bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Unpacking the “Eldercare Regime”
Authors: Doetter Lorraine Frisina , Fischer Johanna , Rothgang Heinz
Published: February 2023

Addressing the long-term care (LTC) needs of the elderly as families’ capacity for caregiving decreases is both a policymaking priority and societal challenge facing many countries around the world. Care for older people relies heavily upon informal caregivers, traditionally women in the family. However, a growing role can be seen for formal services—either in place of or in conjunction with informal carers—made available by state, societal, or private market actors. This mix of formal and informal care arrangements, carried out by public and private actor types with varying degrees of engagement across a range of care settings can be said to come together to form an “eldercare regime.” In this chapter, the authors unpack the concept to understand the various ways that care manifests within and across societies. The focus is particularly on public versus private responsibility, as well as the intersections between the formal and informal within the care mix. The chapter proceeds to take inventory of care arrangements in place in different countries across Europe, North America, and Asia in which public LTC services and/or benefits have been introduced. The analysis demonstrates that, even among countries in which publicly financed care is available, a wide range of care constellations and actor emphases can be observed, culminating in distinct eldercare regimes. In a final section, the chapter explores differences between countries in financing, services provision, and regulation with respect to tradition, interdependencies with other areas of the welfare state, and normative standards.
Theorizing the Role of Culture and Family Policy for Women’s Employment Behavior
Authors: Pfau-Effinger Birgit
Published: February 2023

There are significant country-specific differences in the degree of women’s labor market integration and working time patterns after the birth of a child. Birgit Pfau-Effinger discusses how it is possible to explain cross-national differences in women’s work-childcare behavior. She argues that common approaches to the role of family policy for women’s employment tend to neglect the role of cultural ideas and often do not sufficiently theorize the relationship between culture and family policy. The chapter introduces a complex multilevel approach to theorizing how the interrelation between culture and family policy in their role for women’s (and men’s) work-childcare behaviors operate. This approach also theorizes which causal mechanisms and processes in the multilevel system it is based on. Main elements include a multilevel concept of culture, the concept of the relative autonomy of culture and family policy institutions, the theorization of women’s work-childcare behavior in the context of culture and family policy institutions and the role of informal and market-based resources for childcare.
Public Attitudes toward Responsibility for Childcare in Welfare Regimes
Authors: Guo Jing , Gilbert Neil
Published: February 2023

The chapter examines the influence of personal characteristics and social contexts on individual attitudes toward government responsibility for childcare provisions. The analysis draws on data from a random sample of 24,240 respondents in 12 of the countries included in the European Social Survey (ESS) round 4 (2008–2009). The analytic framework focuses on individual-level factors related to self-interest, perceptions of the current care available, and egalitarian ideology, as well as the societal context reflected in the alternative institutional arrangements for social welfare represented by the countries clustered into different welfare state regimes. The findings indicate that among the individual-level variables, egalitarian ideology had the relatively strongest impact on the respondents’ level of support for government provision of childcare. At the institutional level the introduction of welfare regimes increased the proportion of explained variance well beyond that accounted for by individual-level factors.
Educating Parents
Authors: Martin Claude
Published: February 2023

This chapter addresses a major challenge that couples encounter in the early stages of family life: the development of effective parenting skills. Claude Martin traces the history of policy initiatives for parenting education from the 19th-century emphasis on scientific mothering to the present focus on parenting in Europe and the United States. Examining the “turn to parenting” that emerged in the 1990s, Martin notes a conceptual distinction between family policies broadly defined and the more narrowly focused policies designed to support parenting. The former include measures such as childcare services, parental leave, and children’s allowances, which do not directly address the performance of the parental role. Parenting policies involve measures that provide parents knowledge and training to perform effectively as caring providers promoting the health and socialization of their children. These two policy orientations place different emphases on the role of the state and the family in the care and socialization of young children.
Explaining Variations in Family Policy through a Gender Lens
Authors: Daly Mary , Ferragina Emanuele
Published: February 2023

