Project description

In the project we investigated how humans deal with different group memberships. More specifically, we focused on how incompatibility between different groups is coped with, and how different group memberships might be reconciled and integrated in the self-concept. Moreover, we investigated how the development of a new social identification and identity integration affects learning and well-being.

The investigation of incompatible group memberships was mostly done with newcomers. Newcomers can experience incompatibilities when different expectations or behavioral norms of the groups are perceived as problematic. Lab and field experiments tested the impact of motivation on social identity development and well-being. We could demonstrate that both internal and external motivation to be a group member buffer the negative effect of incompatibility on the new social identity and well-being. Moreover, we investigated the effects of specific forms of social support longitudinally in order to facilitate identity adoption and identity integration during the integration process.

In addition, we demonstrated the impact of social identities on collaborative learning in lab experiments. It was found that a shared group membership facilitates learning of factual knowledge and knowledge integration in collaborative learning with wikis. Thus, within the knowledge construction lab, the project investigates how the internal representation of social systems and its development affect knowledge acquisition and well-being.