State of the Art in Competition Research
Title
State of the Art in Competition Research
Author
Fülöp, Márta
Orosz, Gábor
Research Area
Social Interactions
Topic
Primary Group Relationships
Abstract
Until the 1990s in psychology, competition was conceived as a unidimensional concept which is opposed to cooperation. Since then, the competition–cooperation dichotomy has shifted and competition is conceptualized as a multifaceted concept that is not in mutually exclusive relationship with cooperation. Constructive and destructive forms of competition have been distinguished regarding their motivational, strategic, and behavioral consequences. Personality psychologists identified different competitive attitudes and research on the psychology of winning and losing, and differentiated specific patterns of emotional and behavioral coping with winning and losing. More recently, psychophysiological, genetic, and neuroimaging studies enrich the understanding of competition. The warrior and worrier genes, the psychology and physiology of challenge and threat, and the neurohormonal changes open up new dimensions of interpretation of competitive encounters and winning and losing. The new challenge of the field is the integration of the accumulated knowledge in a new bio‐psycho‐socio‐cultural model of competition.