Corry Dozeman
After earning my bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary social sciences at Utrecht University I knew two things: I wanted to do research and I wanted to combine the social with the psychological. This is how I came to opt for Social and Health Psychology. My current research interest lies with self-licensing, a topic that has come to the attention of the self-regulation lab as an alternative explanation for unhealthy eating behaviour (as opposed to impaired self-control). I am conducting my master thesis in this area under the supervision of Jessie de Witt-Huberts. What I find intriguing about self-licensing is, that the idea that people may use reasons to justify unhealthy choices clashes with the general conviction of society that people overeat due to stress and other negative emotions (emotional eating) and therefore cannot really help it.
Because it seems to be the case that people can come to think of and seek indulgence spontaneously, I would like to find out whether a context that provides opportunities for self-licensing can trigger hedonic thinking without temptations being directly present. This is what I would like to establish with my thesis research.