This chapter engages with one of the most rapidly changing areas of social policy: family policy. The chapter seeks to fill a number of crucial knowledge gaps in the understanding of family policy by examining how cross-national variation in public spending and relative generosity in a number of family policy areas—specifically early childhood education and care, employment leaves, and child-related financial support—in 22 high-income countries is associated with a range of potential explanatory factors. The chapter places gender at the fore but examines its patterning in the context of other factors, specifically structural exigencies, political factors, and key aspects of public opinion. The results confirm an overall picture of complexity but show very clearly that gender is a central part of the picture. A number of possible explanations are considered for the significance of gender in family policy development across countries. These include gender as a new “zeitgeist,” the possibility that gender might be a mediating factor between socioeconomic considerations and family policy development, and the possibility that it is not so much convergence in ideology or gender egalitarianism that is associated with family policy development as the “sweeping together” of numerous instrumental objectives (e.g., work-family balance, early human capital development) through the rubric of gender. Overall, the empirical results need to be interpreted carefully, considering the significant effects found for the socioeconomic, public opinion, and political factors, and the difficulties in measuring the associations with the available cross-national indicators.
Social Policies for Lone Mothers in Europe
Authors: Zagel Hannah
Published: February 2023

This chapter examines how previous research on lone mothers in the welfare state contributes to understanding systematic differences in how welfare states structure life courses. It contributes both an analytic framework and its application in three countries: Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK. Following a careful review of previous approaches, and building on Leisering’s model of life-course policies, the new analytical framework contains three core elements. First, the structuration mode of welfare states defines order, sequencing, and duration of employment-dominated and care-dominated episodes in lone mothers’ life courses. Age thresholds and work requirements in unemployment benefit systems are exemplar policy elements. Second, welfare states integrate lone mothers’ life courses by providing cash transfers or services for bridging economically difficult periods. Third, welfare states prescribe normative models of how motherhood and employment should be organized across the life course. These ideas are particularly obvious in parental leave regulations, and in whether lone mothers are addressed as a separate claimant category. Exploratory analysis shows a shift toward policies prescribing more employment-dominated life courses of lone mothers in all three countries, but distinct patterns in the modes of integration and normative modelling. Germany and the UK increasingly introduced childcare services for employment-care integration in lone mothers’ life courses, but a general shift in normative modelling of work-family trajectories was less visible in the UK. In the Netherlands, the work-focused life course structuration was not aligned by cash or service-based integration measures, and a care-focused motherhood norm prevailed in policies.
The Matthew Effect in Early Childhood Education and Care
Authors: Van Lancker Wim
Published: February 2023

This chapter reviews the current evidence on the Matthew effect and discusses its relevance for understanding the outcomes of present-day family policies. The chapter discusses how the Matthew effect is studied and interpreted in sociology and in the field of family policy, focusing on subtleties involved in studying the phenomenon and its root causes, how it is conceptualized, and its functions or dysfunctions. An empirical illustration is presented of how the Matthew effect in childcare services across European countries can be studied and understood. The results show that in the majority of countries, participation in childcare is biased against poor children. While childcare use has risen over time, inequality did not decline to the same extent. This means that the children who would benefit most from being integrated into high-quality childcare are those currently most likely to be excluded. This not only jeopardizes the potential of childcare provision to reduce inequalities in early life but might even fuel compounding inequalities over the life course. Potential pathways to redress childcare policies in order to foster socioeconomic equality in childcare participation are explored. The chapter ends with a call to arms for more advanced studies into the causes, mechanisms, and consequences of the Matthew effect in social and family policies, with a particular focus on life-course approaches.
Public Policy toward the Removal of Children from the Family
Authors: Duerr Berrick Jill
Published: February 2023

Jill Duerr Berrick examines one of the most distressful disruptions in family life, which occurs when parents are unable or unwilling to fulfill their obligations for their children’s well-being and the state must intervene to provide the necessary protection and care. She explains that the reasons for separation of children from their parents usually involve one or more of these adversities: destitution, danger, departure, death, disease, drug use, delivery, detention, deployment, divorce, desertion, diversion, or desire. Berrick highlights the wide variation in policies governing the role of the state and the family in the decision-making process regarding the removal of children with examples from high-income and low-income countries around the world. Her analysis of social policy trends in this area suggests an emerging agreement on some ideas about how the state should respond to children in situations requiring public protection, particularly a preference for out-of-home placements in foster care and kinship foster care over group homes and other forms of congregate care.
Principles of Public Policy for Child Protection
Authors: Skivenes Marit
Published: February 2023

