Deprived needs and incongruent values - scrutinizing the causes of the mental health problems of unemployed people

Third party funded individual grant


Start date : 01.08.2013

End date : 31.07.2016


Project details

Short description

Unemployment does not only correlate with an impaired mental health, it causes it. However, the mediating mechanisms which contribute to this effect, have not been identified yet. With regard to the most renowned theory in this field - Jahoda's (1981, 1986, 1997) latent deprivation model - findings are inconclusive. Furthermore, there is a lack of compelling longitudinal studies that test the causal assumptions of the model. In addition, the foundation of the model in contemporary need theories appears to be fragmentary. As a complement to Jahoda's deprivation theory, the claimant has recently proposed the incongruence hypothesis, which emphasizes the relevance of employment-related values and life goals for the explanation of the psychological effects of unemployment (Paul & Moser, 2006). For the requested project it is thus proposed (1) to integrate the existing data concerning the deprivation model meta-analytically, in order to summarize the present state of research and to make this information available for the research community; (2) to conduct a longitudinal study with multiple waves in order to test the causal assumptions of the model in a conclusive way; (3) to integrate the basic needs for autonomy and competence, which have been neglected up to now, into the model and to test them empirically; and (4) to test, with a newly developed scale, the assumptions of the incongruence model, which has not received much research attention yet.

Scientific Abstract

Unemployment does not only correlate with an impaired mental health, it causes it. However, the mediating mechanisms which contribute to this effect, have not been identified yet. With regard to the most renowned theory in this field - Jahoda's (1981, 1986, 1997) latent deprivation model - findings are inconclusive. Furthermore, there is a lack of compelling longitudinal studies that test the causal assumptions of the model. In addition, the foundation of the model in contemporary need theories appears to be fragmentary. As a complement to Jahoda's deprivation theory, the claimant has recently proposed the incongruence hypothesis, which emphasizes the relevance of employment-related values and life goals for the explanation of the psychological effects of unemployment (Paul & Moser, 2006). For the requested project it is thus proposed (1) to integrate the existing data concerning the deprivation model meta-analytically, in order to summarize the present state of research and to make this information available for the research community; (2) to conduct a longitudinal study with multiple waves in order to test the causal assumptions of the model in a conclusive way; (3) to integrate the basic needs for autonomy and competence, which have been neglected up to now, into the model and to test them empirically; and (4) to test, with a newly developed scale, the assumptions of the incongruence model, which has not received much research attention yet.

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