research program.

One basic dimension along which different construals of identity can vary is the extent to which the self is seen either as an independent entity or as interdependent with others. Whenever a cognitive, motivational, or emotional process refers to the self, subscribing to a lesser or greater degree to either pole of the independence-interdependence dimension is likely to affect the outcome. Research in the SELF program therefore addresses how independence-interdependence affects agency; i.e., the study of human beings as agents of their own life course in society. It focusses on the dynamics of the self, i.e., it should be change sensitive, be it in intra-individual terms or in terms of societal chronicity. Different context conditions of human behavior are addressed, be it intimate, immediate life contexts such as the family home or neighborhood, meso-level contexts like organizations, or more distal contexts such as the political and legal structural properties of societies or variations across cultures.

Research questions addressed in SELF dissertation projects should broadly correspond to the research program's seven project lines:

1. Cultures of honor
2. Intergenerational identity development
3. Self-efficacy, health and well-being
4. Conflict between family and work roles
5. Social participation and (early) retirement
6. Individualization and social morality
7. Collective identities in transition

Download the complete SELF research program with all seven project line descriptions and potential research questions.

SELF's Principal Investigators

Below you will find the profiles of the SELF principal investigators. These BIGSSS faculty members serve as potential supervisors for dissertation projects conducted within the RTG.