Addressing the issue of child protection from a global perspective, Marit Skivenes recounts the negative impact of child maltreatment on the transition to adulthood and illustrates the different types of systems developed in response to the disruption of family life when children experience adversity and maltreatment. Skivenes describes five types of child protection systems formulated from case studies of 50 countries: child exploitation protective systems, child deprivation protective systems, child maltreatment protective systems, child well-being protective systems, and child rights protective systems. These systems vary in the nature of the problems addressed, the level of state intervention, and the extent to which methodical interventions are conducted through established structures. She notes that one of the basic challenges to the state’s response to child maltreatment involves finding the right balance between protecting children against harm within the family and respecting parents and children’s’ rights to family life.
Economic Resources after Divorce
Authors: Herbst-Debby Anat , Kaplan Amit , Endeweld Miri
Published: February 2023

Following a review of the research on the economic implications of divorce, Anat Herbst-Debby, Amit Kaplan, and Miri Endeweld report on how changes in social policy over the last two decades affected the income and housing of divorced families in Israel. Their analysis reveals that the years following the 2003 welfare reforms were accompanied by large cuts in child allowances and income support allowances, as well as reductions in housing assistance. Examining the changing circumstances of men and women after divorce, they found the economic situation of divorced women worse than that of the rest of the Israeli population, and usually worse than that of divorced men. Although the authors note research suggesting that social policy can help to mitigate the negative economic consequences of divorce, they find this was not the experience of the 21st-century policy reforms in Israel.
Family and State Responsibility for Care for Older People
Authors: Arlotti Marco , Pavolini Emmanuele , Ranci Costanzo
Published: February 2023

The chapter investigates how care duties and care rights and their reciprocal interaction have developed in European welfare states. The authors find that the idea of care as a social right has increasingly become the dominant paradigm. On the basis of their review of the development of state intervention in long-term care, the authors observe a trend toward universalism in many countries, although this has partially reversed due to financial constraints and limitations in the public provision of high-quality care. In addition, the analysis highlights a shift toward the extension of welfare state support for care by family members, which has problematic social consequences, since these policies may lead to the persistence of gender inequality and social inequality. In the final section, the authors introduce some reflections regarding the tensions concerning the state-family nexus in the future.
Policies for Active Aging and Their Family-Related Assumptions and Consequences
Authors: Hamilton Myra , Timonen Virpi , Craig Lyn , Adamson Elizabeth
Published: February 2023

Active aging—encouraging greater economic and social productivity of older adults—has become the dominant paradigm in public policies concerning older people in the Western world. This chapter identifies contradictions within the paradigm, and a failure to adequately situate it within the family lives of older people, drawing attention to the relational circumstances that shape opportunities to age actively. The chapter suggests that the active aging paradigm does not adequately recognize the intersections—and contradictions—between active aging policies, family policies, and national work/care regimes. The authors focus on the (lack of) alignment in aspirations pertaining to employment and unpaid work, and their gendered implications. Comparing Australia and Sweden, they conclude that the current employment and family policy settings generally serve to support the active aging agenda of improving labor market participation in later life in Sweden. The Australian case illustrates that encouraging greater economic and social productivity of older adults is problematic if it is inadequately situated within the family lives and life courses of older people. Successfully and sustainably encouraging older people into paid work requires recognition of family contributions as forms of social and economic productivity. Gender equality in economic participation in later life necessitates investment in gender equality earlier in women’s lives, when gendered patterns of economic participation emerge. Lack of alignment in aspirations pertaining to aging policy and family policy has gendered implications, which can undermine the success of active aging policies and cause economic disadvantage to women as they age over the life course.
Mixed-Methods Research and Variety of Evidence in Political Science
Authors: Kuorikoski Jaakko , Marchionni Caterina
Published: February 2023

The chapter clarifies the value of mixed-methods research in terms of the epistemic benefits of a variety of evidence. It distinguishes three rationales for variety of evidence: triangulation, integration, and security and connects them to some of the prominent frameworks for mixed-methods research advanced in political science. Finally, it dispels worries about feasibility of mixed-methods research.
Process Tracing
Authors: Clarke Christopher
Published: February 2023

A good definition of process tracing should highlight what is distinctive about process tracing as a methodology of causal inference. Eight criteria are used to define process tracing in the methodological literature, and I dismiss all eight criteria as unhelpful (some because they are too restrictive, and others because they are vacuous). In place of these criteria, I propose four alternative criteria, and I draw a distinction between process tracing for the ultimate aim of testing a start–end hypothesis versus process tracing as an ultimate end in itself. Although it is clear enough how the former method works, there is still much methodological work to be done in understanding the latter method as a distinctive method of causal inference.
Philosophy of Science Issues in Clientelism Research
Authors: Kincaid Harold , Pellicer Miquel , Wegner Eva
Published: February 2023

