Naomi M. P. De Ruiter

• PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Groningen

The current article proposes a theoretical model of self-esteem called the Self-Organizing Self-Esteem (SOSE) model. The model provides an integrative framework for conceptualizing and understanding the intrinsic dynamics of self-esteem and the role of the context across 3 levels of development: The macro level, which is the level of trait self-est...

Research regarding the variability of state self-esteem (SSE) commonly focuses on the magnitude of variability. In this article we provide the first empirical test of the temporal structure of SSE as a real time process during parent–adolescent interactions. We adopt a qualitative phenomenological approach, whereby moment-to-moment emotional and be...

In this article, we aim to shed light on a technique to study intra-individual variability that spans the time frame of seconds and minutes, i.e., micro-level development. This form of variability is omnipresent in behavioural development and processes of human experience, yet is often ignored in empirical studies, given a lack of proper analysis t...

We investigate intra-individual processes of identity at the micro level. With an intensive longitudinal design in the general context of higher education, we explore associations between changes in pivotal identity concepts: commitment and exploration and elaborate on how we conceptualize these concepts on a micro level. With our within-individual...

Many recent approaches to identity share a foundational similarity with ecological psychology, namely, to place identity in its context. That is, they explicitly place identity in its physical and social environments. Yet, we can distinguish at least two different approaches that diverge fundamentally with regards to the role that this “context” ha...

Interdisciplinarity’ is a bit of a buzzword in the Dutch university sector. It is also one of the most prioritized policy goals at a national and European level. Yet, ‘interdisciplinarity’ remains under-defined, and the challenges and obstacles unique to doing interdisciplinarity remain fuzzy. How, then, are we supposed to adopt an interdisciplinar...

Mindsets of ability (i.e., “fixed” and “growth” mindsets) play a pivotal role in students’ academic trajectories. However, relatively little is known about the mechanisms underlying mindset development. Identifying these mechanisms is vital for understanding, and potentially influencing, how mindsets emerge and change over time. In this article, we...

Methodological and empirical questions concerning state self-esteem are contingent upon very specific underlying commitments to “what” state self-esteem and its dynamics actually are. These are questions concerning ontology. These underlying commitments or views about “what actually exists” are not explicit, but enacted through our research actions...

Background Narcissism viewed as a personality process rather than a stable trait explains narcissistic functioning as a tool for maintaining a positive self-view. Studying narcissism therefore needs adequate momentary measures for collecting higher frequency longitudinal data in experience sampling method (ESM) studies. In this study, a shorter ver...

Psychological science constructs much of the knowledge that we consume in our everyday lives. This book is a systematic analysis of this process, and of the nature of the knowledge it produces. The authors show how mainstream scientific activity treats psychological properties as being fundamentally stable, universal, and isolable. They then challe...

This chapter discusses the practice of measurement in psychological research. Here, where we cast doubt on the basic assumptions and endeavours underlying the act of measuring in mainstream psychology. Next, we introduce the processual alternative, which stresses the study of activity as situated and coupled with an environment. This chapter explai...

With this chapter, we sketch a picture of a future process-oriented praxis. We describe what is required to instigate a theoretical shift toward a process commitment, and what that shift might look like for the psychological praxis. To flesh this out, we conceptualize psychological science as a complex dynamic system whose behaviour is currently do...

We reflect on the relative ‘success’ versus ‘failure’ of psychology as a research field, and we challenge the widelybheld notion that we are in a reproducibility (or replication) crisis. At the centre of our discussion is the question: does psychology have a future, qua science, if the phenomena it studies are changing all the time and contingent o...

Science communication is an important practice in psychological research. With this chapter, we examine this practice in mainstream psychological research. We look at the ways that our words, definitions, and descriptions (of experimental studies) create a world of categories, called ‘natural kinds’. We describe how these natural kinds are construc...

Psychological science constructs much of the knowledge that we consume in our everyday lives. This book is a systematic analysis of this process, and of the nature of the knowledge it produces. The authors show how mainstream scientific activity treats psychological properties as being fundamentally stable, universal, and isolable. They then challe...

This chapter demonstrates how concrete practices align and form a praxis, using the field of self-esteem research as a case study – as one of the most popular concepts in both academic and pseudo psychology. The mainstream praxis of self-esteem research is dissected in the context of enacting a substance ontology. Here Aristotle’s distinction betwe...

