Social values and self-regulation : distinct effects of centrality and motivational content

• Main Author: Rees, Kerry John
• Published: Cardiff University 2006
• Subjects: 170
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.583967

This thesis examines the role of social values in self-regulation. Across eight studies, I investigate the distinct self-regulatory processes influenced by specific types of social values. Chapter 1 reviews research on the concepts of social values and self- regulation, and highlights the main issues that are addressed in the subsequent chapters. In Chapter 2, four studies tested the hypothesis that social values (e.g., equality) vary in the extent that they act as self-guides that people hold as "ideal" standards versus "ought" prescriptions. Results revealed that central values function as ideal self-guides, whereas peripheral values function as ought self-guides. In addition, violations of central values evoked dejection-type emotions, whereas violations of peripheral values evoked agitation emotions, but only in a public setting. Focusing on a second stream of research, Chapter 3 utilised three studies to test the hypothesis that the role of social values as self-guides depends on the type of motivation that they serve. Results revealed that openness values (e.g., freedom) are more likely to serve as ideal self-guides than as ought self-guides and perceptions of failure to fulfil openness values uniquely predicts the experience of more dejection- type emotions. Chapter 4 demonstrated that, following central value violation, subsequent value-affirmation dissipated dejection-type emotions. Finally, Chapter 5 reviews the contribution of the present research to theories that examine the manner in which social values influence cognitions, affect, and behaviour and outlines potential directions for future research. Overall, these results provide the first direct support for longstanding assumptions about a close link between social values and affect, while providing more precise information about which types of social values elicit which types of emotion.