Clientelism concerns the distribution of resources from politicians to voters in exchange for political support. The chapter uses some current ideas from philosophy of science about the place of definitions, theories, mechanisms, holism of testing and contextual elements in explanation to address the successes and areas for improvement in the now burgeoning political science research on clientelism. We document the plurality of definitions of clientelism and show that they generally do not fit the traditional necessary and sufficient conditions notion of definitions. We argue that a plurality of definitions, definitions which are often informal in nature, is not necessarily a problem if research is cognizant of how it picks out clientelistic phenomena and does so in empirically fruitful ways. We discuss explanatory frameworks by looking at questions that are being asked, the broad type and system of causes and the specific proposed causal factors that instantiate them, and questions about evidence raised by alternative possible explanations.
Taking Feminism Seriously in Political Science
Authors: Hoard Season , Hubbard Mattix Laci , Mazur Amy G. , Noll Samantha
Published: February 2023

This chapter brings together the two different disciplinary lenses of political science and philosophy to map out feminist political science and its potential for contributing to nonfeminist political science. It begins with basic epistemological foundations from political science and philosophy perspectives and then shows how feminist political science has put into action these epistemological pillars in research through an examination of different taxonomies of feminist approaches in political science that reflect the increasing epistemological diversity of the field. The final section takes a deeper dive into critical feminist theory that develops a necessary critique of the inherent power biases of many feminist approaches. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the broader lessons learned from applying such a critical and ontologically diverse perspective for both feminist and nonfeminist political science and suggests future steps for taking more seriously feminist approaches in political science.
The Biological Aspects of Political Attitudes
Authors: Henderson David , Schneider Stephen
Published: February 2023

Several sets of investigators have recently undertaken projects exploring how biological differences and closely related psychological tendencies may give rise to differing political and social orientations. Of course, the idea that there are such biological roots is not new, but one finds a flowering of work on the matter in recent political science and closely related fields. This chapter seeks to provide a compact survey of some central recent work, and to provide a general philosophical perspective on that work by drawing on the mechanistic explanation framework from the philosophy of biology.
Explaining Institutional Change
Authors: Aydinonat N. Emrah , Ylikoski Petri
Published: February 2023

This chapter addresses the challenge of explaining institutional change, asking whether the much-criticized rational-choice perspective can contribute to the understanding of institutional change in political science. It discusses the methodological reasons why rational-choice institutionalism (RCI) often assumes that institutional change is exogenous and discontinuous, and identifies and explores the possible pathways along which RCI can be extended to be more useful in understanding institutional change in political science. Finally, the Chapter reflects on what RCI theorizing would look like if it started to take endogenous change seriously: by giving up some of its simplifying assumptions, RCI can be a useful tool for analyzing institutional change, but choosing this path has consequences for the generality of the models in RCI as well as for the style of its theorizing.
Public Choice versus Social Choice as Theories of Collective Action
Authors: Zamora-Bonilla Jesús
Published: February 2023

The existence and necessity of collective goods and collective actions is one of the characterizing properties of political reality. From the point of view of economics, the nature of collective goods has been studied especially through what is known as “the theory of public goods,” and the positive and normative properties of collective choice has been analyzed through several formal approaches, among which the two most important are “social choice theory” and “public choice theory.” This chapter offers a panoramic historical survey of these three theories and of their mutual relations.
Sexual Conflict During Relationship Maintenance
Authors: Kennair Leif Edward Ottesen , Grøntvedt Trond Viggo , Kessler Andrea Melanie , Bendixen Mons
Published: February 2023

Sexual conflict is the conflict between the evolutionary interests of individuals of different sexes. Sexual conflict may result in sexually antagonistic coevolution, producing sex-specific adaptations that are involved in cooperation and conflict concerning sex and other mating-relevant aspects between individual men and women. Sexual conflict is studied in many species; however, human long-term relationship maintenance provides a special case. The current chapter introduces the concept of sexual conflict and considers sexual conflict in the context of species-specific and species-typical long-term relationship maintenance. Different expressions of this include phenomena such as parental investment conflict, relationship satisfaction, intercourse frequency in couples, mate retention tactics, jealousy, infidelity, threat to the relationship, breakup, and forgiveness. Evolutionary psychology theory and empirical findings from studies of these phenomena will be presented and discussed within a metanarrative of how human evolved psychology influences contemporary romantic relationships.
Physical Cues of Partner Quality
Authors: Stephen Ian D. , Luoto Severi
Published: February 2023