Psychological science constructs much of the knowledge that we consume in our everyday lives. This book is a systematic analysis of this process, and of the nature of the knowledge it produces. The authors show how mainstream scientific activity treats psychological properties as being fundamentally stable, universal, and isolable. They then challe...

With this chapter, we deal with the problem of research ‘uncertainty’: how it is defined and dealt with in the standard praxis of psychological research. It stresses that the idea of measurement ‘error’ (in the sense of variability) is predominantly valid under a substance ontology. The processual alternative is described, stemming from a complex d...

Psychological science constructs much of the knowledge that we consume in our everyday lives. This book is a systematic analysis of this process, and of the nature of the knowledge it produces. The authors show how mainstream scientific activity treats psychological properties as being fundamentally stable, universal, and isolable. They then challe...

We discuss the broad organizational power-structures that regulate the virtues of doing science, the values upheld, and the introduction of novices into the scientific community. Aristotle’s scheme of knowledge is used to introduce the relevance of a value-laden praxis, of phronesis, which is the virtue of ‘doing’. We discuss these ideological issu...

With this chapter, we contrast the mainstream explanatory practices with forms of causality that are processual: complex causality. Complex dynamic systems are used as a framework, incorporating principles such as emergence, self-organization, circular causality, and perturbations. With this alternative, processes themselves are seen as causes, mak...

The small and somewhat fringe praxis of processual self-esteem research is described with respect to its enactment of a process ontology. The chapter shows that a process approach has resulted in a focus on ‘how’ questions in self-esteem research (rather than on predictive validity, for example) and a more pluralistic approach to the operationaliza...

Recently, there has been a growing emphasis on the fact that an understanding of identity development requires the study of real-time identity. But what exactly constitutes ‘real-time identity’? In this manuscript, we highlight that definitions of real time are often fuzzy, which poses a threat to this research field. We discuss two conceptual issu...

There is a growing body of research showing the crucial role that students’ growth versus fixed ability-mindsets have in their school achievement, enjoyment, and resilience. The overwhelming majority of this research adopts a variable-oriented approach. As a result, little is known about how teachers and students co-regulate each other’s mindsets w...

The landscape of identity model views identity as a constellation of commitments with different levels of strength and integration, showing how this constellation emerges from everyday life experiences. Drawing on key principles from the complex dynamic systems approach, our model further describes this conceptualization, as well as the mechanisms...

Aims Mental disorders are associated with lower subjective social status (SSS), but a more nuanced understanding of this relationship is needed. We examined the influence of disorder age of onset and recency on SSS and studied whether mental disorders are also associated with the discrepancy between actual and desired SSS. Method Data are from the...

From a Dynamic Systems perspective, real-time processes are the building blocks for long-term development. While the long-term development of self-esteem has frequently been researched, few studies have examined the real-time processes of self-esteem. Moreover, the studies that have does so have not considered the socially-embedded nature of self-e...

Over recent years, it has become clear that group-based approaches cannot directly be used to understand individual adolescent development. For that reason, interest in Dynamic Systems Theory, or DST, has increased rapidly. Psychosocial Development in Adolescence: Insights from the Dynamic Systems Approach covers state-of-the-art insights into adol...

In this book, we have brought together cutting-edge dynamic systems research concerning adolescent development. In doing so, our general aim was to demonstrate how a dynamic systems approach can uniquely move the field of adolescent development forward. With the various chapters in this book, we have demonstrated how dynamic systems principles have...

The dynamic turn in the field of psychology of foreign-language learning has inspired researchers to capture the nitty gritty dynamics of development in inter- or intra-individual variables. Despite the growing number of techniques for analyzing dynamics, there is still a need for techniques that capture how intra-individual dynamics are situated i...

The variability of self-esteem is an important characteristic of self-esteem. However, little is known about the mechanisms that underlie it. The goal of the current study was to empirically explore these underlying mechanisms. It is commonly assumed that state self-esteem (the fleeting experience of the self) is a response to the immediate social...

Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11370/6bf10e55-5652-41a9-871a-5a1b28620fa4 Self-esteem has come to be a hugely important concept in modern-day psychology. It is often investigated as a predictor for, or an outcome of, other psychological concepts – from academic success to relationship satisfaction. In the vast majority of these studies, it is approac...