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Karl-Andrew Woltin
Phd, Researcher
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Address
Department of Psychology
Université catholique de Louvain
Place du Cardinal Mercier 10
1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Belgium
Tel. +32-10-47 93 54
Fax. +32-10-47 37 74
Email : karl-adrew.woltin@uclouvain.be
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Degree :
I recently finished my PhD in social psychology at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena where I was working with Prof. Kai Sassenberg (now at the Knowledge Media Research Centre in Tuebingen) and Prof. Mummendey.
Research interests :
At Louvain-la-Neuve I am working on empathy gaps in decision making together with Prof. Yzerbyt and Prof. Olivier Corneille.
(1) Self-regulation at the group level
During the last three years self-regulation at the group level has been my major area of interest. Self-regulation comprises the volitional and cognitive processes individuals apply to reach a (subjectively) positive state. In focussing on the process of motivation, it thus differs from traditional approaches to motivation in groups (such as social identity theory) which focus on specific needs or the content of motivation.
- My research investigated the impact of deadlines on group goal striving based on an integration of the action-phase model and social identity theory.
We found that highly identified group members in natural as well as laboratory groups applied self-control strategies suggested to be phase-adequate for individual goal pursuit in pre- compared to post-deadline phases of goal striving. These effects even held when individual outcome considerations were eliminated.
- Furthermore, we could show these control strategies to conceptually differ from the so-called identity management strategies usually investigated in intergroup research.
Overall, the findings demonstrate that control strategies also pertain to the group level and corroborate the notion that the social self can serve as a basis for self-regulation.
(2) Empathy gaps and decision making
My research ideas concerning empathy gaps predominantly address the fact that individuals use biased self-predictions for likewise biased predictions of others’ reactions to emotional situations. The latter prediction is referred to as social prediction. Obviously, considerations of self-other similarity and dissimilarity have an impact on the quality of this prediction. I am interested in disentangling when similarity and when dissimilarity considerations lead to better social predictions (and thus reduce empathy gaps) and in moderators of this process.
Representative publications
- Theses
Woltin, K.-A. (2005). Group-based self-control – the impact of social identification on the adaptive use of control strategies during group goal pursuit. Diploma Thesis, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany.
Woltin, K.-A. (2008). Group-based self-control: The impact of opportunities to reach a goal and of social identification. PhD Thesis, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany.
- Articles
Jonas, K. J. & Woltin, K.-A. (2005). Die Funktion von Zielen als individuelle und kollektive Zeitgeber im Alltag [The function of goals as individual and collective ‘Zeitgeber’ in everyday life]. Wirtschaftspsychologie, 3, 92-101.
Sassenberg, K., Fehr, J., Hansen, N., Matschke, C., & Woltin, K.-A. (2007). Eine sozialpsychologische Analyse zur Reduktion sozialer Diskriminierung von Menschen mit Migrationshintergrund. Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie, 38, 239-249.
Sassenberg, K., & Woltin, K.-A. (2008). Group-based self-regulation: The effects of regulatory focus. European Review of Social Psychology, 19, 126-164.