The dominant evolutionary theory of sexual attraction posits that attraction serves as a psychobehavioral and motivational mechanism for identifying healthy, fertile, and appropriate mates. According to this theory, humans and animals display cues that reflect their mate quality and, if successful, are perceived as attractive by potential mates. There is evidence for such valid cues in human faces, bodies, and non-bodily traits, which include adornments and items that signal provisioning ability, creativity, artistic skills, or conspicuous consumption. In this chapter, we discuss the evidence for the existence of these facial, bodily, and non-bodily cues and for their role in communicating aspects of partner quality, including health, fertility, developmental stability, genetic quality, and potential for parental investment. We further discuss sex differences in the physical cues that men and women rely on in mate choice. We conclude by highlighting the centrality and evolutionary importance of physical cues in contemporary sexual selection, and how they manifest in evolutionarily novel inventions such as physical self-enhancements, “sexy selfies,” social media, and online dating.
Mate Poaching, Infidelity, and Mate Switching
Authors: Everett Ryan Joshua , Lemay Edward P.
Published: February 2023

Most humans today practice social monogamy, characterized by exclusive, long-term attachments with a single other individual with whom they share emotional and sexual intimacy. However, people are prone to stray from these bonds. We review research on infidelity, mate poaching, and mate-switching behaviors. Infidelity entails the intimate (i.e., sexual, emotional, or both) involvement of one individual with another while in an exclusive relationship. Mate poaching entails attempts to seduce an individual who is already mated to another with the intention to usurp their partner, and mate switching consists of dissolving one relationship to form a new relationship with another. We review theory and empirical findings related to these phenomena, with a focus on evolved psychological mechanisms that explain why and how people engage in these behaviors, and what consequences they have. This research suggests that infidelity, mate poaching, and mate switching are influenced by sex differences in desire for emotional investment and in sexual frequency and variety, and by individual differences in preferences for novel experiences, antisocial tendencies, sexual permissiveness, and attachment orientation. It also suggests that relationship attributes, including relationship satisfaction, and situational factors, including quality of alternatives and opportunity, relate to why and how people pursue extradyadic partners, poach, and switch mates. We describe the evolutionary significance of these mechanisms, assess the extent to which research findings relate to these mechanisms, and discuss future research directions to increase our understanding of why and how these behaviors have been selected for over human evolutionary history.
Dissolution of LGBTQ+ Relationships
Authors: Redlick Holland Madeleine , Lannutti Pamela J.
Published: February 2023

In considering the nature of romantic relationship dissolution, it is important to recognize the unique experience that LGBTQ+ couples may have in the modern world. Specifically, as argued by Lannutti (2014), dynamic sociocultural contextual factors related to these relationships, such as discrimination and changes in legal recognition, may meaningfully affect the relational lives of non-heterosexual people. This assertion, that sociocultural context plays a meaningful role in the dissolution of romantic relationships, is echoed by evolutionary scholars. Thus, in this chapter, we seek to highlight research that recognizes the unique experience of LGBTQ+ relationship dissolution. Although the corpus of knowledge regarding LGBTQ+ relationship dissolution remains sparse, we will provide an overview of what knowledge has been generated up to this point. To begin, we will engage the somewhat thorny topic of how LGBTQ+ relationships have been incorporated into evolutionary theorizing and research. Following this discussion, we articulate some dissolution-relevant relationship features that make the experience of being in a LGBTQ+ relationship different from that of a mixed-sex relationship. Next, we discuss how the actual process of dissolution might differ in LGBTQ+ relationships. Where possible, we draw out insights that evolutionary perspectives may offer in interpreting some of the findings we review. Finally, we offer areas in which we feel that research on LGBTQ+ relationship dissolution can grow moving forward.
Relationship Dissolution Among Adults
Authors: Mortelmans Dimitri
Published: February 2023

The end of a marriage or cohabitation is an intrusive life course event witnessed within a substantial number of romantic relationships. The uncoupling of relationships has transformed the family lives of both adults and children in most Western countries for the past half-century. This chapter first looks into the phenomenon from a legal perspective delineating when a breakup is witnessed and registered. Next, we examine both the causes and the consequences of breakups. For antecedents of divorce, we focus on intergenerational inheritance of breakups, educational attainment, economic risk factors, personality, and health. We also touch upon protective factors in a relationship that decreases the risk of ending a relationship. When taking consequences into account, the chapter is limited to adults. The chapter describes the financial consequences of divorce, their health, networks and lone parenthood, and poverty after divorce. The chapter concludes with a prospect of the future of this field.
Intrasexual Mating Competition
Authors: Krems Jaimie Arona , Bradshaw Hannah K. , Merrie Laureon A.
Published: February 2023

