The Motivation and Emotion Laboratory is a research laboratory interested in how social environments influence human emotion regulation, motivation, personality development, and well-being. Research focuses on relationships between parents and children, teachers and students, as well as school principals and teachers – in an attempt to define optimal environments for personal and social growth.
Following Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2008), we distinguish between autonomy-supportive and autonomy-suppressive environments and trace how they predict individuals' functioning and development. The Laboratory investigates four main research areas:
1. Antecedents and outcomes of adaptive emotion regulation
2. Antecedents and outcomes of parental conditional regard, which is a relatively controlling parental practice where parents provide more affection and appreciation when children meet their expectations and less when children do not
3. Antecedents and outcomes of parents' and teachers' autonomy support in different domains such as emotion regulation, prosocial behavior, bullying, and well-being
4. Leadership styles and their links with adaptive functioning
The Laboratory scrutinizes theoretical questions via diverse research methods. Studies dealing with emotions are conducted in the observation laboratory, using physiological measures like heart rate, skin conductance, etc. Other research is conducted in a social laboratory or in the field, especially in educational institutions.
