New research published in the Journal of Personality reveals that prolonged unemployment is strongly correlated with loss of personal control and subsequent disengagement both psychologically and socially.
The need for control is a fundamental aspect of human motivation, and when this need is unmet, it can lead to significant psychological consequences. Past research has explored control loss through experimental manipulations, but questions remain about the ecological validity of these findings. This study, led by Wiktor Soral and colleagues, aimed to address these concerns by investigating the real-world implications of prolonged unemployment—a situation that severely threatens personal control.
Unemployment is a significant stressor with far-reaching impacts on mental health. It strips individuals of both the explicit benefits of employment, such as income, and the implicit ones, like structured time and social connections. Building on this understanding, Soral and colleagues focused on how prolonged unemployment might alter psychological functioning and social adaptation. Specifically, they explored whether these changes manifest as disengagement and helplessness, or if there are attempts to regain lost control.
The study involved a sample of 1,055 Polish participants, with 748 unemployed individuals and 307 employed individuals serving as a control group. The unemployed participants were categorized based on the length of their unemployment: short-term (0-3 months), medium-term (4-12 months), and long-term (over 12 months).
The survey collected demographic information, including age, gender, education level, and place of residence. Participants completed a variety of measures to assess well-being, self-esteem, perceived control (personal, political, and fatalistic), emotions, stress coping strategies, and social attitudes. The study also examined variables that could indicate control regaining efforts, such as active coping and collective action, as well as those suggesting disengagement, like withdrawal and anti-democratic beliefs. Data collection occurred in two parts, with participants completing the second part of the survey within two weeks of the first. Only participants who completed both parts were included in the final analysis, resulting in a total of 854 participants.
Soral and colleagues found that prolonged unemployment is strongly associated with a decline in well-being and self-esteem, alongside an increased perception of personal and fatalistic control loss. As unemployment duration lengthened, participants reported more negative emotions, particularly those related to low-approach and avoidance, such as feeling depressed or frightened.
They also exhibited fewer positive emotions, especially those linked to active engagement like enthusiasm. This emotional disengagement was accompanied by a significant reduction in active stress coping strategies and a decrease in the pursuit of personal projects and future-oriented goals. The findings suggest that long-term unemployment fosters a sense of learned helplessness, where individuals become increasingly demotivated and pessimistic about their ability to regain control over their lives.
Socially, the study revealed that long-term unemployed individuals are more likely to disengage from social and political activities. They reported lower levels of national identification and a reduced likelihood of participating in collective actions, such as protests. Additionally, these individuals exhibited higher levels of psychological defensiveness, including increased individual and collective narcissism, and a greater tendency to blame external entities, like governments or corporations, for their unemployment.
Interestingly, the study did not find evidence that these individuals turned to external sources of control, such as belief in an intervening God or system justification, suggesting that while they become more defensive and disengaged, they do not necessarily seek comfort or control through external systems.
One limitation noted by the authors is the cross-sectional nature of the study, which prevents establishing causality.
The study, “Prolonged unemployment is associated with control loss and personal as well as social disengagement”, was authored by Wiktor Soral, Marcin Bukowski, Michał Bilewicz, Aleksandra Cichocka, Karol Lewczuk, Marta Marchlewska, Aleksandra Rabinovitch, Anna Rędzio, Magdalena Skrodzka, and Mirosław Kofta.