Resource control strategies and psychosocial skills

Sociale status, competitiestrategieën en psychosociale vaardigheden

Living and working in groups has benefits. Members of a group, however, must compete among themselves for access to resources (e.g., food, toys, partners) and they differ in the degree of resource control (i.e., access to scarce assets). In other words, the level of resource control is a measure of status in the peer group. We study resource control in school classes.

The latest insights in human and primate research suggest that resource control is not only associated with aggression, but also with cooperative and prosocial behavior (e.g., cooperation, reconciliation, exchange, promising friendship). This research aims to investigate the effectivity of several forms of cooperative/prosocial behavior as well as social skills for resource control. Similar research is being carried out by colleagues of Animal Ecology.

Researchers

Collaboration

Behavioural Biology, Utrecht University

Funding

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