In the mating domain, same-sex conspecifics can be competitors when pursuing, attracting, and retaining desirable partners. We provide (a) an overview of the major metatheories (e.g., obligate parental investment and biological markets) that bear on intrasexual competition for mates; (b) explore support for predictions derived from these metatheories in empirical research on females’ and males’ intrasexual mating competition; and also discuss (c) robust evidence consistent with the core premise of intrasexual mating competition—that members of each sex compete with rivals to gain and retain access to mates, and that this competition centers on features that the other sex finds particularly desirable. Moreover, the tactics of this competition often differ in revealing ways. Whereas examples in both human and nonhuman animals are considered, the current work focuses on the causes, consequences, and modes of intrasexual mating competition among heterosexual men and women, but we nevertheless conclude by highlighting important qualifiers and limitations in existing work with an eye toward future research (e.g., on women, non-heterosexual relationships, and parents) that challenges our current conceptualizations of the boundaries of intrasexual mating competition.
How Life Events Are Integrated into the Self as Memories
Authors: Philippe Frederick L.
Published: February 2023

This chapter proposes a memory approach to the question of integration in self-determination theory. It suggests that life events are critical to the integrative process, as they represent the success or failure of humans’ interactions with the environment. Their encoding as memories and their cognitive organizations help to reduce uncertainty by providing humans with the capacity to predict what will occur in similar future situations. Three qualities relative to the integration of life events are presented along with empirical evidence supporting them: (1) the encoding and reconstruction of life events in memory as need satisfying, (2) their incorporation as event memories in need-satisfying memory networks, and (3) their integration in higher-level representations, notably through emotion regulation processes. Overall, it is shown that the organismic concept of integration from self-determination theory is in line with other neurocognitive theories on memory and the functioning of the brain. The combination of memory theories with self-determination theory appears as a fruitful research avenue to the study of the integrative process.
Toward a Neurobiology of Integrative Processes
Authors: Di Domenico Stefano I. , Ryan Richard M.
Published: February 2023

Integrative processes refer to people’s strivings to develop and exercise their capacities for autonomous self-regulation. This chapter highlights the importance of integration within Self-Determination Theory (SDT), surveys the psychological research on the topic, and reviews the burgeoning neuroscience research on integrative processes. This chapter proposes that integration is multifaceted and that different neural networks orchestrate specific integrative processes. Different brain regions are seen as nodes operating within and across multiple decentralized networks that support the experiential and behavioral aspects of integrative processes already known to SDT scholars. This chapter additionally reviews some of the neuroscientific methods available to SDT researchers and flags conceptual difficulties in this emerging area of research that seeks to connect complex phenomenology with biology.
Psychometric Approaches in Self-Determination Theory
Authors: Howard Joshua L.
Published: February 2023

The valid measurement of psychological constructs is an essential and necessary component of research within self-determination theory (SDT). Without effective scales and psychometric practices, the meaning and knowledge contributed by any given study is severely undermined. This chapter discusses various psychometric approaches that have been applied to examine multidimensional constructs within SDT, such as basic psychological needs, motivational regulation types, and sources of autonomy support. The chapter covers both traditional and contemporary approaches including confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis as we all as higher-order and bifactor models. Several directions for further attention are discussed, notably the benefits to SDT that can be seen from publicly available data of published studies.
With My Self
Authors: Weinstein Netta , Nguyen Thuy-vy , Hansen Heather
Published: February 2023

Solitude—spending time alone and not interacting with others—may be conducive to well-being and personal growth because individuals take the opportunity to self-connect. This chapter argues that self-determination theory provides a useful framework for understanding the dispositional and situational conditions for positive solitude, and why benefits arise. The chapter reviews the roles of preference, self-determined motivation, and choice as reasons individuals may find themselves alone, and it explores personal capacity for solitude as driven by an autonomous orientation. It offers a conceptual model describing positive characteristics of solitude, including quietude, fewer social demands, and less imposed structure, and links those with a number of affordances of solitude, namely, choice, freedom from pressure, and self-connection. In solitude, we can feel empowered to think, feel, and do what we want, and exercising those choices can foster a feeling of self-connection that promotes awareness, understanding, and personal growth.
Motivation and Self-Regulation in Music, Musicians, and Music Education
Authors: Evans Paul
Published: February 2023

