Motivation and Performance Following Failure: The Effortful Pursuit of Self-defining Goals

In this paper, I summarise theory and research, highlighting the role of self-defining goals in how individuals react to and try to cope with failure outcomes. I propose that three factors are fundamental to the understanding of whether failure stimulates or impairs motivated behaviour: the relevance of failure to a self-definition, the substitutability of tasks in the service of striving for a self-definition, and a person's commitment to pursuing the respective self-definition. Focusing on students' occupationally directed self-definitions, I first review research showing how the interplay among these factors is reflected in varied measures of achievement behaviour and then discuss practical implications of the theory.     

Territorial Loss as a Challenge for World Governance

Abstract

National governments have failed spectacularly to mitigate anthropogenic climate change and a sustainable approach to mitigation remains out of sight. This circumstance alone demonstrates the need for institutional reform. However, climate change is causing and will continue to cause large-scale loss and damage. Perhaps the most striking kind of that loss is territorial. Climate change induced sea level rise threatens not only vast coastal areas but also entire states. Therefore, mitigation is no longer sufficient. From the collective failure to mitigate climate change arises the collective duty to compensate. Compensating for territorial loss puts the spotlight on institutional deficiencies—which is why I explore them here. Specifically, I argue that (i) providing compensation for territorial loss is both morally required and politically advantageous and that (ii) it cannot be implemented effectively or efficiently without creating a global institution in charge of coordinating the process. Further, I (iii) make design recommendations for creating a global compensatory climate fund, (iv) situate my proposal within the debate on ideal and non-ideal theory, and (v) contend that the proposed institution would be a tool of world governance rather than a form of world government.     

The twinship: A paradigm towards separation and integration

The twinship paradigm describes a pattern of dyadic, quasi-object relationship, the purpose of which is to facilitate differentiation, separation, and integration. Twinships can arise at any point in the life cycle, when the self faces a developmental impasse. The twin functions as an alter-ego. Twin selection is based on two principles, namely, sympathetic resonance of experience, and difference. The two essentials of the resonance are similarity of developmental task, and similarity of obstacles to its accomplishment. The essentials of the difference lie in the fact that the twin is seen either as an idealized alter-ego, or as the carrier of the self's intolerable aspects. Twinships can collapse, in the presence of massive investment in the archaic symbiotic bond. They then lose their transitional status, and can degenerate into a fixation on a separation-impeding dyadic mode of relating.