Automatic Regulation of Benevolence: A Mechanisms Underlying Dyadic Coping

• Applicant: Dr. Nicolas Koranyi
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology ; General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2013 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 237749325

The quality and stability of committed relationships can suffer tremendously from stressors originating outside the couple, for example from increased performance pressure at work. Consequently, recent research aimed at identifying coping strategies allowing couples to maintain high relationship quality despite stressful episodes and daily hassles. The dyadic coping approach by Bodenmann (1995, 1997, 2000) focuses on the coordinated coping strategies of both partners, which include among others the provision of support by one partner in an attempt to assist the other partner in his or her coping effort (supportive dyadic coping). Whereas previous research primarily examined intentional and strategic coping activities, the present project focuses on automatic regulatory mechanisms operating in the service of supportive coping. The central hypothesis is that stress of one partner automatically leads to increased activation of a benevolent value orientation (automatic benevolence regulation) in the other partner, such that preservation and enhancement of the welfare of close others gains priority. Besides testing this hypothesis experimentally, the project aims at examining the link between automatic benevolence regulation and the provision of supportive dyadic coping. Furthermore, moderators and mediating processes of the automatic benevolence regulation are analyzed.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: Switzerland
• Host: Professor Dr. Guy Bodenmann