When self-determination theory (SDT) researchers study musicians, they find psychological needs-satisfying experiences and intrinsic motivation in abundance. But learning music is difficult and poses unique challenges to needs-satisfying experiences, including long, slow learning curves, performance anxieties, and pressure from parents and teachers. At more advanced levels of training, stress, competitiveness, perfectionism, high-stakes evaluations, and financial pressures can all influence intrinsic motivation and persistence. Pervading all music learning contexts is the need to practice, which itself requires considerable motivational resources to sustain regularly and with attention and engagement. This chapter discusses music as both an evolved means for the satisfaction of basic psychological needs and a medium for the expression of self and social identity. It reviews research studies in music education, showing the importance of basic psychological needs and autonomous motivation for practice, self-regulated learning, enjoyment, and long-term persistence in music learning across a range of contexts, including childhood music experiences, lessons in music studios, school music education experiences, and advanced training in higher education. Across these levels of experience with music SDT research reveals the intrinsic benefits of music and helps explain the varied outcomes observed in music education.
Self-Determination Theory Applied to Sport
Authors: Standage Martyn
Published: February 2023

Sports so acutely illustrate human motivation (i.e., “being moved into action”). To understand the motivational dynamics of sports, researchers have tested propositions within self-determination theory (SDT) for more than 40 years. Here, SDT provides a broad and coherent theoretical perspective to explain the social conditions that promote high-quality forms of athlete motivation and thriving as well as those that contribute to ill-being and impoverished functioning. In this chapter, empirical research findings are collated to review (1) SDT’s multidimensional perspective of motivation; (2) the motivational and wellness benefits of satisfying, as opposed to frustrating, the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness; and (3) how the functional significance of various elements of sporting environments differentially affect motivation and sport-related outcomes as a function of being need-supporting or need-thwarting. Practical recommendations are organized around the concept of basic psychological needs. Finally, several directions for future research in sport settings are offered.
Self-Determination Theory in Physical Activity Contexts
Authors: Wang John C. K. , Hagger Martin S.
Published: February 2023

Regular participation in physical activities of sufficient duration and intensity has been consistently associated with adaptive health benefits among people of all ages, including special populations. This chapter provides a review on self-determination theory in the physical activity contexts. First, the chapter presents the benefits of and guidelines on regular physical activity participation. Next, it reviews the effectiveness of self-determination theory in identifying the determinants of physical activity behavior and the processes involved. Specifically, the relationships between psychological need satisfaction, autonomous motivation, and physical activity participation will be examined. Next, the chapter reviews studies related to the process of internalization in physical activity participation and intervention studies in creating an autonomy-supportive environment. It also reviews studies that integrate self-determination theory with other theories. Finally, it identifies future directions for research applying the theory in the physical activity domain.
The Transdiagnostic Role of the Basic Psychological Needs in Psychopathology
Authors: van der Kaap-Deeder Jolene
Published: February 2023

Self-determination theory (SDT) states that the satisfaction of individuals’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness is crucial for well-being and thriving, whereas the frustration of these needs is assumed to engender ill-being and even psychopathology. This chapter presents an overview of the work done on the relation between the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness and psychopathology. Current empirical evidence suggests that especially need frustration plays a crucial role in different types of psychopathology, thereby emphasizing the transdiagnostic role of the needs. This chapter also discusses different ways in which especially need frustration can relate to psychopathology and how this fits within the broader transdiagnostic literature. Finally, important avenues for future research are identified.
Leadership
Authors: Van den Broeck Anja , Slemp Gavin R.
Published: February 2023

Leaders have a strong impact on employee motivation. Scholars have thus invested considerable effort toward investigating which leadership styles relate to employee motivation, as well as organizational dynamics that impact these relationships, using self-determination theory (SDT) as a guiding framework. This has led to two prevailing yet relatively disparate research streams, one heavily invested in the motivational effects of the more classic leadership frameworks typically examined in the industrial and organizational psychology literature (e.g., transformational leadership) and another descendant of early SDT research on the effects of motivating styles (e.g., autonomy support). This chapter seeks to bridge these two parallel streams, presenting an overview of the most important research findings in both traditions and highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. It concludes by presenting a way forward with recommendations for future research.
Self-Determination Theory and International Development
Authors: Sayanagi Nobuo R. , van Egmond Marieke C.
Published: February 2023

SDT has much to offer international development, especially as a counterpoint to the extrinsic incentive bias and hedonic stance that are prevalent in the field. Although the number of studies is still limited, existing studies in the context of international development and poverty generally support the basic propositions of SDT, especially in regard to the satisfaction of basic psychological needs and intervention outcomes. Theoretically, SDT-based interventions should also promote eudaimonia, although empirical investigation is warranted. Research in international development could, in turn, bring about new perspectives to SDT, for example, that basic psychological need satisfaction seems to moderate the undermining effect. As international development is a field that is new to not just SDT but psychology in general, there will be many challenges in conducting research, such as the lack of valid psychometric measures and ethical guidelines.
Social Issues
Authors: Curren Randall
Published: February 2023

This chapter provides a contextualized overview of self-determination theory’s (SDT) contributions to the theory and practice of addressing social issues. It addresses the contested role of basic needs in social philosophy and explains the relationships between basic psychological needs and accounts of basic human needs that have been influential in global justice studies. It argues that autonomy, competence, and positive relatedness constitute a comprehensive set of basic human needs that societies and global development efforts should aim to enable individuals to satisfy. It addresses the significance of SDT research for eudaimonic justice, intergenerational justice, the social welfare versus individual responsibility debate, and the basis of social cooperation. The chapter also addresses SDT’s contributions to addressing problems of sustainability, education, work, and civic culture. It shows how SDT research on human flourishing, materialism, experience of nature, and motivation for environmentally beneficial behaviors are providing a basis for policies conducive to sustainability, understood as the long-term preservation of opportunities to live well. It surveys key SDT findings on need support, motivation, performance, and well-being in educational and work settings. Finally, it concludes that SDT research is contributing to theorical understandings of justice focused on basic needs and human flourishing, while addressing a variety of important social issues and providing a wealth of actionable guidance for strengthening cooperation and improving the functioning of schools, workplaces, and other institutions.
The “What” and the “Why” of Pro-Environmental Deeds
Authors: Legault Lisa
Published: February 2023

Self-determined pro-environmental motivation is arguably the most important motivational resource for protecting the environment and supporting a sustainable lifestyle. At the same time, pro-environmental behavior evolves from multiple goals, values, and cues beyond self-determined motivation. This chapter reviews the state of research on self-determination and values as they relate to pro-environmental behavior. It sketches a framework to promote more widespread pro-environmental behavior by integrating motivation, values and goals, and social support. By understanding the manner in which values and motivation interact in predicting pro-environmental behavior, it becomes possible to identify sources of motivational conflict that lead to environmentally unsound choices. Through a process of aligning individuals’ values and motivation, strategies for intervention begin to emerge.
Economic Development IN Historical Political Economy
Authors: Morales-Arilla Jose , Ricart-Huguet Joan , Wantchekon Leonard
Published: February 2023

Understanding the primary causes of human prosperity is one of the most important endeavors for social scientists. Much research in the twentieth century followed a neo-classical approach that emphasized important factors such as physical capital, human capital, and technological change, but was nonetheless devoid of historical and political context. In recent decades there has been a resurgence of political and historically embedded explanations of economic development, which have greatly expanded upon the works of early political economists such as Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Karl Marx. This chapter provides an overview of this recent research on geography, institutions, and human capital, along with their interactions, as drivers of long-term economic development. The chapter then moves beyond these paradigms to argue that many historical political economists have largely overlooked explanations focused on state capacity and state-led development. A better understanding of the state should help scholars identify paths to break away from the low-growth equilibrium of less-developed countries.
The Urban-Rural Divide in Historical Political Economy
Authors: Rodden Jonathan A.
Published: February 2023

This chapter returns to some classic questions posed by Seymour Martin Lipset and Stein Rokkan in the 1960s. When and where is an urban-rural divide in political behavior most likely to emerge? Once established, why does it deepen in some countries at some times, while dissipating in others? After discussing efforts to conceptualize and measure the urban-rural divide since the rise of mass franchise democracy and presenting some time series data from the last 140 years in Germany and the United States, the chapter examines explanations for variation across time and space that are rooted in (1) economic geography, (2) social and cultural divisions, and (3) political institutions and the nationalization of politics. The chapter explores the idea that the urban-rural divide is driven by efforts of party elites to assemble packages of platforms on policy dimensions for which voters’ preferences are correlated with population density. In addition to establishing some stylized facts and reviewing existing contributions, this chapter attempts to provide a road map for theoretical and empirical studies that lie ahead.