Expanding the Stressor-Detachment Model: A multimethod ecological momentary intervention

• Applicant: Privatdozentin Dr. Dorota Reis
• Subject Area: Social Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology
• Term: from 2018 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 396493730

In this project, we will examine short-term and longer term mechanisms underlying the job-demands-detachment-strain link as proposed in the Stressor-Detachment Model (SD-Model; Sonnentag & Fritz, 2015). Empirical tests of the proposed mediating and moderating effects of detachment, based on the same data and featuring a strong design, are still lacking. We extend the model by proposing that detachment and negative activation are reciprocally related and that this relationship might be attenuated by different regulative strategies (i.e. self-regulation, affect regulation, and interoception). The concept of interoception (a multidimensional construct that takes into account how people attend to, appraise, and respond to internal bodily signals) has thus far been overlooked in recovery research. Also, these regulative processes offer a starting point for modification through tailored interventions that might be able to improve recovery. Because the SD-Model proposes that short-term processes of detachment (i.e. "microlevel") might be nested within longer term processes (i.e. "macrolevel"), we will address this issue by combining the strengths of a longitudinal and a diary design with a manipulation of detachment in an experience-sampling-based randomized controlled trial (RCT) intervention. Hence, we plan to use three measurement occasions per evening to be able to capture the dynamic processes that underlie daily detachment, and we separate the predictors, mediators/moderators, and outcomes by time. Moreover, this design will allow us to model the occurrence of the same processes within days, between days, and between weeks. By doing so, we will implement time as a focal construct in the model as opposed to viewing time as providing the context (or background) in a conceptual model (Shipp & Cole, 2012). Furthermore, the intervention part of the project will allow us to apply a more rigorous test of the underlying theoretical assumptions by manipulating core variables such as detachment and its determinants.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants