Razafitsoma, Andriamihajasoa (2025) Conflict in Motion: The Evolution of Agency as the Coordination in a Conflict Varies. Master thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
In a sparring session, martial artists engage in a continuous synergy of anticipation, action, and reaction to coordinate with their opponents. This state allows them to influence each other's movements and opportunities for action, or affordances, potentially gaining advantages that lead to victory and increasing their Sense of Agency (SoA). SoA refers to the ability to control one's actions and, through them, external events, which can be individual (i.e. one’s actions affect the world) or joint (i.e. one’s actions contribute to maintaining a social system). While most studies focus on joint actions with collaborative goals, many social systems involve joint actions with conflicting goals, such as physical conflicts, business decision-making, or competitive sports (martial arts, ball sports, etc.). Therefore, this study investigated how the difference in SoA between participants would evolve as their coordination varied. We conducted an ecologically valid experiment where participants sparred and reported their experienced smoothness of coordination and SoA. We found that smooth coordination tended to decrease the SoA difference between participants, whereas breakdowns in coordination tended to increase the SoA difference, contradicting previous research. We also identified the value of creating dyad archetypes to better understand the observed tendencies.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Cuijpers, L.S. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | Talent Development and Creativity (TDC) [Master Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 04 Jul 2025 10:28 |
| Last Modified: | 04 Jul 2025 10:28 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/5270 |
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