Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.
J Pers. 2024 Dec;92(6):1704-1725. doi: 10.1111/jopy.12967. Epub 2024 Aug 2.
The need for control is a fundamental human motivation, that when deprived can lead to broad and substantial changes in human behavior. We aimed to assess the consequences of control deprivation in a real-life situation that poses a severe threat to personal control: a prolonged unemployment.
Using a sample N = 1055 of unemployed (n = 748) versus working (n = 307) individuals, we examined predictions derived from two models of reactions to control deprivation: control-regaining and disengagement/withdrawal.
We found that length unemployment is correlated with a psychological state strongly interfering with psychological as well as social functioning. While control-regaining models of responding to lack of control have received virtually no support from our findings, our results provide evidence that long-term unemployed individuals are more disengaged than working individuals. They are more apathetic, less likely to engage in control-regaining efforts and in active forms of construing one's own future.
控制需求是一种基本的人类动机，如果这种需求被剥夺，可能会导致人类行为发生广泛而实质性的变化。我们旨在评估在现实生活中面临严重个人控制威胁的情况下，控制剥夺的后果：长期失业。
使用失业者（n=748）和在职者（n=307）的样本 N=1055，我们检验了两种控制剥夺反应模型的预测：控制恢复和脱离/退出。
我们发现，失业时间的长短与一种强烈干扰心理和社会功能的心理状态相关。虽然缺乏控制的控制恢复模型几乎没有得到我们研究结果的支持，但我们的结果表明，长期失业者比在职者更脱离。他们更冷漠，不太可能进行控制恢复努力，也不太可能以积极的方式构建自己的未来。
